Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri: This novel was a bit of a confusing read as the timeline was very loose. Like many of the other readings this week, it describes the afteraffects of the war on the lives of ordinary people. In this case, it is a man who was born shortly before the war, and as he grew up he experienced the economic ups and downs of Japan from a family in poverty. It seems like the protagonist is actually a ghost narrating memories from his past life, which he describes being incredibly unlucky. This idea of him being unlucky and not sharing in the economic advancement of the country (despite him getting his first job out of elementary school and working ever since) is reflected in the moment where he is literally building the olympic stadium from the ground up, but was never able to see any of the excitement himself. He also seems to compare himself to the emperor as he imagines what life could have been if he had more luck. Overall I think Miri is writing about the people on whom the economic rise of Japan was founded upon, but never received any credit.
Abandoning a Cat by Haruki Murakami: Similar to Tokyo Ueno Station, this essay discusses the lives of ordinary people after the war, but specifically those who survived the battlefront. Murakami’s father seems to carry an immense guilt about how he was lucky enough to escape his own death but his friends were not. Seeing how often he was drafted or released from duty really shows how quickly and drastically your life can change, and there’s nothing you can do about it. The way Murakami writes about how his father would talk to him about the way goes to show that the trauma can pass through generations, but it is important to remember this history.
Love Isn’t Easy When You’re the National Anthem by Aoko Matsuda: I really liked this short story. I think rather than being a “love story,” it symbolizes how the national anthem shouldn’t be used as a weapon of nationalism. The anthem being in love with the people who refuse to sing it is representative of the idea that anthems are meant to be for the people, thus it falls in love with those who are taking a stand and embodying the true meaning of a national anthem.
Short stories by Erika Kobayashi: I started by reading Coco’s Century, which, similar to Murakami’s essay, is about remembering people and passing on their stories. Ko ends up losing people due to the war, but not just people who were on the battlefront. Her granddaughter, although unconnected by blood, tells Ko’s story to her daughter, showing how we should continue to honor the legacy of those before us. I liked the use of names in the story, I thought her name being Ko kind of meant that she could have been anyone's child, that this was many people’s story. Next I read His Last Bow, which tracks moments in history through the generations of a family, tragedy, scientific discoveries, and the Sherlock Holmes books. It highlights how we can never truly predict the future, as scientific discoveries lead to great death and destruction. The repeating passage about the newborn seems to be each generation passing on their hope for a better future. Sunrise also follows a similar pattern where the protagonist’s life seems defined by the major events that are happening in the world, specifically surrounding nuclear testing and power. The story is shaped around Yoko’s very specific memories, which I felt were very realistic to the way we as people tend to remember important events, which is in relation to our own lives. The story also focused on the power of the sun, how it is beautiful yet dangerous, but also sustains life, just as nuclear power does.
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