| NOTA |
(*)(trans. by Susan Wilkinson) (★)(´The River with No Bridge´is a courageous work that explores with outspoken franfness a subject still taboo in Japan--the intolerance and bigotry faced daily by Japan´s largest minority group,´the burakumin´. Racially no different from other Japanese, over the centuries the burakumin have been cruelly ostracized for their association with occupations considered defiling. Spanning the years 1908 to 1924, the original six volumes of this novel trace the developing awareness of burakumin of their rights and dignity as human beings. Volume one, translated here into English for the first time, tells of young Koji Hatanaka´s questioning of the rigid social order. His sense of injustice grows because of the prejudice he meets not only from other children at school--who will not even use the same water bucket for fear of contamination--but also from his teachers--for whom it is as natural to despise the lowest in society as it is to worship the highest, and who thereforetry to instill in him their belief that since he was born defiled he should resign himself to his fate. The story of one family´s battle against bigotry,´The River with No Bridge´is told against the backdrop of Japan´s struggle to shed its feudalistic past and enter the modern age. The only fictional work of its magnitude to address the problem of prejudice in Japan, this work exposes for the first time the darker side of the Japanese--who pride themselves on their homogeneity and group spirit, while at the same time discriminating ruthlessly against three million of their own. However, the insight it gives the reader into what it feels like to be the target of irrational prejudice has relevance that transcends national borders. The novel is also a unique social record of a traditional rural way of life, over which the sinister shadow of State control was beginning to fall, as Japan moved relentlessly into the modern age. 2.Sue Sumii was born in 1902 in Nara prefecture, near the village described in´The River with No Bridge´. Outraged by the discrimination she witnessed against the burakumin, she came to challenge the widely accepted belief that those who are disadvantaged are destined to remain so. Her first novel appeared in 1921 ; she later published many collections of short stories that were broadcast over NHK radio. In 1959, she began her major work,´Hashi no nai kawa (The River with No Bridge)´, which was published during the years 1961-73 in six volumes. Together, they have sold over four million copies and have been made into a Japanese feature film.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
印刷用ページ