「二に十じゅう四よんの瞳ひとみ」壺井つぼい栄さかえ 戦時せんじ中ちゅうの “幻まぼろしの短たん編集へんしゅう”中国ちゅうごくで発見はっけん

It has been discovered that a phantom short story collection, published in China during the final stages of the Pacific War and featuring works by the author Sakae Tsuboi—known for Twenty-Four Eyes—depicting the horrors of war, has been found.

Experts point out that the fact that antiwar books were being published in China during a time when publishing activities had almost come to a halt in Japan due to paper shortages and censorship is a valuable discovery in considering the history of Japanese literature during the war.

Here is what was found: Kasuri no Kimono, a collection of short stories by Etsu Tsuboi, published by a Beijing publisher on June 10, 1945.

Tsuboi himself was unable to obtain it, and it was thought to have been lost in the confusion at the end of the Pacific War. However, Professor Qin Gang, a researcher of Japanese literature at Beijing Foreign Studies University, discovered that it had been kept in the library of Peking University.

It is composed of 13 short stories, including the title work Kasuri no Kimono, and it is said that three of the works have not yet been published in Japan.

Of these, the novel Ubugi is set in a seaside village and depicts a mother sewing clothes by hand and praying for her sons safety after her son and his boat are requisitioned for the war.

Experts point out that Tsuboi, who published many works depicting the tragedy of war such as Twenty-Four Eyes, was able to publish anti-war books in China—where censorship was apparently less strict—even though publishing activities had virtually come to a halt in Japan during the late stages of the Pacific War due to paper shortages and government censorship. This is considered a valuable discovery in understanding the history of Japanese literature during the war.

Professor Qin Gang said, While vividly depicting the everyday lives of ordinary people, the works also portray the things lost to war and the sorrow of family members, making them all worth reading.

It is valuable because, at that time, incorporating civilian casualties into novels was rarely seen outside of works by Sakae Tsuboi, he said.

The Kasuri Kimono is scheduled to be republished by a domestic publisher as early as next month.

Why was it published in Beijing at the end of the war? According to Professor Qin Gang of Beijing Foreign Studies University, The Kasuri Kimono stated that the publication was by Monthly Mainichi-sha, which was located within the Mainichi Newspapers Beijing bureau.

Monthly Mainichi-sha published a Japanese magazine for nearly a year starting in 1944, and it is said that one of the short stories by Sakae Tsuboi included in Kasuri no Kimono was also featured in it.

According to Professor Qin Gang, by 1944, domestic publications faced a severe shortage of materials such as paper, resulting in reduced page counts and a series of discontinuations, while in foreign territories such as China, Japanese magazines and books were actively published.

In addition to publishing works by Eiji Yoshikawa, the magazine Gekkan Mainichi-sha also featured works by Masuji Ibuse, Haruo Sato, and Sakae Tsuboi in the Japanese-language magazine Tairiku, which was published by another publisher in Shanghai.

The kasuri kimono found this time was something that even Sakae Tsuboi herself was unable to obtain, and after the war, she called out on a weekly magazines bulletin board, saying things like, Is there anyone who has a kasuri kimono?

Professor Qin Gang said, At a time when it was difficult to publish magazines domestically, it seems that publishers had the idea of publishing Japanese magazines overseas to fill the gap in the domestic market.

At that time, due to censorship, it was not possible to openly publish works opposing the war, but it has been pointed out that Sakae Tsuboi spoke about daily life and living on the home front from an ordinary person’s perspective, and may have had the intention of rejecting the war.

Etsu Tsuboi and Antiwar Literature Etsu Tsuboi was born in 1899 on Shodoshima Island in Kagawa Prefecture, and made her full-fledged debut as a writer in 1938.

He wrote about 1,500 works in his lifetime, including novels and essays. Among them, Twenty-Four Eyes, published in 1952, depicts a female teacher assigned to Shodoshima and her students as they become caught up in the turmoil of wartime. The story was also made into a film and attracted a great deal of attention.

E Tsutsui continued to write works depicting the misery of war through the daily lives and experiences of ordinary people on the home front. She passed away in 1967 at the age of 67, but her works are still read today as representative examples of antiwar literature.

According to Professor Qin Gang of Beijing Foreign Studies University, at the end of the war, due to paper shortages and strict censorship, opportunities for writers to publish their works were limited, and some writing commissions required conditions such as novels themed around fighting citizens or labor.

Tsuboi continued writing until around March 1945 even under these circumstances, and at the time said, In the current situation, writers must be cautious about speaking honestly or putting things into writing.

However, if the writer sees with honest eyes and has a sincere heart, there should be something overflowing behind the words and between the lines of the text.

We must create literature that remains relevant in any era, and other such writings questioning the role of writers have been left behind.

The publisher will republish Sakae Tsubois Kasuri no Kimono 80 years after the war; Kohaku Shobo, a publishing company in Kyoto City that mainly handles academic books, will publish it for the first time in 80 years.

Mr. Yamamoto Shoma, who serves as the representative, visited Professor Qin Gang of Beijing Foreign Studies University, whom he discovered this April, and saw a kasuri kimono.

The original edition had a cover with a navy blue base and the title written in a handwritten-style font. For this reprint, the cover has been recreated in the same way, and the kana usage has also been kept as it was to preserve the atmosphere of that time.

The collection Kasuri no Kimono contains 13 short stories believed to have been written over about two and a half years starting in 1942, and Mr. Yamamoto says that the story The Old Man, which has not been published in Japan, left the strongest impression on him.

During the war, as the workforce dwindled, three hardworking elderly men around seventy years old appeared around a woman who had just moved in, and their lives were depicted in a calm manner. I felt that, even under the shadow of war, instead of being lumped together under grand words like for the country, it portrayed people who continued to work for their own lives, steadily living each day, she said.

Publication is scheduled for next month, and I feel that the depiction of life during the war is very detailed and will be interesting for readers.

He said, As an ongoing issue, I hope this will serve as an opportunity to think about what war really means.