Guilt and Shame

Feelings of guilt and shame dominate the tone of both A Pale View of Hills and Rhapsody in August. One critic observed that Clark’s apology in Rhapsody was distinctly Japanese in that it is not concerned so much with guilt as with shame and concern for human feeling (Bernstein and Ravina). In Clark’s case his shame stems not from something he has done but from what his branch of the family had not done. His shame is a result of not appropriately considering their Japanese family, not thinking they had lost family when the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and that Kane might have other reasons for not being able to travel. Kane quietly receives Clark’s apology and some reunion between the families seems accomplished. However, Kane shames her children for not telling Clark about his Uncle and being more concerned about their Hawaiian cousins wealth than familial obligations.  Kane’s children, presumably survivors, also do not tell their children much if anything about the bomb. They learn about how greatly it has affected their family during their summer visit with Grandma and unlike their parents have become willing to reject their American cousin if he has only come to break off relations after previously seeming to embrace all things from the U.S. In so doing they are able to escape the shame that stained the previous generation who preferred to ignore or perhaps just tried to forget what had happened. 

A Pale View of Hills 

Etsuko is the novels in the first person narrator who know less about herself than the audience. She uses selective memory in an effort to deal with past shame (Annan). Gabrielle Annan ties this shame to the Japanese-ness of the narrator that stems from the “guilt and shame incurred in the service of duty, loyalty, and tradition.” Annan also notes a division between private and public shame as evidenced in Etsuko’s private reflections and Okata’s confrontation with his former pupil (Annan). The narrator is both telling and veiling. There is an uneasy relation between private and public contexts as well as between individual and historical contexts. She returns to the past to make amends for the present. The remembering is an effort to displace the shame of an unalterable past (Wong). The first person narrative and Etsuko’s effort to reshape memories reveal the “tension between individual consciousness and the historical circumstances (Wong 131).” Wong sees the content of Etsuko’s story as an inversion of memory. The dreaded past reappears because of her desire to forget the shame associated with past events. She uses Sachiko’s story to deflect her shame. Sachiko and Mariko function less as real individuals than as characters where Etsuko can project her own guilt about Keiko (Shafer). By the end of the story Etsuko is finally able to admit she knew all along the Keiko would be unhappy in England. 

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