Narrative
Mars' Song
マルスの歌
Ishikawa Jun · 1938
Synopsis
A war song spreads everywhere in the city, and the narrator, a writer who can no longer write, observes a society swept up by this nationalist tune, according to a study published by Hosei University. He passes through cinemas and an aquarium, and follows the story of Tōko, who at first plays the deaf, the mute or the blind, and of her husband Sanji, who did not know how to protect her. According to the American publisher, the narrative embeds another to warn that martial enthusiasm leads to ruin.
Context
The story appeared in January 1938 in the journal Bungakukai, according to the Hosei study, and was banned almost immediately for allegedly nourishing ideas hostile to the army; a lecture given at Hamilton College adds that its author was fined. It set its refusal against the warlike fervour that followed the invasion of China in 1937. William J. Tyler translated it into English in 1998, in a collection of the author's stories published in Honolulu.
Who it is for
A short, ironic narrative, for those interested in the way Japanese literature has been able to say no to war.
Prizes and reception
Some critics count it among the best texts against war written during Japanese military expansion, according to its American publisher.
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