One Man's Justice Read online

He took a deep breath before turning round and walking back down the road toward the station. The idea of getting off the train and visiting Terasawa seemed ludicrous now. That part of his life was too long ago, over and done with. As he stood at the railway crossing a Tokyo-bound train gradually accelerated away from the platform and past him to the right. As the last carriage passed, the barrier at the crossing lifted and Takuya walked back across the tracks and down the road to the station.

  Inside the station, he went over to a kiosk and bought a box of matches. An ukiyoe-style picture adorned the label on the top of the box. When he turned the box over he found the name of a match factory in Shirahama, Himeji, printed in small characters. The matchsticks had a healthy lustre, and their vermilion heads were all the same shape and size.

  He struck one. The match didn’t break and the head ignited cleanly at the first attempt. Enticed by the paraffin soaked into the wood, the flame slowly moved along the stick. It was a small, brilliant light.

  He blew out the match and tossed it into a trash can, then looked up at the big timetable above the ticket window to find the next train heading west.

  About the Author

  AKIRA YOSHIMURA was born in 1927. He is the prize-winning, best-selling author of twenty novels and collections of short stories. His is the president of Japan’s writer’s union and a member of International PEN. His first novel translated into English was Shipwrecks (Canongate 2001), which was runner-up in the prestigious UK award for Japanese writing, the Sasakawa Foundation Prize, 2002.

  MARK EALEY is a senior lecturer in modern Japanese history and Japanese to English translation. He has also translated Japan of the East, Japan of the West by Ambassador Ogura Kazuo and Yoshimura’s Shipwrecks.

  “Meticulously researched … One Man’s Justice is the journey of a man forced to hide, a man surrounded by people scared, and slowly ashamed of being linked to a war criminal – the transformation of a proud lieutenant of the Imperial Army into a scared human being.” Associated Press

  “… a provocative exploration of the effects of war on the human soul.” San Jose Mercury News

  “A deft, accurate writer, Yoshimura captures a man in limbo with unnerving insight and definition … neither side is spared: the Japanese with their medical experiments on US prisoners, the victorious US and their senselessly violent post-war treatment of the occupied inhabitants.” Christian Science Monitor

  “The themes explored here are disturbing for their complexity and their comment on patriotism and war … [Yoshimura] paints an excellent picture of the ambivalence of the Japanese people in defeat and the devastation of their homeland.” Booklist

  “This is a powerful novel based on facts, a cross between All Quiet on the Western Front and The Fugitive.” What’s on in London

  “Yoshimura has extensively researched both the air war and the Tokyo trials, but the heart of the novel describes Takuya’s trials on the run in a burned-out, half-starving, demoralized country. The physical and psychological details of that ordeal, presented in a clean, spare style, are telling.” LA Times

  “There’s no doubt that Yoshimura is a very considerable talent. One looks forward to seeing more of his scrupulous, intense fiction in English translation.” Kirkus Reviews

  “Yoshimura creates a window into the life of ordinary citizens struggling with destruction, poverty and shame. And as peace settles in, he shows us how even the darkest hatred fades to leave behind ordinary men struggling with their pasts.” San Diego Union-Tribune

  Copyright

  First published in the UK in 2003 by Canongate Books Ltd,

  14 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TE

  Originially published in Japan as Toi Hi No Senso by Shicho-Sha Co., Ltd

  English translation rights arranged with Akira Yoshimura

  through Writers House, LLC/Japan Foreign Rights Centre

  Published by arrangement with Harcourt, Inc., New York

  This digital edition first published in 2011 by Canongate Books

  Copyright © Akira Yoshimura, 1978

  English translation copyright © Mark Ealey, 2001

  The moral right of Akira Yoshimura and Mark Ealey to be identified as respectively the author and translator of the work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright,

  Designs and Patents Act 1988

  British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

  A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library

  ISBN 978 1 84767 715 0

  www.canongate.tv