Oe, Kenzaburo, and Haruo Umezaki, Tamiki Hara, Fumiko Hayashi. The Catch and Other War Stories (The Shadow of Sunrise). Saeki, Shoichi ed. Kodansha International Ltd: New York, 1981.

A collection of four stories, The Catch and Other War Stories combines four very different tales all joined by the common thread of the desperate face of humans in war. The first story, "Catch", focuses on images of poverty of the Japanese villages, deformity and violence, a closeness to nature, and a despair over lost hopes, all experienced by a young boy in wartime. The second story "Sakurajima" shows an earless, grief-filled prostitute, a soldier who is coming to terms with the end of his life and the unfulfillment of his dreams, and a C.P.O. who can only suppress the pain he feels during wartime. "Summer Flower" is a story about the darkness, horror, and pain immediately following the bombing. The author has a detached point of view, leaving the story devoid of emotion even as it is filled with horrible images of helpless mutilation and rubble. The last story "Bones" sums up the dark and alone nature of human fate. A prostitute who has lost her husband experiences the cruelty of man, the preoccupation with death, and the despair over her ruined marriage. The four authors contrast between natural beauty, animals, the will to live, and the ruins of man, war, and civilization. They also draw on personal experience in their accounts and seek to portray the realities of Japan in war to readers.

Without direct descriptions, the authors create a bleak mood of hopelessness and misery that captivates the reader while showing him the realities of postwar Japan. The grotesque and the depressed mood is contagious. The four stories contrast each other and yet all are tied together by the bleak fate of humans in war. This book of fiction is useful in understanding the devastating effects of the war on the people of Japan. The story is striking in its portrayal of the different human reactions of coping with incredible loss and pain.

-Jacqui Phillips