Pathway to Japanese Literature
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That YearAuthor: Yamakawa Masao
| Original Title | その一年 |
|---|---|
| Author | 山川 方夫 |
| Genre | Modern Short Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In post-war Japan, seventeen-year-old Shinji navigates a world of uneasy compromises as a band boy for his brother’s jazz ensemble performing at an American military camp. Amidst the garish chaos of soldiers and Japanese women entangled in transactional relationships, Shinji clings to icy detachment, hardening himself against the humiliation and hunger gnawing at his pride. Yet one figure disrupts his resolve: a woman in black, serene and untouchable amidst the vulgarity, who dances only with a blond corporal. Her quiet dignity becomes an obsession, a flicker of purity in a landscape stained by occupation. As Shinji oscillates between contempt for the camp’s debauchery and reluctant complicity in its economy, his fixation on the enigmatic woman ignites a turmoil of longing and self-loathing. Shadows of unresolved history and fragile alliances loom, threatening to unravel the fragile shell he’s built—or forge him into something colder. The drums pulse; the night deepens. Choices await in the dissonance between survival and soul. |
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