Steve Barrett, Analysis #6, Spring 1998

It is appropriate to discuss the two people responsible for The Rite and Rhapsody in August before comparing the two distinct forms of genre that are used to deal with the effect of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan. Hiroko Takenishi, author of The Rite was born in Hiroshima and was living there as a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl when the United States dropped the bomb on her home. Akira Kurosawa, director of Rhapsody in August on the other hand was born in Tokyo, far removed from both bombing’s direct effects. While Takenishi has dedicated her life to Japan, which is evident by the fact that most of her work is not available in English, Kurosawa seems to be less accepted by Japan, thus relying on a western appreciation of his work. This difference has to impact the manner in which each story is told.

Although both stories take place in different cities, the devastation to life and family are similar. A very key image that was left with me was the description of the sky as described by both mediums. Rhapsody describes a bright eye that stared at Nagasaki. This eye could not be erased from the memory of those who saw it. The Rite also provides a vivid description of the sky that describes a great flash, a big bang, and finally the squall of wind and fire. The narrator then describes the sky an hour after the initial blast, still blazing in a fiery red color. The main character finally describes her surroundings as a black abyss, much like the description of blackness that eventually engulfed the eye and Nagasaki in Rhapsody. This approach to describing the bombing is the most haunting medium used in my opinion. It personally impacted me. In the final scene of the Rhapsody, grandmother is provoked by the storm’s sounds to recall that fateful day in August. It effected me in a similar manner.

The contrast between the two genres is based on who tells the story and how the story teller’s are effected. The Rite uses a young women to tell the story, who is most likely Takenishi herself. The narrator, Aki, tells the story from a nightmare that haunts her until four in the morning. She talks about how her home has been hideously changed by someone or some unknown force. "Yes, I shall no doubt go to that place again, but I will not be going home" (The Rite 199). Aki shares this same bewilderment as she wonders where many of her friends and family are, and then later confesses the possibility of their death. Aki has still not come to term with what has happened even in her adulthood. The problem is, there as not been performed a proper rite for those who died. It seems to her that it happened and everything and everyone around her just moved on without bringing closure to the catastrophe.

The grandmother is the story teller of Rhapsody in August, with the help of her grandchildren. The grandmother has moved on with her life and attempts to enjoy the pleasures that are still available to her now, like the grandchildren. She recalls the bombing in an indirect manner using stories about her siblings to hint to the wars devastation of life and family. She blames the war, not specifically the United States for the bombing. However, she is still bitter towards the U.S., as shown by her indifference towards the country.

The grandmother’s recollection of her brothers as she tires to recall the brother in Hawaii, is a subtle way to acquaint viewers to the mental and physical anguish of the bombings. Aki’s utilization of a dream as the mechanism to tell the story allows her to introduce a more helter-skelter approach to sharing many of the emotions that she felt. This works well since dreams like an atomic bombing, have a chaotic order that probably cannot be arranged in a linear fashion. Both genres were effective in getting their points across. I don’t know how these stories impact the Japanese, but I do know that I have a completely different perspective of our bombing of those two cities.

© 1998, Steve Barrett

Akira Kurosawa’s Rhapsody in August and Hiroko Takenishi’s "The Rite" are both centered on the bombing of a Japanese city during World War II. Rhapsody in August is about the Nagasaki bombing while "The Rite" takes place in Hiroshima. However, both authors have chosen different mediums to reflect on what happened and to portray the pain suffered by the victims. Moreover, they have two different focuses.

Rhapsody in August focuses on the shame of the grandma’s family concerning the bombing and on how easily they forget the horrible event, "with time, people are apt to forget the most dreadful things." In "The Rite", the heroine, Aki, hasn’t seen her friends since the bombing and since she has not seen their "dead bodies," she thinks that they might still be living in Hiroshima and might be looking for her. She notices that a lot of people have also lost contact with friends or relatives. They do not know whether these people are still living or died in the bombing. Aki seems to be in denial. She does not want to acknowledge the fact that her friends are probably dead. However, this feeling of denial seems to be common to the Hiroshima population, "After that summer there were lots of people who for reasons of their own preferred to keep silent" (182).

The two stories used different mediums to relate the bombings and show how it affected individual lives.

Kurosawa chose film to tell the story of three generations of Japanese living in Nagasaki: the grandma, her children, and her grandchildren. The different feelings that the three generations hold toward America, their relative Clark, and the bomb are very interesting. The grandma has seen the devastation and the loss of human life caused by the Atom bomb. Her husband perished and she was never able to see his body and mourn him in the traditional Buddhist way. Her feelings about a proper burial mirror Aki’s, "Even so, if the dead, as they say, are never truly dead and will not rest in peace until the appropriate rites of mourning are performed for them then the deaths of Junko and of Kiyoko and Kazue are not yet, so to speak, fully accomplished" (183). Even though the grandma prays for her husband as it is expected of her, she is still in need of closure. She tries to achieve it at the end of the movie by running toward Nagasaki to see her husband and finally come to terms with his untimely death.

The grandma still remembers the flash of the bomb, its wide open "eyes" staring at her and her brother, burning their faces. However, she does not seem to have angry feelings toward America or Americans. She has actually no feelings for them. If she seems reluctant to go to Hawaii at first, it is because she wants to make sure that the man who claims to be her brother is actually related to her. Above all, she hates war, even if it is her own people who start it. She thinks that war will destroy us all.

On the other hand, her children are very cold and selfish when it comes to the bomb. They have been dazzled by Clark’s wealth and want to stay on good terms with him since they expect he will give them jobs and money. So, they are upset when they learn that the children have told him about their grandpa being killed in the bombing. They seem to have forgotten all about the pain caused by the bomb and apparently feel ashamed of the grandpa’s death.

The grandchildren seem to be very americanized. They wear t-shirts with names of U.S. cities or of prestigious universities, dream of going to Hawaii, and do not like the traditional food their grandma cooks for them. However, after staying with her for awhile, they start to retrace their past by visiting memorials of the bombing, the school where their grandpa was killed, and places their uncles particularly enjoyed. They are looking for their true Japanese identity and are able to find it thanks to their grandma. They understand the story of the bomb and of its victims and become closer to their grandma.

Kurosawa decided to tell this story in a very western, linear style. He must have had an American audience in mind and wanted to make the movie more accessible to them. His casting of Richard Gere as Clark was also meant to encourage people who might have been reluctant to consider watching a Japanese movie to actually go see Rhapsody in August. Moreover, by limiting his movie to a single summer in Nagasaki forty-five years after the bomb was dropped, and focusing on a family with two conflicting generations, he made his movie more accessible and touching to western audiences.

On the other hand, Takenishi writes more in a Japanese, non-linear, and non-chronological style relating her story using a stream of consciousness. Throughout the story, she mainly uses the pronoun "she" when relating to Aki. However, once in awhile, she will let Aki speak for herself using "I."

The reader follows Aki’s thoughts as she is having a nightmare, feeling sick over her friend’s lost babies, and reminiscing about the damages caused by the bomb and losing sight of her friends. Although hardly explicitly mentioned, the bomb is very present throughout the story. Takenishi admirably describes it using terms such as "light, cold, dark, liquid." She also paints it as a living entity, "A wild beast suddenly will rise from sleep, come crashing through the thickest and then violently shake itself, its eyes shining gold in the cool air of night" (178). The images of a living beast with eyes of fire are also present in Rhapsody in August; however, Kurosawa shows us without telling us. In this regard, Takenishi’s descriptions are much stronger, vivid, almost suffocating. She also describes the damages on the war on the victims, "What I saw that day deep inside her were the thin burned-up bones; what I heard was the brittle crumbling of their white calcinated remains" (179). This is something that Kurosawa did not touch, mainly because of his audience, but also because it was not his focus and his movie worked perfectly well without it.

Even though Kurosawa and Takenishi had two somewhat different focuses, they often portrayed the bombings in the same way, which was at the same time frightening and fascinating. They used two different mediums, film and short story, effectively. Each of them using the medium to its full extent to fulfill his/her purpose.

© 1998, Christine Clark

Shannon McKenzie, Analysis #7, Spring 1998

The story "A Pale View of Hills" leaves many open, unanswered questioned about certain events in the lives of the characters. In the following analysis, I hope to extend and explain a specific aspect of Sachiko’s life to help answer the question, "Why did Sachiko leave Tokyo with her daughter?" I also hope to capture and imitate the voices portrayed throughout the story. On page 45, Sachiko is saying,

"I didn’t need to leave Tokyo, Etsuko," she said. "But I did, for Mariko’s sake. I came all this way to stay at my uncle’s house, because I thought it would be best for my daughter. I didn’t have to do that, I didn’t need to leave Tokyo at all."

Sachiko paused for a moment, as if she was planning what she should say next. It was as if she wanted to tell me about the circumstances that caused her to leave Tokyo and live with her uncle, but she wasn’t sure if she should. Sachiko moved a little closer to me and looked at me with absolute seriousness. Once again, I was struck with a glimpse of the impression that Sachiko was older than I had first supposed. The seriousness of what she was about to say made the lines on her face even more distinct.

"Etsuko, there is nothing I am ashamed of. I have nothing to hide from you. Or anyone else, for that matter." She continued, "Before leaving Tokyo, we had to come through many difficult challenges. The war and the death of my husband greatly affected Mariko. Things happened during this time that interrupted Mariko’s lifestyle. It was unfortunate, but she always managed."

Careful not to interrupt Sachiko, I listened intently while thinking that Sachiko seemed indifferent to her daughters needs. She presented the information as if it was normal for a child to be able to cope without being affected.

"Mariko takes well to change," she said. "In order for you to understand, I should explain that Mariko unfortunately witnessed the death of an acquaintance shortly after the war. Then with the death of my husband, we had to move around."

"Why did you have to move?" I asked, trying not to seem overly concerned with bringing up the past.

"I felt that moving would allow Mariko to forget about what had happened. Also, when my husband died, the surroundings we were used to were slowly fading away." Sachiko’s expression began to look more agitated as she moved uneasily in her chair. "Mariko is a very smart child. She does just fine when we move, just as she did when we left Tokyo. She adapted very well at my uncle’s and does not speak about the past."

The original story continues on page 45:

I gave a bow. Sachiko looked at me for a moment, then turned and gazed out through the open partitions, out into the darkness.

© 1998, Shannon McKenzie