One Man's Justice

Rating:
Summary: Another Masterpiece by Yoshimura
Review: A while ago I read Yoshimura's very impressive "Shipwrecks" and wanted to get my hands on the rest of his translated novels. While it was with some sense of trepidation on the subject matter that I started this book, I am glad that I read this masterpiece by IMHO one of the world's leading novelists.

As a child of parents who grew up under German occupation in Holland during the second world war I received many first hand accounts of what abuse of power can result in. Yet, remarkably, many who had encounters with individual occupying soldiers often were able to regard them as fellow human beings, especially in the earlier years of the occupation. Such accounts were never ever heard from al those who spent time in Japanese camps in former Indonesia, where the soldiers were indiscriminately described as worse than animals and willing to commit the most revolting atrocities without the blink of an eye. A book like Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking" illustrates this attitude in chilling details.

Yoshimura's "One Man's Justice" describes the process of running, hiding and bringing to justice of Taguya, a Japanese soldier who followed an order to behead a captured American prisoner of war. While the book's protagonist may not correspond to the stereotype of boundless savagery, Yoshimura produces a novel based on true historical accounts that even surpasses his "Shipwrecks" and transcends a mere update of "Crime and Punishment" by far.

The book starts with a decidedly Japanese perspective on the final stages of the country's involvement in World War II. Japan is under furious US attack and Taguya is involved in the air defense that follows and tries to respond to the endless American bombing barrages. Taguya's initial perspective is that of a victim of aggression, who witnesses the destruction of his country and the increasing number of civilian casualties. While the writer's choice not to explore the reason for the American response, and to mention the Potsdam peace proposal only later, may seem strange from a historical perspective, it is essential for the exploration of the book's main themes.

Upon capture of the crews of downed US bombers, part of these soldiers have fallen victim to execution, lethal medical experimentation and even cannibalism. When Hirohito accepts the conditions of the Potsdam proposal the Japanese military decides to erase as many of their military details as possible, including destruction of most files and execution of the remaining prisoners who might give accounts on the fate of the other POWs. Taguya receives the order to participate in a beheading and complies.

What follows is what the previous reviewer describes as "the Fugive". This is only partly accurate. Upon US occupation, Japanese public opinion gets a complete reversal on its attitude towards its war heroes in the country's fall to the utmost poverty and the vehement denial of upper military brass' involvement in the atrocities. Thus by reading the newspapers Takuya does not only gets updates on the prosecution of war criminals, but sees the rigid "honor" structure behind his initial worldview crumble. While he tries to hold onto his own honor, the justice that he receives is a final example of the arbitrary nature of changing values.

Both in his austere and precise description of Taguya's story and in description and analysis of the transition from rigid military (im)moralism to complete relativism Yoshimura has written a truly remarkable book. Especially at a time when US behavior abroad shows some disturbing similarities with the events described in this book at least the literary gifted Lewis Libby would do well reading it.

Rating:
Summary: ...aka The Fugitive
Review: PUBLISHED IN JAPAN in 1978, this is the third of Yoshimura's provocative novels to appear in translation. Set over the decade following the end of WWII (and with flashbacks to the final days of the war), the novel explores themes of patriotism and war though Kiyohara Takuya, a Japanese officer on the run from occupying American forces. He is wanted as a war criminal for his role in the execution of American POWs in the waning days of the war. The story is a fairly gripping "The Fugitive"-like story, as he tries to figure out who he can trust and what part of Japanese society he can hide himself in. As he tries to survive while staying anonymous, the hardships of postwar Japan are vividly evoked, especially the specter of starvation. All the while Takuya watches the newspapers for stories on war criminals and any former comrades.

The book is apparently based on historical incidents-a number of flashback sequences detail the ordering of executions by high-ranking officers. What American readers might find unsettling however, is the rationale for the executions, that the bomber crews were deliberately targeting civilians, and thus not subject to POW rules of treatment. Indeed, while the Allied firebombing of Dresden is well known, the firebombings of Japanese cities are relatively forgotten episodes of the war which Yoshimura plainly seeks to remind the reader of. The atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are portrayed as massive exclamation points on the indiscriminate bombings, and it becomes disturbingly easy to understand the retaliatory executions. At times the prose gets a little wooden, especially over a few pages that list the numbers of bomber sorties and subsequent casualties, but on the whole the sparse style perfectly captures Takuya's internal terror. In the end, the true subjectivity and relativity of justice are exposed.