by WATANABE Hiroshi (Tokyo, Japan)
since January, 2000



to 2004. 1〜
to 2003. 1〜12
to 2002. 1〜12
to 2001. 1〜12

to Japanese version




●　　　　　　　●　　　　　　　●

2000/12/30 (Sat)
　It's for the first time I read Gail Tsukiyama's book. Before reading this Women of the Silk, I only knew that her father is Japanese and her mother is Chinese, and that this novel deals with young Chinese women before the WWII. It goes without saying, in WWII, Japan invaded China and caused extensive damage to her, and has not apologized to her yet, both officially and privately. Considering it, I wondered what kind of story it is.
　But as soon as I started reading it, I forgot all the concerns. The protagonist is Pei. When eight, she was forced to go to the silk factory in order to save her family from ruin. At first, she was so sorrowful, but she made friends with girls there and they got together to lead an autonomous life: The 'girls's house' and the 'sisters' house' are comfortable family for them. And they struck against the factory owner for shorter working hours.
　Their friendship moved me deeply. But Japanese invasion brought their peaceful life to a crisis. The factory was closed. And just before departing for Hong Kong, Pei's beloved friend, Lin, was burned to death. In an abyss of grief, Pei departed with Ji Shen, who was a survivor from Japanese massacre.
　Tsukiyama's prose is simple and tender, not sentimental. This novel is very impressive and gave me a clear viewpoint about Japan's 20th century.

2000/12/22 (Fri)
　The deficit financing without precedent in Japanese history, it's the main character of today's Japanese politics but the Cabinet Ministers tend to avoid referring to it. Of course they consider how to fight it, but they don't seem to have got an idea except a big tax increase; for example, income tax, consumption tax, inheritance tax, etc.
　The incompetent politicians and bureaucrats have been wasting public funds for many years and don't seem to have repented it at all.
　Can we overcome this political corruption? It's the problem that will confront Japanese in the 21st century.

2000/12/3 (Sun)
　The book, Cradle Will Rock: The Movie and the Moment (by Tim Robbins; edited by Theresa Burns: Newmarket Press) includes movie script, many photos and the historical notes about the U.S. in 1930s.
　The main plot is as follows: In the age of the Great Depression, the Federal Theater Project gave many U.S. people encouraging entertainment, and gave many actors and artists their jobs. The movement gave birth to Marc Blitzstein's masterpiece 'Cradle Will Rock' (directed by Orson Welles), but the play offended the reactionary congressmen. They made their soldiers lock out the theater. 'Cradle Will Rock,' can't the play see the light? Or...
　In addition, the movie has the clash between Diego Rivera and Nelson Rockfeller over the Rockfeller Center's mural, etc. And the book has the detailed background notes of the movie. They are a great help for me. For example, I thought red-hunting movement was made by the Republicans, but it's my misunderstanding. And I learn that Harlem Renaissance (I like Zora Neale Hurston) wasn't an isolated and mutant movement. Etc, etc.
　The movie and the book represent artists' courage. In the afterword, Tim Robbins says 'I believe threre are already too many artists who censor themselves.' I, too, think so. Bravo, Tim and his comrades ('gangs'?)! A toast to your brilliance, effort and bravery!

2000/11/5 (Sun)
　If you haven't read Kyoko Mori's books, it might be better for you to read her previous and excellent novels, Sizuko's Daughter and One Bird. These novels are for young adult readers, but could move even adult readers deeply. Their protagonists are motherless girls (bereavement or divorce), but they get over their grief. The teenagers' struggle is written crisply and beautifully.
　Mori's new novel, stone field, true arrow, deals with adults. The protagonist 'Maya' is a weaving artist. She studied painting but gave it up. She's always fearful of exposing her feelings, because she can't get over her solitude that started when, as a little girl, she left her beloved father, a poor painter in Osaka, Japan, and went to her cold and selfish mother, a professor in a university in the U.S. Divorce, divorce, divorce... Her mother divorced twice, and her friend, Yuko, divorced. And Maya's husband, Jeff, become reconciled with his ex-wife and Maya gets out of their home. Jeff loves Maya but her solitary inclination makes them apart.
　At last, Maya goes to Eric, who is a poor painter like her late father. But it seems to me a sudden change of story. From Jeff to Eric, is it a real answer? Or an expression of the writer's feelings?
　The details are written simply and powerfully, about weaving, painting, landscapes, birdwatching, etc.

2000/10/23 (Mon)
　I've read through Robert Cormier's novel, Tenderness. The protagonist, Eric Poole, is a teenage killer. He killed his mother and stepfather, and disguised that he had been abused. He has been put in facility, not prison, and after three years, he's freed. And there are Lori, fifteen-year-old runaway girl, who had once talked with Eric and would like to meet him again, and Proctor, old cop, who's sure of Eric's other murders and traps him again and again to put him into prison. At last, Eric and Lori get out of a Proctor's trap and start on a journey. But...
　The story ends without 'tenderness' and leaves me with a dismal impression, but it tastes real.

2000/10/22 (Sun)
　Tim Robbins' film, Cradle Will Rock, is based on a real story. In 1930's, Orson Welles performed the same title play, not discouraged by red-purge-like obstruction. Tim weaves many real characters (Welles, Rockfeller, W. R. Hearst, etc.) and many episodes into a very moving film. The message is 'Don't be discouraged.' I cannot keep back hot tears.

2000/10/12 (Thu)
　ISHIHARA Shintaro made reactionary remarks again and again. He called protesters and activists 'an object of sneer' or 'poor ecology movement,' etc. His attitude is too heroic and defiant against citizens.
　I think he cannot understand his position. He's neither an action player, a comedian nor a paperback writer. He now holds the office of Tokyo Governor.

[notes] His dead brother, ISHIHARA Yujiro, was a very popular action player in Japan and Yujiro's comrade actors supported Shintaro's election campaign. He's also an author, but his works are not well-known except his first novel that deals with teenagers' sex and violence.

2000/9/29 (Fri)
　One of Japanese deep-seated illusions says that Japan is a racially homogeneous nation. Now the illusion is undergoing an ordeal.
　A bill to grant local-level suffrage to foreign permanent residents is opposed by many nationalistic lawmakers. The background of the bill is Japanese colonial rule of Korea before the end of WWII. Many Koreans ended up in Japan after the war and many of their descendants live in Japan as foreigners.
　Some of the opponents say Korean residents ('zai-nichi') should be naturalized in Japan. But, I think, it cannot resolve the problem. The bill should be enacted into law.

2000/9/16 (Sat)
　I've read Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War and Beyond The Chocolate War. They're popular novels for young adult age, but in Japan not so popular. Here teenagers do not read so much novels. And after the student revolution (the movement ceased in seventies), they tend not to think much about society, schools, etc.
　The Cormier's novels deal with a kind of psychological war in one school in U.S.A. Before long Japanese teenagers will discover them, I think.

2000/8/26 (Sat)
　Today my children returned from my wife's parents'. Family reunion?

2000/8/22 (Tue)
　Today my wife was released from the hospital.

2000/8/18 (Fri)
　I've read Kazuo Ishiguro's new novel, When We Were Orphans. This is a little strange detective story.
　Christopher Banks is one of the most celebrated detectives in 1930s England. He solved many incidents. One day he decided to return to Shanghai. He had grown up there but his parents' sudden disappearance (kidnapping?) made him go back to England. After returning to Shanghai, the famous detective seems to become incompetent. A reader might wonder why he can't recover his parents. I think it's because, in fact, he's not a conventional detective, but he's an 'artist' who wants to help the world. He believed earnestly the world would collapse unless he recovers his parents. So the exaggerated description of his struggle becomes comical and surreal. Just like Ryder, the protagonist of Ishiguro's previous novel, The Unconsoled, Banks does not have the power to solve the problem. Changing the world is beyond his power. So his struggle is a kind of nightmare, not a realistic investigation.
　But once the reader realizes it's not a detective story but a kind of love story, the novel will move him deeply. And the reader, too, will become an 'orphan' in this real world. Too poetic, but I love the novel.

2000/8/17 (Thu)
　The doctor says my wife will be released from the hospital next week, unless some problem arises. Last time I wrote 'A cold caused an inflammation of her weak heart.' But it's my mistake. It's said nobody makes out when and why the germs entered her heart.
　Long, long summer. I wish she regain her health as soon as possible.

2000/7/25 (Tue)
　Yesterday my wife was hospitalized. A cold caused an inflammation of her weak heart. No operation, but she is on a drip and has a complete check. The doctor says it takes two to four weeks for her to be released.
　My children went to her parents'. This summer it's very hot in Tokyo, and it's too hot for my family.

2000/7/7 (Fri)
　Today is the Star Festival day. One of Chinese myths says that lovers turned into stars can go on a date in the sky only today. So it's the custom to wish on stars today.
　What's my wish this year? What's your wish? Maki, my little son, wants to become Ultraman, a Japanese TV hero who fights against monsters and always wins. Yes, Maki, you will grow old and fight against 'monsters' in the real world. It's the wish of your father.

2000/6/19 (Mon)
　Former Prime Minister TAKESHITA Noboru died this morning. I don't feel sorrow for his death. He has been said to control Japanese politics behind the scenes after being driven from his post by scandal (accepting illicit donations from Recruit Co.) in 1989.
　And here comes the age of second-generation politicians. They didn't go through WWII. And they don't have doubts about their hereditary positions. Moreover, the election system was revised in favor of them (in other words, against non-party politicians). That's too awful.

2000/6/6 (Tue)
　Nowadays, a Japanese word 'kokutai' means the National Athletic Meet. But last Saturday Prime Minister MORI Yoshiro used the word in the other meaning.
　He said, "Can the Japanese Communist Party ensure Japan's security and defend 'kokutai'?" This 'kokutai' means 'divine national polity,' in other words, Japanese nation which centers on their Emperor. In Postwar Japan, this meaning has become archaic and most young Japanese don't know it. But in our militaristic past, when it was taught that the Emperor was a living God, it was used for suppressing opposition to our militant government.
　As for some rightist movement, for example the Association for the Advancement of Liberalist View of History ('Jiyu-Shugi-Shikan Kenkyu-Kai'), we must watch too.

2000/5/16 (Tue)
　OBUCHI Keizo, former Prime Minister, passed away on the 14th. Most Japanese avoid speaking ill of the dead. It's evident Obuchi had rightist inclinations, but now the mass media and politicians emphasize his pleasant personality. And it's said that his death will be a great advantage for LDP (Liberal-Democratic Party) at the next general election.
　Using a sob story is a characteristic of Japanese politics.

2000/5/10 (Wed)
　Teenage boys got a large sum of money from a boy by threats. It's said the sum amounted to 50 million yen, which can buy a house. Today's paper says the threateners planned to kill the victim boy.
　These days there have been a string of crimes by teenage boys; hijack, murder, etc. For what? Why?
　One of the reasons is that there's no hope for them except money and kicks, I think.

2000/4/21 (Fri)
　It's reported that there's vicious harassment to crime victims and their families who suffered kidnapping, stalking, murder, etc. I hate such mean acts.
　And what is worse, Japanese police tend to pay little attention to the affairs of ordinary people. What is Japan coming to?

2000/4/13 (Thu)
　ISHIHARA Shintaro, Tokyo Governor, made anti-foreigners remarks. He said, when disaster happens, foreigners without proper visas will become a riotous crowd. And he used a word of racism before the end of WWII, 'sangokujin.'
　Most politicians only made short comments against him, but don't go into action. That's a shame.

2000/3/28 (Tue)
　I've finally read through Jamaica Kincaid's My Garden (Book):. It has a few brilliant points. For example, about the history of Westerner's naming plants; Westerners brought along many, many plants from all over the world to their countries and gave them new names.
　But the whole book is not so brilliant. Probably because the friction between the Western world and Jamaica has been changing. Now she's not a girl from Antigua and Barbuda, but a successful writer in the U.S.
　I'm looking forward to her new work, with a little anxiety.

2000/3/7 (Tue)
　Jamaica Kincaid is one of my favorite writers. I love her novels, especially Lucy and The Autobiography of My Mother. I love her distinctive prose works. They are rhythmic and crisp.
　But I gave up reading through her latest work, My Garden (Book):. It's an essay on her garden and herself. Too many plant names (about half of them are Latin) puzzled me. And I felt her style was not appropriate to a gardening essay.
　I wonder if it's only a problem of my ability to read English.

2000/2/23 (Wed)
　The newspaper said Japanese major pharmaceutical companies stopped producing several medicines because of their low profitability, though they are indispensable to treat specific diseases. Ah, Japanese medical system becomes too complex for ordinary people. In addition, most Japanese doctors don't explain their patients' condition in detail. So, once a man gets serious illness, he has to be in hospital without full information of his condition and treatment for a long time. In other words, he is regarded as a drag on the society.

P.S. Today's evening paper says some gout medicine killed 6 people. That's awful!

2000/2/16 (Wed)
　I have not read Japanese modern novels lately. Why? Probably because I feel they are written only for Japanese readers. Ah, Japanese readers, they seem happy when they are freed from the real world; the history of WWII, their discrimination (against Koreans, the Chinese, Okinawaite, handicapped people, old people, gay, etc.), their depression after the high economic growth...
　On the other hand, I've read brilliant American novels in 90's whose protagonists are Japanese or Japanese-Americans; Sizuko's Daughter (Kyoko Mori), Snow Falling on Cedars (David Guterson), Audrey Hepburn's Neck (Alan Brown), etc.
　And now, Ruth L. Ozeki's My Year of Meats! It covers several modern subjects; chemical poisoning (against human beings and beef cattle), racial prejudice and love.
　The story is simple. Through Japanese TV series, 'My American Wife!,' whose sponsor is a big American meat company, Jane (director; Asian-American) and Akiko (audience; Japanese housewife) get at the truth of life at last. Its simple situation succeeds in giving the novel a sense of reality.
　My Year of Meats is not only entertaining but also has a keen eye for truth.

2000/2/10 (Thu)
　This morning I returned from the hospital. The stitches are going to be removed next week.
　There I shared a room with an elderly man. He had a cancer in his throat, so couldn't eat nor cough out phlegm without devices handled by nurses. Every day and night I heard his choking.
　And I saw many victims of cancer complaining about the hospital in the lobby. They had to be hospitalized for a long time. In Japan, a hospital is still a sort of cage and tends to isolate inpatients from the society, even though it becomes a more clean, well-lighted place.

2000/2/2 (Wed)
　I'm going to enter the hospital the day after tomorrow. There I'll have an operation for a hernia. They say it takes about ten days to recover completely. I've never stayed in a hospital. So I'm a little scared, but have no other choice. Ruth L. Ozeki's outstanding novel, My Year of Meats, will probably bring comfort to me there.
　See you later.

2000/1/29 (Sat)
　Last night I watched a TV special 'Woodstock 1969.' My old favorite musicians played there; Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Ten Years After, etc. It's 30 years ago! When I watched a movie 'Woodstock' (1970), I was 14. The theater was almost empty. Those days rock-lovers were not so many in Japan.
　Now rock music becomes a big business all over the world. And it becomes boring, no ecstasy.
　Ecstasy? Ah, those days rock gave us too much ecstasy! It drove us 'mad.' I believed rock could change the world. It turned out to be only a dream.
　These days rock seems to be a kind of drug for childish people. Too much me-ism, too much money-oriented. I don't need these-days rock.

2000/1/22 (Sat)
　Today my 9-year-old daughter bought a Pocket Pikachu. It's a digital passometer with several games. You know, Pikachu is one of the main characters of 'Pokemon (Pocket monsters).'
　Kaoru, my daughter, carries the pocket-size device. The more she walks, the higher points (called 'watts') she gets. And the more points she presents to Pikachu, the more she becomes friendly with Pikachu.
　Actually, I don't like 'Pokemon (Pocket monsters).' They're pets of children, and they fight in behalf of their young owners. It's like a war game. The owners (wealthy countries?) don't fight and the pets (poor countries, races, etc.) fight each other.
　But Kaoru is so happy with Pikachu. To become more friendly with Pikachu, she walks even in her room. It costs about $30 here. She paid it by New Year's gift of money (o-toshi-dama) from her grandma.
　Now I only hope it won't harm her eyes.

2000/1/19 (Wed)
　It's unusually warm this winter. But the 'unusual' becomes usual these years. I hope it's not a dangerous sign for the earth.
　By the way, the publishing business is slowing down and down in Japan. Many publishing companies, bookstores and wholesale dealers went bankrupt last year. It's said that more companies will go under this year. Too many, many titles are published every day. Today, in Japanese publishing world, they often say 'consumers' (o-kyaku-sama) , not 'readers' (dokusha). It becomes more difficult to publish books for 'readers,' or 'booklovers.'
　I wish I could publish books for 'readers' not as 'company products' but a kind of NPO's activities.

2000/1/17 (Mon)
　I've read through Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It's amusing, like Harry Potter--book 1 (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone). In Japan, the translation of the book 1 was published in December and it became a mega-hit and even now it's selling very well all over the country.
　But I feel a little uncomfortable to find the book 4 (Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament, Not Yet Published!) enters Amazon.com's best 10 ranking. Isn't it too much?
　In Japan now, only a few books become mega-hits and the others don't sell well. In other words, so many people buy the same titles. As for pop music, movies, goods, etc., things are almost the same. Isn't it bizarre?
　The same titles sell very well. So many people buy the same titles. I think it's so bizarre. What do you think of it? 　 　




mail address: f451@catnet.ne.jp