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(★)(Translated by Toshi Yonezawa／ Titulo original : 広島ノート (Hiroshima nooto)／ ´Hiroshima Notes´ is a moving statement about the meaning of Hiroshima. It opens with an inside look at the 1963 rupture in the highly politicized antinuclear movement, then reminds readers (and political groups) that many A-bomb survivors still suffer in the A-bomb Hospital and elsewhere. Subsequent chapters are less concerned with political matters and more with the lives of the A-bomb victims --the aged, youth, women-- and especially with the valiant efforts of Hiroshima doctors immediately after the atomic bombing and since. In short, this book is a sensitive portrayal of the ´human face´ visible in and through all the death, desolation, and suffering wrought in Hiroshima. Its message is as universal as the import of Hiroshima is for all people living today and yet unborn.／ ◆Kenzaburo Ooe, born in 1935, began writing poems and literary reviews while in high school. As a student of French literature at the University of Tokyo he wrote poetry, plays, and short stories, winning several intramural awards. His novella ´Shiiku´ (Domesticated Animal ; in English translation, ´The Catch´) won the coveted Akutagawa Prize in 1958 --a year before he graduated with a senior thesis on Sartre´s fictional imagery. His 1964 novel ´Kojinteki na Taiken´ (A Personal Matter) won the Shinchoosha Literary Prize, and his 1967 novel ´Man-en Gan-nen no Futtobooru´(Football in the Year 1860) won the Tanizaki Prize. Shinchoosha published his complete works in six volumes. (1967-68) ; and Iwanami Shoten in 1980 began issuing his contemporary essays in ten volumes.／ The 1959 publication of Ooe´s novel ´Warera no Jidai´ (Our Age) marked his evolution from earlier pastoral themes to a more realistic focus on modern life and society --but was criticized as too pessimistic for prosperous postwar Japan. Similarly, his 1961 story ´Seventeen´, published in the literary journal ´Bungakkai´, drew right-wing wrath for its treatment of Japan´s emperor system and power structures. But Ooe continued to address the most vital issues of the day, however painful. For many readers, his most powerful statement on our time remains his ´Hiroshima Notes´ (1965), sales of the Japanese original (now in its 30th printing) have topped 480,000. In the same vein, his ´Okinawa Notes´ appeared in 1970. Ooe persistently confronts the hellish dimensions of contemporary life with a keen and balanced grasp of personal concerns and social realities.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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