REVIEWS

BOOKSJapanese Publications

.. Milla 111 i-no-Kuze " (Southern Wind) byBunroku Shishi is a popular novel, publishedin serial form in the Asuld Shimbull. It is saidto have been unusually well received by thereaders. The main reason for this is, ofcourse, that it is cleverly written; but an­other reason is that its subject matter hasbeen taken from present-da~' topics, the back­ground being Kagoshima, the southernmosttip of Japan, and Tokyo, and that a brightspotlight is thrown on French Indo-China, aregion very much in the public e)'e at prel!ent.It is indeed the first Japanese novel to dealwith French Indo-China.

The novel starts with two young men, filledwith the romantic dreams common to everyyouth, meeting on board a steamer bound forFrench Indo-China. One of them never getsthere. The other, after roaming about Malayaand French Indo-China, meets his friendagain after twelve years. Both of them stillcherish their romantic dreams, and when theyhear that a descendant of a hero of the MeijiEra is living in Annam, they try to bring himbac.k to Japan in order to start a racialemancipation movement. But in the face ofreality the dream breaks down miserably, andthe two friends once again board a southward­bound steamer, still moved by an unconsciouspassion to fulfill the great ambitions of theiryounger days.

The author, Who has studied the writing ofdrama in France, shows skill in the com­position of his novel and grips the attentionof his readers with the incidents woven intohis story.

"Hei-no-Michi" (The Way of Soldiers) byKinzo Satomura is a war novel, its hero atransport soldier. The author is alreadyknown through his trilogy of war novels,The Second 1..i/e, The Second Life 11, and TheBattle 0/ H81tchow. His latest novel carrieson the adventures of the same hero, HeirokuNamikawa, during the course of his participa­tion in the battle of Hankow.

We cannot fail to be moved by the fortitudewith which the hero faces the extreme hard­ships of the war. Under scorching heat,without a drop of water, Heiroku marches on,suffering from diarrhea, beriberi, and malaria,never failing to look after his horses. Hefinds the strength with which to carry on inhis absolute loyalty to the Emperor: .. I havelearned that unless we worship Hi. Imperial

Majesty the Emperor, and unless we believein the national idea embodied in the unifica­tion of the sovereign and the public will, wecannot go on in the war."

The hero was formerly a writer of pro­letarian novels and has no religious beliefs.One night he happens to see a non-commis­sioned officer, an eal'nest member of thereligious sect called Hokke-slut, save a dyingsoldier under his command who is sufferingfrom cholera. Having witnessed this demon­stration of intense religious faith, Heil'oku ismoved by Ihe strength of those who live inreligion, and he also wants to enter a religiouslife.

H Hci-Ilo-Michi" is a novel depicting a finespirit. In it we see how the physical pain ofthe individual soldier melts away in therigorous faith of the Japanese filled withloyalty towards their Emperor, as well as thestrength that can be drawn from religion.

In this review of novels it is not out ofplace to include a book of criticism, OnWr'itc'rll, by Hakucho Masamune, which coversall typical authors throughout the feiji,Taisho, and Showa Eras.

It would be difficult to find a writer whohas read as widely as Hakucho Masamune.He himself says that he has thoroughly readall the main works of typical authors thathave appeared since the Meiji Era. His crit­icism docs not go beyond the limit of criticismby impression. This may be due to the factthat Hakucho is a novelist and not a critic byprofession. However, such criticism by im­pression gives the reader an opportunity ofbecoming intimately acquainted with Hakucho'sway of thinking, and does not filII into theerror of becoming dry theory for the sake oftheory.

His criticism is extremely strict and out­spoken, and is based on his own attitudetoward literature, his faith in literature. 1"orinstance, in commentini on the works of KyokaIzumi, who is said to have reached a peak ofliterature, Hakucho is relentless enough to say:"His writings and ideas always suppress mydesire for reading, and do not allow me toenter into his world. I cannot read even achapter or a paragraph of his works withease.... Various comments on his works byhis admirers seem to me nothing but emptywords."

"Enpo-no-Hito" (People at a Distance) is acollection of five short stories by HaJlmeMoriyama. All of them deal with charactersseeking means of expiation and of starting anew life. The stories are distinguished by

THE XXth CENTURY308,their poetic sentiment and by their wonderfuldescriptions of nature. In the first story, forinstance, which gives the book its name, onecan see the color of a tree and a single bladeof grass in the atmosphere of a country townfacing the Japan Sea. The somewhat falteringstyle of the stories is intentional as part ofthe poetic sentiment of the author. Another ofthe stories, "Bo-shun" (Late Spring), describesthe mind and psychology of a man recuperat­ing alone at a hot spring away from hisfamily. While he is recovering from mentalexhaustion, he is at the same time overcomingthe mental anguish he suf.fered while involvedin an ideological movement. There seems tobe something in common between this storyand the works of the German author HermannBesse in the relationship between the landacapeand the depths of the hero's suffering.

"A'iB'ltru-Hitotachi" (People Who Love) byKosel Kawabata is a volume of .nine shortstories. Almost all of them are about women,one of them describing a girl's vague longingfor marriage. while another shows the joysand sorrows of a married woman. While the

author's previous works seem to have beeawritten out of an oYedlow of feel1aar. tIUabook is a proof that his style has become morepolished, more tempered, like a fine blade.His insight into the psychology of WOlD8ll is iDplaces as illuminating as a flash of ligbtDiDc,

The most attractive of these nine stories is"Hokuro-no-Tegami" (Letter of a Mole). Itaheroine h.. a mole on the back 01 bar neckwhich she has been In the habit of finprincsince she was a child. She penista in thistrick even after she is married, althoqh herhusband often repro'es her for it. The authorskilfully shows how the Ufe of the WOIIWIhinges, in a wal. on this mole, aDd howmother-love. love for her own bod,. and loveof her husbaJld ",nter around it. TbJa iI •flrat time we find in JapalllM UtarataJ:e 10delicate a deacrlptlon of hamaa ~ _from so lUluaual an anKl..

The author'.· atlle ... mdeatb .......maturity. and with this maturit7 atI ......spiritual lllht aeema to shine throqh Idaworks.-T. N.

MAGAZINESENGLISH LANGUAGE MAGAZINES

ScilJllctJ

What continual disturbances this planet ofours has to put up with I No, we don't meanwars. Those are merely a man-made additionto the number of disasters with which natureprovides us at certain intervals. We meanearthquakes. in connection with an article by­Chuji Tsuboi on "Seismology in Japan" inC01/temporary Japan (February). Written asit ill in one of the world's notorious earth­quake zones, i.e. Japan, the article containssome interesting data. The fact that Japanhas so often had to announce earthquake dis­asters to the world, apparently more thanother countries, is easily explained by theauthor, who points out that the density ofpopulation naturally makes for greater loss oflife and propert)· whenever and wherever thequakes occur as compared with other lesspopulated zones. With a view to fighting theresignntion often found in people living inearthquake zones, modern seismologists, mak­ing a clear distinction between earthquakesand earthquake disasters, have set out to erasethe latter expression from the vocabulary.The disaster that overtook Tok)'o and Yoko­hama in 1923 did much to intensify and evenrevolutionize seismological work in Japan.

Experiments ace now being carried out bythree different systems. The Central Meteoro­logical Observatory collects data concerninggeographical distribution, time distribution,~ode of occurrence, and velocity of propaga­t10n of the seismic wave. The SeismologicalResearch Institute, by the second system,studies chiefly the deformations and the tilt

of the earth's crust, gravity. and terrestrialmagnetism. The third system is that car­ried on by all the Imperial universitiesin the country, to every one of which a leG­logical or geophysical institute II attached.The present aim of the combined efforts ofthese three systems is the prediction of earth­quakes and the working out of a formulato build earthquake-proof houses, roads. andbridges.

R. Dailey, S. J., author of "God in Nature"in the Catholic RovilJW (February), takes usinto the realm of zoology. He tells us thestory of the Sitaris, a tiny insect whosewonderful metamorphosis be~r8 witness tothe guldln~ force of a higher intellect inNature. The Sitaris leaves ita egg in Septem­ber and goes without food for seven months,after which it suddenly begins to feel ayearni~ for one particular kind of honey.So it attaches itself to the back of oneparticular kind of bee that goes to the rightplaces. The bee flies fast, and ita back isslippery, but that doesn't daunt the Sitaris.It has some glue ready in its body and withits aid gets itself properly fixed. For thefirst three weeks it always uses a male beefor a II clipper," Then it transfers to afemale bee to get into a honey cell. Oncethere, the Sitaris leaves the back of the beeat exactly the right instant and slips intothe lake of honey, safely perched on the bee'segg. Now for the first meal of ita life: theegg. Then, floating on the broken sheil, theSitaris transforms ita tiny body into a sortof pontoon in order not to drown in the lakeof honey, and develops a breathin~ apparatus