10/21 Readings - Brooke

     I enjoyed the three short stories we read from Erika Kobayashi and appreciated how was able to both create both a family and historical memoir in each. Of the three, I liked the writing style "His Last Bow" with all of the parallel scenes. It's interesting to wonder about what life will be like for the next generation and how a newborn baby could end up studying or specializing in something completely out of our current working imaginations eventually. I was quite surprised by the commentary Kobayashi's father made on August 10th, given the absolute devastation of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki just having occurred and was curious as to why he was still feeling so optimistic. I also liked the small parallel in "Sunrise" where the Gadget is compared directly to the heat of the sun, putting into perspective how dangerous these relatively compact weapons can be. In "Coco's Century", what struck me the hardest was the ending scene where the importance of learning about and relaying family history across generations is emphasized, especially because there will always come a day when it's to late to ask about it.

    Abandoning a Cat was my favorite of our readings this week, mainly because the reflection at the end really stuck with me. It was interesting to hear about his father's direct involvement with the war and what it's like to be barely removed from an incident as big as the Rape of Nanjing and possibly know people who were directly involved. I also liked hearing about the observations he made about how the war had affecting his father emotionally, from the perspective of his son who sees and hears about multiple sides of him post-war. 

    I liked how Tokyo Ueno Station gave a perspective from someone who is houseless, which you don't usually see represented in media, and it left me curious to learn more about the main character's past. I really wanted to know what happened to Setsuko and where his daughter is as the story is taking place. I wasn't 100% sure whether the main character was metaphorically or literally dead (and just watching from the afterlife), but I'm not sure if I just missed some detail earlier on in the story. 

    I found "Love Isn't Easy When You're the National Anthem" to be slightly creepy, but still a very creative way of speaking about attitudes towards expressing pride in your country. We're seeing a similar thing of people electing to not participate in singing the national anthem happening here in America currently, and reading this story reminded me of that. I would never think about it from the perspective of the national anthem itself, but it does make me curious about the self-reflection (or maybe lack thereof) our country's leaders might have when they see someone refusing to sing.