Van Wolferen identifies the mushroom cloud as a potent postwar symbol of Japan as victim, perhaps even the ultimate victim: a baptism by fire that erases all guilt of previous Japanese aggression.

范沃尔·弗伦指出，蘑菇云成了战后日本作为受害者的强有力的标志，甚至可能是最终的受害者：经过火的洗礼，日本人侵略别国的罪恶都被荡涤一空了。

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BOY: "The crane is a symbol of hope, so we try to have a lot of hope for those people in Japan."

男孩：“鹤是希望的象征，因此我们努力为日本人民许下很多愿望。”

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The now referred to Ming City Wall is a symbol for Nanjing that has survived, although scarred and beaten, through centuries of attack all the way up to the invasion by Japan in the 1930s.

而现在仍安若磐石的明城墙是南京独特文明的象征。 虽然历经风吹雨打，历经战火硝烟，数百年来，尽管伤痕累累，如今，却仍然挺立着雄奇伟岸的身躯。

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Chief executive Kazuo Inamori, the founder of hi-tech giant Kyocera, was brought in by the government to turn around the ailing airline, long a symbol of Japan's economic success.

BBC: JAL profits boosted by cost cuts

The fate of the Long-Term Credit Bank, Japan's 10th-largest bank, has become a symbol of what's at stake.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia

Increasingly, fighting became a symbol of struggles with personal demons -- a sign of individualism maturing in post-war Japan, says Natume.

CNN: The War Mangas