The Crazy Iris and Other Stories of the Atomic Aftermath

Rating:
Summary: A moving collection depicting the effects of the atomic bomb
Review: Compiled by Nobel Prize winner Kenzaburo Oe, this is a collection of stories depicting the effects on various people of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The emotional, physical, and social scars are delicately and movingly presented. Some readers might find a bit too much sentimentality for their taste, but most of the stories are very strong--especially the title story, by Masuji Ibuse, who also wrote the massive novelization of the bombing of Hiroshima, "Black Rain." Since it consists of short stories and is somewhat less harrowing than "Black Rain," it serves as a good alternative.

Rating:
Summary: A.B.C.D. Encirclement
Review: Oe lachrymosely indulges every anti-Japanese propagandist in the american media conglomerate (Ingram) with ample opportunity to smack their lips over the "moral failings" of Japan. The fact that this ineffectual moralist won the Noble prize while it was denied to Mishima speaks volumes on what supine expectations the american propaganda industry expects from Japan. Both left and right. Writer like Oe and Murakami (who deserted his own country for no nobler reason then to make more money after making a sickening porno film popular in the us) are parasites getting fat by preening all the morbid phobias of a degenerate american elite, allowing them to wallow in self-adulation. What would Mr. Oe have done during the war? Sheepishly meet the demands of an expansionist american navy? Allowed China to invade the country so as not to offend their sensitivities? ... Japan chose WAR rightfully, even with the foreknowledge that it was a lost cause. And Japan would not even exist today if Mr. Oe were around then.

Instead of Oe or Murakami or Bannana Yoshimoto's insipid writing for privileged sectors in the american market (The Nanny Diaries) feeding that markets endless appetite for peeling scabs and self-abasement try and find a video of the Shunya Ito film Pride, which angered ALL the right people in the world and was one of the most popular films in recent Japanese cinema. Or any of the great Yukio Mishima's books, who was indeed what he described himself to be "the conscience of post war Japan".