真珠湾攻撃がもたらしたもの
「真珠湾攻撃がもたらしたもの」は、第二次世界大戦中にハートマウンテンに収容された一世の幸島昭夫が書いたエピソード小説です。この物語は、著者がカリフォルニアで過ごした少年時代、ハートマウンテンで過ごした時間、そしてアメリカ陸軍に勤務した数年間の観察に基づいています。Discover Nikkei では、この作品からいくつかの章を厳選して掲載します。最初は「フロー」で、恋に落ちた若い女性と彼女の家族に戦争が与えた影響についての物語です。数週間後には「兵士は兵士」と小説のエピローグが公開される予定です。幸島は、自分の言葉が「子供や孫たちに自分たちの伝統を感じさせる」のに役立つことを願っています。
このシリーズのストーリー
Epilogue
2010年11月16日 • アキオ・コノシマ
Life: …the sequence of physical and mental experiences that make up the existence of an individual…from Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary. Father would have liked the simple ceremony at the cemetery where his ashes were being interred. The group was small: just family and a few friends. Jo’s father was 92 years old when he died; his mother had passed away a short year and a half before. None of his father’s personal friends were there, all having already died or …
A Soldier is a Soldier - Part 5
2010年10月29日 • アキオ・コノシマ
As he sat alone, Jo scanned the room. In the dim light of the room's lone bulb, he could see a scroll with Chinese calligraphy in the room's alcove with the Japanese word "Manzoku -- fulfillment." A rural work scene was painted on the screen which partitioned the room; the house's rough-hewn center beam -- more than a foot and a half square -- was covered with a dark stain, maybe from the soot of the open fire in the …
A Soldier is a Soldier - Part 4
2010年10月22日 • アキオ・コノシマ
The hon-ke (family home) stood on a rise at the start of a small vale. In the twilight, Jo could make out rice paddies; flat rows of vines, probably yams; hedgelike rows of tea plants; and low fruit trees on the side. Close up, the house seemed much larger than it had when he and Isamu saw it from the river ferry. The thatched roof was about two feet thick. In spots where the mortar had chipped off of the …
A Soldier is a Soldier - Part 3
2010年10月15日 • アキオ・コノシマ
The flat wooden deck of the river ferry was small. Jo, his duffle bag and small back pack, and Isamu and his mo-ped, took up a third of the deck space. Two steel cables, anchored on both banks of the river, straddled the ferry while a third was attached to a two-cylinder motor, which popped and smoked as it was revved up. The ferryman, in an old pair of denim coveralls and wearing a conical straw hat, could have been …
A Soldier is a Soldier - Part 2
2010年10月8日 • アキオ・コノシマ
Two hours later -- the road's ascent seemed endless -- the bus finally moved into a small valley. To one side, narrow-gauged railway cars, which looked like toys when compared to the freight cars at home, stood intermixed with flat-bottom gondolas, some stacked with lumber, others empty. In a far corner lay twisted rails, other debris, and the stubbed remains of a steel radio transmission tower. However, no signs of the war could be seen as the bus moved through …
A Soldier is a Soldier - Part 1
2010年10月1日 • アキオ・コノシマ
June 25, 1950: North Korea invades South Korea. The United States was convinced that the Korean War made an early peace treaty with Japan imperative…President Truman announced in mid-September, 1950, that the United States intended to begin informal discussions with the Allies on the question. (Hugh Borton, Japan’s Modern Century.) Jo studied the other passengers on the bus. Could any of them be a relative? The farm woman in baggy, unbleached denim workpants, a pin-striped blue blouse and a graying …
