Their discussions on art, life, and friendship make Kogito reflect on the possible causes of the suicide. In this semi-autobiographical narrative, Ōe’s fictional alter ego Kogito Chōkō enters in an asynchronous conversation with the tapes his brother in-law had recorded before his passing. This novel is the author’s attempt to come to terms with the death of his brother-in-law, the world-renowned film director Jūzō Itami, who allegedly died by suicide.

The rural setting uniting all of them is a mythical site where reality and local legends coalesce, offering a powerful reflection on the relationship between history, community, and memory. Through an elaborate structure, Ōe moves between three temporal planes, the turbulent years of peasant riots before the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the aftermath of Japan’s surrender in 1945 and the narrative present, reminiscent of the student protests of the 1960s. There, their lives change as a result of revelations about repressed feelings and histories of violence, including present riots that echo the local uprisings which had involved their ancestors.

In this novel, which Ōe considered his most successful, two brothers return to their native village in Shikoku to sell their family home. Ōe’s opposition to nuclear weapons remained unwavering for all his life. The question asked throughout is: “Did the Japanese really learn anything from the defeat of 1945?” Hiroshima Notes is a heartfelt cry to use the lessons of past mistakes to learn to respect human life, including the victims’ right to silence. With his usual commitment to respecting human rights and suffering, the writer draws an often bleak portrait of how political factions appropriate victims’ traumas and subsume tragedy under political slogans.īased on interviews with survivors, but also with the doctors and nurses who cared for them, Ōe’s accounts reveal the magnitude of the horrific bombing, which had long-lasting repercussions for decades after the events. In this essay collection, Ōe recounts his visits to Hiroshima beginning in the summer of 1963, when he was hired to write a report on a rally to abolish nuclear weapons. While inspired by his own son’s birth, Ōe distances himself from Bird and portrays the crisis of a man in connection with the universal theme of dealing with fatality and the inner demons it foregrounds. With this story (and in many others thereafter), Ōe breaks with the traditional Japanese form of the confessional, autobiographical I-novel. The novel explores, often with brutal sincerity, the conflict of a man unsure whether to let the child die or to coexist with it, thus giving up his dreams of an exotic life. Possibly the best known of Ōe’s novels, it follows the narrator “Bird” as he faces a personal crisis after his son is born with a brain herniation requiring immediate surgery. Here is a list of five books to help you navigate Ōe’s writings.

Hiroshima Notes by Kenzaburō Ōe