“Maybe General Percival was an exception, because the soldiers I was looking at had arms like roof beams and hips like millstones, and underneath trousers that glowed with a sheen our civilian uniforms never had, you could see their powerful buttocks. I had been granted beginner’ s status in the Martial Arts Society and IContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: American Soldiers Nothing Like the Spindly British General Percival Who Surrendered Singapore (Akiyuki Nosaka)”
Tag Archives: RKS Japanese Literature
RKS Japanese Literature: Americans Not White Devils! (Akiyuki Nosaka)
“All at once, without an order or a shout of any kind the column came to a halt and the soldiers, who until then had looked like a part of the machinery with their uniforms the same colour as the trucks, spang out-almost as if they had been shot out-holding rifles. Once on the ground,Continue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Americans Not White Devils! (Akiyuki Nosaka)”
RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: People Looking Like Baked Rice Crackers (Yoko Ōta)
“The number of people on the riverbed increased minute by minute, many of them now with severe burns. At first, we didn’t realize that their injuries were burns. There were no fires, so how could they have been burnt so badly? Strange, grotesque, they were more pathetic than frightening. They had all been burnt inContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: People Looking Like Baked Rice Crackers (Yoko Ōta)”
RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: Face Puffed up Like a Loaf of Bread (Yoko Ōta)
“This was the first good look we had had of each other’s angry faces, but smiling was an impossibility. We couldn’t see our own faces, but looking at each other gave us an idea. My sister’s face was puffed up like a loaf of bread, and her eyes, normally large, black and uncannily clear, hadContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: Face Puffed up Like a Loaf of Bread (Yoko Ōta)”
RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: Crushed by Sheer Force (Yoko Ōta)
“We could not conceive of the day’s events as being related in any way to the war. We were being crushed by a sheer force-an intense and one-sided force-that had nothing to do with the war. Neither did we as fellow Japanese encourage one another or console one another. We behaved submissively and said nothing.Continue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: Crushed by Sheer Force (Yoko Ōta)”
RKS Japanese Literature: The Idiocy of Macaroons (Mieko Kawakami)
“So the day after next, I bought a pile of colourful macaroons at the macaroon shop in the arcade….I placed the box of macaroons and cherries on the coffee table with a polite bow. Thanking me with a smile, she took the two boxes to the kitchen and soon returned with some coffee and theContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: The Idiocy of Macaroons (Mieko Kawakami)”
RKS Japanese Literature: That 2 p.m. Tokyo Feeling (Mieko Kawakami)
“It was two o’clock in the afternoon-that most vacant time of the day when the laundry is done and the vacuum put away but it’s still too early to go food shopping. The time when you feel most keenly that you are useless and the world is silently laughing at you from afar. No matterContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: That 2 p.m. Tokyo Feeling (Mieko Kawakami)”
RKS Japanese Literature: The 1963/1982 Girl from Ipanema (Haruki Murakami)
Tall and tan and lovely The girl from Ipanema goes walking When she walks, it’s like a samba That swings so cool and sways so gently, How can I tell her I love her? Yes, I would give my heart gladly. But each day when she walks to the sea, Shed looks straight ahead, notContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: The 1963/1982 Girl from Ipanema (Haruki Murakami)”
RKS Japanese Literature: The Monk with a Lute (Doppo Kunikida )
“But I watched the monk and listened to his playing. The narrow yet busy street with its ramshackle dwellings had little in common with the monk and the lute, but somewhere, I felt there was a deep understanding between them. The lute’s sobbing tones drifted between the rows of houses on either side, mingling withContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: The Monk with a Lute (Doppo Kunikida )”
RKS Japanese Literature: Unforgettable People (Kunikida Doppo)
“We can’t simply call parents and children or friends or teachers and others to whom we are obligated “unforgettable people”. These are people whom we dare not forget. But there are others-complete strangers-to whom we are bound by neither love nor duty. Forgetting them would imply neither neglect of duty nor want of compassion. YetContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Unforgettable People (Kunikida Doppo)”
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