Yes Caleb as I think I stated at some point the book is more about the ability of people to cope and live on even under the most horrible of circumstances than it is about describing the death and destruction of the atomic bomb.
Hpulley, excellent points so far. I read this early last August, and not anticipating that it would be make it here into a book of the month I did not bother highlighting any text or making notes. I am doing a rapid read through now to remedy that, but as I said I was caught early on this discussion starting. So here is what I have so far.
I liked it that Ibuse did not shy away from the fanatical determination of many Japanese to continue fighting to defend their “homeland' to every possible bitter end. As in this quote where the village headman of Shigematsu's home town is sending of a group to provide relief to those from their village in Hiroshima:
Quote:
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“Gentlemen,” he said, “you have our deepest gratitude for giving thus of your services in these busy wartime days. I scarcely need to remind you that the injured whom you will be bringing back with you are blistered with burns over their entire bodies, and to request you, therefore, to take every care not to cause them yet further suffering. It is said that the enemy used what is referred to as a ‘new weapon’ in his attack on Hiroshima, which instantly plunged hundreds of thousands of blameless residents of the city into a hell of unspeakable torments. A member of the Patriotic Service Corps who escaped with his life from Hiroshima has told me that at that moment when the new weapon wiped out the city he heard countless cries for succor—the voice of those hundreds of thousands of souls—seemingly welling up from beneath the earth. Even the Fukuyama district, which he passed through on his way back, was a burnt-out waste; the keep and the Summer Gallery of Fukuyama Castle had been destroyed in the flames. His heart was wrung, he told me, by the realization of the awfulness of war. . . . Be that as it may, however, it is an unquestionable fact that a war is in progress, and you, as members of a voluntary labor unit, are proceeding henceforth to bring home your comrades-in-arms. I must request you above all, therefore, to take care not to drop those symbols of your invincible determination to fight on to the bitter end—your bamboo spears. It is most unfortunate that I should have to see you off in this hole-in-the-corner manner, addressing my parting words to you in the predawn darkness without so much as a light, but in view of the prevailing situation I feel sure that you will understand.”
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However, as some of the comments you made reveal it seems doubtful that this determination extended down to most of the actual members of the “Patriotic Service Corps” as revealed when they here the broadcast of the surrender:
Quote:
As they were eating, an unprecedented broadcast by His Majesty the Emperor came over the radio inside the house. When it was finished, they sat for a while in silence. Then the man who was leading the horse by the reins said:
“The headman’s parting speech this morning was rather long, wasn’t it?”
This led, in the natural course of events, to a discussion on what to do with their bamboo spears, and it was finally decided, by unanimous agreement, to leave them as a parting gift to the farmer whose veranda they had made free with.
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Ibsue also points out the sort of regime that governed Japan at the time and how fearful people were to express anything that seemed to be opposition or to question the war. For example this from Yasuko's diary during the war:
Quote:
Both Mr. and Mrs. Nojima are always doing things for the other people who live in the same district. People say that Mr. Nojima has been friendly for years with a left-wing scholar called Mr. Matsumoto, and that since the war got more serious he’s been making himself especially nice to everybody in the district so that the authorities won’t get suspicious. Mr. Matsumoto, who went to an American university and used to correspond with Americans before the war, has been called before the military police any number of times. So he, too, is always on his best behavior with people at the city hall, the officials of the prefectural office, and the members of the civilian guard, and whenever there’s an air raid warning he’s always the first to dash outside and rush around calling out “air raid! air raid!” He’s never been known to take off his puttees, even at home. They say he even offered to take part in bamboo spear practice with the women. It’s really pathetic to see a reputable scholar like him trying so hard to please. . . .
Although Mr. Matsumoto could be evacuated any time he liked, he’s too afraid that he might be suspected as a spy, and dashes around all day frantically doing things for other people in the district. Even supposing that Mr. Nojima is acting on the same principle, I wonder whether we really ought to take advantage of it and get him to drive trucks and look after clothing for us? I expect my kimonos, graduation diploma, and the like would have seemed so much worthless trash to him before the war.
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Or this from when Shigeko is recounting food rationing during the war:
Quote:
I believe it was around that time that Mrs. Miyaji was summoned by the authorities for an official talking-to. She was going out to a farm to buy food one day when she said to someone in the next seat to her on the Kabe train, “Now the rice ration has gone down to three*gō, they’ve altered some of the words in a textbook our boy uses at school.” It seems a line of verse in her child’s poetry book which had said “To each his four*gō/Of unhulled rice a day” had been changed to “To each his three*gō/Of unhulled rice a day,” so as to make it fit in with the actual amount of the ration. According to what she told me later, the poem is one of the most famous pieces by a poet called Kenji Miyazawa, a fine piece with a kind of austere beauty that gets over wonderfully the hardships of the farmer’s life.
“To change ‘four*gō*of rice a day’ to ‘three*gō’ is an insult to learning,” Mrs. Miyaji said. “Whatever would happen if the child got to hear about it? Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if he even started getting ideas about the Japanese history they learn at school. It would be different, now, if Kenji Miyazawa came to life again and rewrote it*himself. . . .”
The fact remained, though, that the textbook was a government one compiled in accordance with major policies of state, and it seems the authorities told her to “keep a curb on her irresponsible talk.” “We know quite well you’ve been going to buy black market goods,” they said. “Such people have no business making impertinent remarks about textbooks. Irresponsible talk in wartime is a matter that’s too serious for the ordinary civil or criminal code.” The way they spoke, it was almost as though they were suggesting it was a breach of the National General Mobilization Law, which was a capital offense, of course. By that time, everybody was taking care what they said in front of others.
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So anyway that is all I have to offer yet.
This might be of related interest to some, but in late December I managed to borrow, through a special request through my library, the film adaption of
Black Rain. To a large extent this general plot of this is faithful to the novel, but much less time is spent describing the various characters experiences in the immediate aftermath of the atomic bomb and much more on there life years later. I believe that some of Ibuse's other novels are draw upon as well as there is a character, a former soldier, that has what today we would call PTSD from combat. I also recall that when I first saw this film not long after it was released parallels were drawn, as many thought the film director intended, between the attitudes towards Yasuko and the way much of society looked upon those with AIDS or those positive for HIV.