Pathway to Japanese Literature
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The GeneralAuthor: Akutagawa Ryūnosuke
| Original Title | 将軍 |
|---|---|
| Author | 芥川 竜之介 |
| Genre | Popular Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In the predawn chill of 1904 Manchuria, the White Sash Corps—a doomed regiment handpicked for a suicide mission—marches toward Matsukiyama’s artillery under a blood-tinged sky. Among them, soldiers like Horio, a carpenter turned cynic, and Egami, an idealistic teacher, grapple with fate: Horio scoffs at hollow honors, while Egami clings to duty as their general delivers rousing handshakes. Days later, spies are captured through ruthless ingenuity, their executions overseen by the same general whose piercing gaze masks both tactical brilliance and unsettling fervor. Years pass—a crude military play is halted for impropriety, yet a melodramatic arrest scene moves the aging commander to tears. By 1918, a retired officer reminisces about the general’s folksy charm to his skeptical son, who dismisses such nostalgia as relics of a fading era. Through fragmented vignettes of valor, absurdity, and generational divide, the story paints war as a theater of contradictions—where loyalty collides with futility, and heroism blurs into madness beneath the shadow of an enigmatic leader. |
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