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War and a Woman ContinuedAuthor: Sakaguchi Ango
| Original Title | 続戦争と一人の女 |
|---|---|
| Author | 坂口 安吾 |
| Genre | War & Social Literature |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | Amidst the relentless air raids of wartime Japan, a woman navigates a world stripped of pretense, where survival lays bare humanity’s ugliest instincts. She shares an uneasy coexistence with Nomura—a man whose caresses anchor her in fleeting tenderness—while clashing with Kamakiri and Debu, two lecherous old gamblers revelling in chaos. Kamakiri’s grotesque greed and voyeuristic fascination with destruction mirror the era’s moral decay, yet the woman finds perverse awe in the apocalyptic beauty of firebombed skies. Her past as a prostitute lingers; she embraces desire as both weapon and refuge, clinging to Nomura even as she anticipates their inevitable parting. War becomes a mirror: in its flames, she glimpses her own fractured identity—a creature of hellfire, drawn to annihilation yet yearning for transcendence. As cities burn and alliances fray, her defiance sharpens—a raw, unrepentant vitality that mocks survival itself. But when peace arrives, hollow and mundane, she mourns the loss of war’s savage poetry. What remains is the haunting echo of a question: Can love, or self, endure when stripped of chaos? |
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