Pathway to Japanese Literature

Discover Japan's stories—across time, across language.

SleighAuthor: Kuroshima Denji

Original Title	橇
Author	黒島伝治
Genre	War & Social Literature
Author Type	Male Author
Summary	In a Siberian village swallowed by snow, a bitter wind howls as a Japanese military contractor pressures Russian farmers to lend their sleds and horses for a secretive mission. Ivan, a young driver, and his brother reluctantly agree, their distrust of the occupying forces simmering beneath frozen breaths. Meanwhile, Japanese soldiers—exhausted and disillusioned—gripe about endless battles, rotting rations, and officers who feast while they starve. Among them, Kimura coughs blood, Yoshihara rages against injustice, and Asada grapples with the futility of killing strangers in a foreign land. \nWhen violence erupts on a desolate plain, chaos consumes both sides. Ivan witnesses Japanese officers execute their own men for defiance, horror searing him as he flees with other drivers, bells jingling defiantly on their horses. Lost in an endless white expanse, the battalion staggers—hungry, frozen, and abandoned—their fury sharpening toward those who sent them to die. Amidst betrayal and despair, survival becomes a rebellion, and the snow whispers of choices that could bury them all.