Pathway to Japanese Literature

Author: Eimi Suiin

They crashed into the moon world due to gravity. The Expedition Members' Fainting

"What should we do?"

No sooner had the thought crossed their minds than the Shojumaru—an aircraft carrying six lunar explorers—plunged moonward at tremendous velocity. The instant they experienced a violent shock akin to an earthquake’s tremor, every member of the party fell unconscious.

Now, this expedition team was organized by none other than Dr. Keiden Keiji—currently famous throughout Japan, nay, so renowned worldwide that none remained ignorant of his name—a Doctor of Engineering, alongside Dr. Tsukino Kiyoshi, equally celebrated in his field as a Doctor of Science. Composed further of both doctors' two assistants and fourth-year middle school students Hoshioka Mitsuo and Sorachi Harutsugu, the group embarked on their lunar exploration—the nearest moon world to our Earth—as the inaugural test flight of the cutting-edge aircraft invented by Dr. Keiden. Yet involving these two in such a perilous, life-risking venture was truly reckless to the extreme. Both boys were relatives of Dr. Tsukino Kiyoshi, living under his care while attending school under his supervision. Somehow discovering Dr. Keiden and Dr. Tsukino’s plans—though when or how remains unclear—they pestered them relentlessly to be included, refusing to take no for an answer. In the end, the doctors acquiesced and added them to the expedition. As for the assistants—one being Yamamoto Hiro and the other Uyama Hidatsu—they were individuals of utmost loyalty who had served as the doctors' right hands, devoting themselves to this project for years.

On the sixteenth day after departing Tokyo, Japan—just as they were drawing near the moon—the aircraft suddenly malfunctioned, culminating in this extraordinary incident.

Among the collapsed and unconscious group, Dr. Keiden was the first to regain his senses, stirring and rising up with effort. As he half-rose and looked around, the scene before him was truly indescribably wretched. The room they had occupied remained somehow intact, but inside—exactly like an overturned toy box—not a single tool retained its proper position; all had toppled over and lay scattered everywhere. Amidst this chaos, Dr. Tsukino, the assistants, and the two boys lay piled atop one another, unconscious.

Dr. Keiden attempted to stand up, but it appeared he had severely struck his body during the earlier collision—his hip joints ached so intensely that he found himself unable to rise properly. Finally enduring the pain, he crawled to the corner of the room, retrieved a medicine kit from a broken shelf and swallowed some. As he began to feel somewhat better, he first lifted the nearest person—Yamamoto—and administered the medicine. After a while, Yamamoto gradually regained consciousness. Though both were still half-incapacitated, they worked together to administer the medicine to the rest of the group. Fortunately, everyone regained consciousness—though each face remained deathly pale.

For a while, everyone remained silent, but once they had somewhat regained their strength, Dr. Keiden—

“Well, we’ve certainly been through hell.” Dr. Keiden was first to break the silence.

“I’ve truly been through hell. I thought it was all over back then, but somehow I came to my senses.” Dr. Tsukino answered.

Harutsugu, who had been breathing laboriously as if gasping for air, finally opened his mouth at this moment,

“Uncle.” (Both boys referred to Dr. Tsukino as “Uncle.”) “Everything was fine until now—how did things end up like that?”

he asked with genuine puzzlement. “Well,” Dr. Keiden cut in from the side, “initially it wasn’t an issue, but as the airship drew nearer to the moon, what had been governed by Earth’s gravity was suddenly pulled by the moon’s gravitational force instead…” With a bitter smile, he continued, “Of course I conducted thorough preliminary research and believed I’d prepared adequate measures, but evidently my preparations still fell short—which is why we’ve ended up in this predicament." "This is entirely my oversight."

he said, half as an explanation to Harutsugu and half as an apology to the others. Dr. Tsukino, who had been listening with a gentle smile, “Up to this point, we’ve managed to arrive safely thanks to Dr. Keiden’s efforts—now it’s my turn to take charge.” As he spoke, he stood and peered through the thick glass window, “Truly desolate.” he murmured with feeling, prompting the others to finally look outside. Nothing met their eyes but endless ranges of tumbled stone—no birdsong pierced the silence, no life stirred in that barren expanse. It felt like gazing upon Yomi itself, the underworld of legend made manifest before them.

The air was nonexistent. Harutsugu and Mitsuo, who had been regaining their energy for some time now, upon seeing this scene—

“Oh, this is awful! Come on, it’s finally time to head out!” With eager excitement, they leapt out through the window first—but no sooner had they emerged than they turned deathly pale, scrambled back inside, and collapsed once more on the spot.

The assistants, startled by this sight, immediately began tending to them, but Dr. Tsukino, laughing, swiftly closed the window the two boys had opened and approached the youths. “You mustn’t flail around so much. Just as I suspected—the moon world’s air has completely vanished,” he said but then turned toward the assistant beside him as if suddenly remembering. “Hey Yamamoto. Could you check that storage room over there? Due to the earlier commotion, everything might be broken. If that becomes unusable, we’ll be in real trouble.”

“Yes,” replied the assistant as he went to the adjacent room, but he immediately returned and said, “Professor, it’s all right. Since that was located in the rear section, it hasn’t sustained significant damage.”

“I see. That’s a relief above all else.”

With that, he entered the storage room himself this time, but when he emerged again after a while, his appearance was utterly disheveled. New-type air generator Each member carried on their back a red-painted cylinder resembling the fire extinguishers commonly found in their homes, with a single rubber tube extending from its lower end looped under their left armpit; the tube’s tip formed a mask that covered their nose and mouth, giving them the appearance of botched divers at first glance. This was the New-type air generator that the doctor had discovered after tremendous effort and had prepared in advance for today’s mission.

The two boys, unaware of the reason, forgot their illness and clapped their hands upon seeing this sight,

“Oh, what a funny getup, Uncle! Why are you wearing that thing?”

Dr. Tsukino concisely explained the reason and stepped out himself. The assistant who had stayed behind brought out air generators for all members, had everyone don them, and then followed outside.

The vital compartments of the sturdily constructed aircraft were relatively safe, but upon stepping outside, the sight was truly dreadful.

The wings had flown off, the mast was broken, and all other attachments on the surface lay utterly wrecked—only the iron hull remained, like a locust stripped of its legs and wings. Seeing this devastation, Mitsuo and Harutsugu, who had just begun regaining their vigor, once more wore anxious expressions,

“If it’s this badly broken, won’t we be unable to return to Earth?” they asked. Dr. Keiden also wore a considerably troubled expression and offered no response.

Six Explorers' Language Barrier

Dr. Tsukino took the lead and marched steadily onward, so the others followed along after him. After crossing the wide expanse of rocky debris, they now faced a range of steep mountains that loomed overhead. As far as the eye could see stretched nothing but stones; not a single blade of grass grew in any direction, and even when descending into what seemed like valleys, not a drop of water flowed. It was like being cast into the heart of the Sahara Desert. What felt strangest was how light their bodies became—so much so that they could hardly tell whether their feet touched the ground. Not even footsteps sounded. Thus, no matter how much they walked across stony terrain or climbed sheer slopes, they felt not the slightest fatigue.

“This is fun!” The boys cheered and began running about like leaping rabbits, their bodies swaying dizzily with heads bobbing like Asakusa marionettes in motion. When one looked, thinking it comical, those shaking their heads and bouncing weren’t limited to just the boys. Both doctors were making strange gestures as they walked. The assistant who first noticed this found it so amusing that, “Professor, you seem to be in remarkably fine form!”

he remarked sarcastically, but they continued shaking their heads without responding.

“What’s going on with them?” “Still, that getup looks ridiculous.” “HA HA HA HA HA HA!” He let out a loud laugh but realized with puzzlement that he couldn’t hear his own laughter. “Huh?” he thought, trying to raise his voice again, but still heard nothing. Growing increasingly bewildered, he caught up to Dr. Tsukino and tugged at his sleeve while—

“Professor, I don’t know what’s happened, but I’ve gone deaf.” When he made this appeal, even the doctor couldn’t understand what he was saying. The doctor suddenly seemed to have an idea and pulled out a notebook from his pocket. When he wrote, “This is because there’s no air to transmit sound,” the other members—who had been watching the two’s behavior with puzzlement—also nodded in understanding. “Ah! So that’s why I couldn’t hear anything. How absurd! Ha ha ha ha ha!”

He let out a loud laugh, but though his open mouth was visible, there was no trace of laughter or any sound at all.

The Discovery of a Mysterious Air Cavity.

The Disappearance of Dr. Keiden Having agreed to use written communication when needed going forward, they pressed onward until Harutsugu stepped on a stone that shifted with a grating sound, revealing a hole there. Though extremely small, Dr. Tsukino carefully peered into it before unexpectedly producing a Western match and striking it—the flame ignited instantly. Delighted, he cleared away some surrounding stones and jumped inside, then gestured for them to enter from within; once they had all gone in, he removed his mask.

“This hole is filled with air.” This time, his voice could be heard. “This ancient air must have remained trapped in this hole due to some peculiar circumstance,” he said while lighting his pocket lantern and holding it aloft to thoroughly survey their surroundings. The area where the group stood was about eight tatami mats in size, with a cave roughly one ken square adjacent to it; beyond that point, it appeared to extend to an immeasurable depth. They had mostly grasped this through the echoes produced when an assistant experimentally threw stones toward the depths.

Dr. Tsukino wore an extremely delighted expression, “Ah, splendid! Splendid! “In any case, with an air cavity this large, we won’t have any difficulty breathing for quite some time. That means we can leisurely conduct explorations and repair the aircraft during this period.”

They were hopping about with excitement, but soon,

“But even as we do this, if the air inside disperses, it will be disastrous. We must urgently seal the entrance.” “We’ll bring the tools.” And the boys had already dashed off. Dr. Keiden Keiji, the engineering doctor, “In that case, I alone will remain here on watch, so all of you go and prepare.” “Then I’ll leave it to you.”

Dr. Tsukino led the assistants and turned back.

Carrying various tools, they hurried back to the cave only to find Dr. Keiden, who should have been waiting there, nowhere in sight. “What’s going on?” They called out loudly but received no response. The five of them shouted Dr. Keiden’s name in unison. Still, there came no answer at all.

“He’s probably gone off alone to explore nearby. He should be back before long, so we must act as quickly as possible to keep the air here from escaping.”

He began moving stones himself, taking up tools. The two boys worked alongside the assistant, but the lightness of objects in this Moon world was astonishing—a boulder that would have required two horses to move on Earth could be easily shifted with just the tip of a staff. No—it wasn’t even that! You could practically balance it on your palm! Before long, the construction there was completed, so the entire group first returned to the aircraft and set about preparing dinner.

Before long, that too was completed, and the first dinner party in the Moon world commenced. Harutsugu, who was earnestly eating, suddenly looked up,

“Uncle,” he called out to the doctor. “What do you think happened to Dr. Keiden?” “Indeed. I think he must have gone out alone to explore first.” “Do you really think so? I somehow think there might be other humans or animals living in this Moon world, and that Dr. Keiden was found and captured by them.” Dr. Tsukino said with a laugh, “There’s no way such a thing could happen. How could such things survive in an airless place?”

When he said this, Mitsuo interjected from beside him, “But just like we’re alive here now, others might be living too,” Mitsuo pressed pointedly. “That may be so, but according to established theory, there isn’t a single surviving creature on the Moon—such a thing is impossible. Since he’ll likely return soon, once we’ve finished eating, we’ll build our dwelling next to that cave.”

“A house? “But how would you even build it?” “There’s no lumber or anything here either,” interjected Harutsugu.

“It’s nothing complicated.” “We’ll all carry this aircraft there together.” “The aircraft?” “Can five or six people even manage that?” “Even in Japan, they needed over twenty laborers for it, didn’t they?” “That’s right.” “But you were just rolling those huge stones around when we blocked that hole over there earlier.” “In an airless place, even stones or feathers have the same weight.” “Even an airship could be carried by me alone,” he explained.

“Hmm, I see,” he said admiringly,

“Even so，how about searching for the doctor?” “Shall we go look for him?” “That’s right.” “We’ll all head out soon.”

Monument on the Lunar Alps

The five of them finished their meal while discussing various topics. They rested for a short while. Since landing here, over twenty-four hours had already passed, yet night did not come. It remained perpetual daytime, with neither morning nor evening.

However, since all their bodies were as limp as cotton from exhaustion, they fell fast asleep the moment they lay down on the sheets.

After about three hours had passed, the doctor first awoke and shook the others awake. “Ah... I’m so sleepy... I wonder what time it is now.” Harutsugu asked, rubbing his eyes. “What do you mean ‘what time’? Since a day here lasts longer than twenty-four hours, the clocks we have are useless! Well then, shall we finally head out to search for Dr. Keiden?” After replenishing the chemicals in their new-type air generators, they set out from there once more. This time again, they walked while bobbing their heads and proceeded by slightly changing direction from before toward the mountain they had spotted.

The mountain stood so unimaginably high that its base sprawled into an expansive depression below. The doctor took out his notebook, “That towering mountain range visible yonder constitutes the Moon world’s Alps range,” he wrote and showed them. “What now lies beneath our feet is designated as the Bepoar Sea.” When presented with this explanation, the two boys gaped in astonishment, “A sea?” they mouthed soundlessly—their voices again swallowed by the vacuum. Compelled to retrieve their pencil once more, “But calling this a sea—there’s not one drop of water here!” they protested in writing.

“Long ago, this depression held water and was a sea,” he explained, “but over many long years it completely dried up.” “However, since it was once a sea, astronomers still create maps using names like ‘sea’ or ‘mountain’ even now.” While exchanging these explanations, the group found themselves crossing this dried sea and finally reached the foothills of the Alps mountain range.

Even more precipitous than it had appeared from afar, the rocks all towered as if carved. Climbing along them step by step, they finally managed to reach the summit. Harutsugu found something and let out a surprised "Ah!", but then, coming to his senses, he tugged at the doctor's sleeve while pointing insistently ahead. When they looked where he indicated, there indeed appeared to be a monument-like stone.

A stone monument in an uninhabited realm!

They all cautiously rushed over to investigate and found a square natural stone—about six feet on each side—erected there, with some sort of carving on it. When they approached and read the inscription, it was written in both English and Japanese text, October Meiji 40 (1907). The Great Japanese Empire Moon World Expedition Team has reached this place; engraving the party’s names herein as a memorial. Doctor of Engineering Keiden Keiji Doctor of Science Tsukino Kiyoshi Japanese Youth Hoshioka Mitsuo Japanese Youth  Sorachi Harutsugu Assistant  Yamamoto Hiro Assistant  Uyama Hidatsu

was inscribed. “Dr. Keiden has already been here first.”

The entire group, now knowing of his safety, all let out sighs of relief, but Harutsugu once again—

“Even so, I wonder which way he went from here.” “That’s right,” said the doctor as he surveyed their surroundings, “Anyway, let’s cross over to the other side of this mountain and go a little further now.” So they went around to the back of the monument. This side was so steep there were no footholds, and looking down from the summit made their eyes swim at depths that might well measure tens of thousands of fathoms. Mitsuo had crawled out onto the farthest protruding rock and was looking down when, just as he tried to stand up, he staggered and tumbled headfirst into the bottomless thousand-fathom valley.

Harutsugu was so shocked by this sight that he was at a loss when the doctor wrote in his notebook, “Now everyone follow after him and jump down!” “Huh? From here...?”

No sooner had Harutsugu gasped in shock than the doctor leaped forward with a burst of momentum.

Reckless!!! Reckless!!!

As Harutsugu grew increasingly astonished, the assistant said: "You have nothing to worry about. In an airless place, it's like a feather—no matter how high you jump from." "Now let's go down together." He took Harutsugu's hand and forced the resisting boy toward the valley edge before leaping. "It's over," thought Harutsugu as he closed his eyes. "I'm going to die." Yet no sensation of plummeting came—only gentle drifting akin to riding a balloon through spring air.

When he opened his eyes in wonder—how strange!!! how strange!!!—just as the assistant had explained, they were slowly descending at a speed akin to bird feathers scattering in a spring breeze.

“This is incredible!” When he glanced sideways, the others too were smiling contentedly as they descended, gazing about restlessly with equally pleased expressions while drifting downward.

As the ground gradually came into view below them, Dr. Tsukino and Mitsuo stood laughing while waiting and looking up at the three descending figures. When they finally landed—contrary to their expectation of being smashed to dust—the entire group stood there unharmed without a sound, like a firework balloon settling to earth.

Laughing together at this strange phenomenon, they proceeded onward with the group and emerged onto a vast plain—no, a sea of rock. “What is this place called?” When Harutsugu asked, “Here is the trace of the Tsurankuirichii Great Sea.” The doctor wrote this down in his notebook and showed it.

The entire group crossed through there again. By the time they had reached what seemed to be about the midway point, a dark mass emerged from the shadow of a distant rock and gradually drew closer. “What is that? I wonder if that’s a monster,” “We forgot to bring the rifle. What do we do?” And already, the two boys were beginning to stir into commotion. “It’s nothing! There’s no way a rifle would be any use here anyway. Even if we fired it in a place like this, it wouldn’t make any difference at all. That’s probably Dr. Keiden.”

“Could that be the doctor?” As they spoke,the boys kept watching fearfully when the black mass gradually drew nearer. It was a human after all. He began waving a piece of cloth. From their side as well,e ach of them waved their handkerchiefs in response. “The doctor!!! The doctor!!!”

Reunited with the Doctor in a Valley Tens of Thousands of Fathoms Deep

When they saw it approaching closer, it was indeed Dr. Keiden. The two boys scattered and ran to his side, and Dr. Keiden smiled as he— “How about that? You’re looking quite lively now, aren’t you?” “We’re so delighted we can hardly stand it!” In the midst of their written conversation, Dr. Tsukino also approached and shook hands while, “Since you suddenly disappeared, I wondered what had happened and was terribly worried.” “So that’s why we came looking for you now.”

“Ah, I see. That was careless of me.”

He gave a slight nod,

“Anyway, let’s talk while we head back,” he said, taking the lead. “While waiting for you all to arrive, I thought I’d climb that mountain to investigate. When I reached the summit, there was a well-shaped stone, so I carved a monument with a knife. Then when I went around to the backside, I fell into the valley.”

“Ah, I see. Since I saw that monument, I knew you were safe and felt relieved.” “Then we too jumped down from that cliff behind us.” “It’s fascinating,” said Mitsuo, tugging a pencil from his side. “When I slipped off that rock, I thought I was done for. But when I opened my eyes wondering what was wrong, there I was floating down gently.” “I just couldn’t make sense of what had happened at all.”

“Ah, I see. You must have been quite startled by that.” While enjoying themselves, they made their way through the valley of the Alps Mountains and returned to the aircraft first.

The Moon World’s Daily Routine

Exploration and Repair Operations

The entire group had safely assembled and returned, but the next problem that arose was repairing the aircraft for our return to Earth. Since we had previously discovered an air pocket, it could sustain us for two months; however, with food reserves lasting less than a month, we absolutely had to complete repairs on this aircraft by then.

After deliberation, they divided the six members into two teams: one for exploring the Moon world and the other for repairing the aircraft. Naturally, Dr. Tsukino would lead the former while Dr. Keiden took charge of the latter. To each team they assigned one assistant and allocated Harutsugu to Dr. Tsukino’s group and Mitsuo to Dr. Keiden’s from the two boys, commencing their fixed daily routine from that very day. First, Dr. Tsukino’s team divided twenty days’ worth of provisions among themselves, fastened them to their waists, and departed. Meanwhile at base, Dr. Keiden worked tirelessly with two companions, methodically repairing every torn wing section and damaged instrument.

After working together with single-minded determination, their efforts came to fruition on what would have been the eighteenth day by Earth reckoning. After conducting a thorough inspection, Dr. Keiden “All right. This should do. It’s practically better than when we started. Now we can depart anytime once the expedition team returns.” “About how many days until we can go back?” “At least a week.” “So in about ten days we’ll be returning to Japan, right?” “How about it? Had enough already?”

“What do you mean, ‘exhausted’?” he said energetically and peered out the window— “Ah, they’ve come back!” “They’ve returned!”

“I see.”

When Dr. Keiden and the assistant both went to the window, there indeed was the three-member exploration team returning triumphantly, each carrying mountainous loads on their backs. “Well? What did you find?” When Dr. Keiden first asked, Dr. Tsukino replied in a cheerful tone, “There must be some remarkably unusual phenomena here,” he said while setting down a bundle. When he spread out the large wrapping cloth, what emerged were nothing but strange objects never before seen on Earth. As the three repair team members watched in astonishment, Dr. Tsukino proudly produced first a peculiar doll-shaped earthenware and said, “This was rolling among the rocks about twenty ri behind that Himalaya Mountain we mentioned.” “It’s exceptionally rare—my greatest find.” “Judging by this, there must certainly have been humans living on the Moon from the very beginning.” “And it seems they evolved to a level roughly equivalent to Earth’s Stone Age before perishing.”

He kept revealing countless ancient artifacts one after another, beaming with delight by himself like a child who had received a rare new toy. Dr. Tsukino had been engrossed in his findings for a while but then turned toward Dr. Keiden as if suddenly remembering, “How about your side?” “Mine was also completed just now.” “Is that so? That’s most fortunate.” “At last—shall we depart tomorrow, then?” “Indeed. “Well then, let us raise a toast.” “Now that we can breathe all the air we want in that air pocket, let’s drink with open hearts!”

“Agreed!!!” They all proceeded to the cave interior, lit every available candle, sat within their glow, raised high their own Western-style cups filled with brandy, and at Dr. Keiden’s lead cried: “Banzai for the Japanese Empire!!! Banzai for the Moon World Expedition Team!!!”

When they chanted this three times, their voices resounded throughout the cave, and the echo—as though the Moon itself were celebrating them—reverberated with “Banzai for the Moon World Expedition Team!!!” The echo chanted back.

(“Tanken Sekai” October Meiji 40 [1907] Supplementary Issue) October Meiji 40 [1907] Supplementary Issue)