The visit by Japanese
prime-minister Abe to Yasukuni Jinja in 2013 started a war of words with Korea
and China before America and Israel chimed in…. Honouring war criminals
apparently was not going to win Japan friends. On a visit to Maruzen book shop near
Tokyo station meanwhile I found a book by Murakami Ryu entitled From the Fatherland with Love… He is, of
course, the author of Coin Locker Babies
not to mention the classic Blue
Transparent Sky which won him the Akutagawa prize in the 1070s. Both of
these books take a look at Japanese society in a way that is subversive and highly
critical of the majority, a perspective he explores further in From the Fatherland with Love.
Set in 2010, in the face of an
invasion by s small number of North Korean commandoes, Murakami lists the
failures of the Japanese government which proves incapable of responding to the
situation. To the surprise of the North Korean commandoes their plans work
without exception. The Japanese government refuses to engage with them and
instead blockades the whole island of Kyushu in order to protect the mainland from
further threats of terrorism. The exception to this perception of Japanese weakness
in the novel is provided by a small group of misfits; murderers and other
unreformed characters who cannot fit into Japanese society, criminal or
otherwise. They alone are untraceable and therefore untouchable which proves to
be their greatest asset as they make plans to fight the North Koreans whose
numbers have swelled by another five hundred after the first two days of their
occupation of Fukuoka. The scene is further complicated by the announcement that
they are another on hundred and twenty thousand troops ready to sail to Fukuoka
as part of the ‘rebellion’ against the North Korean regime. As they make their way
in a fleet of leaky boats the Japanese government is pressured by governments around
the world to practice caution. As the North Koreans are ‘refugees’ they need to
be given protection. The blockade which the Japanese government has put in
place has meanwhile driven a wedge between the capital and the rest of the
country.
Interestingly, whilst the
Japanese are shown to be weak and indecisive, the North Koreans are shown to be
more than just efficient. After a period of time it becomes apparent that they
are quite brutal and entirely lacking in sympathy. Hence, the gang of misfits take
it upon themselves to fight the koryo. As such Murakami shows that as
individuals rather than mindless members of the majority it is possible to
think and act against forces that are otherwise irresistible. He makes the
point over and over again that the majority, whoever they are, whatever they
appear to be like, enjoy privilege and power because of violence in one form or
another. Prior to their coming to Japan, the North Koreans see the Japanese as
monsters, people to be hated. These perceptions are challenged, however, as
they become acclimatised to their new home. They encounter Japanese products
such as cigarettes, quality paper, running hot water and pornography. Personal
items such as women’s underwear prove to be not just a symbol of softness and
corruption but also but also of comfort and a superior quality of life. It is
noted that the Japanese were the first Asian nation that was able to wage war
against the Western powers. The problem for the North Koreans is working out
what happened next, and why they became so soft? The reality, of course, is
that they are not immune to corruption and to make stand against it there is a
public execution of two soldiers. In a scene that could have been dreamt up by
Kurosawa Akira, a Japanese doctor who spent his early years in Manchuria, arrives
before the assembled troops in his white doctor’s gown and white hair and has
to be restrained so that they execution take place. The following day, as
events in the novel move towards their climax and the destruction of the North
Korean base by Murakami’s misfits, a North Korean female soldier visits the hospital
and returns the shoe to the doctor that he had lost during his protest. Later
it turns out that she survives and is adopted by Dr Seragi and plans to open
the orphanage in Japan that she had once dreamt of opening in North Korea.
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