The Land of the Rising Sun?A Term Paper on the Novel The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai

Ver, Edenmay E.II – HC BSE English

Introduction

Synopsis of the Novel

The post-war period in Japan was one of immense social change as Japanese

society adjusted to the shock of defeat and to the occupation of Japan by American

forces and their allies. Osamu Dazai’s The Setting Sun takes this milieu as its

background to tell the story of the decline of a minor aristocratic family.

At the beginning of the novel, it is World War II and Japan is beginning to

change. Kazuko has returned home after leaving her husband and getting a divorce. As

part of the aristocracy of Japan, she lives with her mother and servants in Tokyo. The

war, however, brings changes and they wind up impoverished. They are forced to sell

their home in Tokyo and move to a small house in a remote village. For the first time in

her life, Kazuko finds herself having to take care of her mother without the help of

servants. She struggles to accept her new role but, when her mother becomes ill, she

accepts it without question. 

Naoji returns from the war an opium addict. He continually takes what little

money they have and disappears to Tokyo for weeks on end, at first to feed his opium

habit and then to drink.

After their mother dies, Kazuko returns to Tokyo in search of a man she had a

brief affair with years before. She finds him a wasted, drunken shell, a man of wealth

who has chosen to spend his days drinking and carousing with others who are just like

he is –disillusioned and adrift. They are caught by the changes taking place and they do

not know how to handle those changes. The rigid, polite society is being replaced but no

one seems to be certain as to what comes next. Kazuko, who has already abandoned a

great deal of her up-bringing, has decided to revolt in her own way by becoming

Uehara’s mistress and having a his baby. 

Naoji, while Kazuko is in Tokyo, commits suicide, leaving behind a note

explaining that he is hopelessly in love with a married woman. He also reveals his

contempt for himself, the aristocracy, and the life he has been living.

The novel ends with Kazuko’s last letter to her lover, where she reveals she is

pregnant and has declared that her bastard child shall be her revolution.

The Author

Dazai was born carrying the name Shūji Tsushima , the eighth surviving child of

a wealthy landowner in Kanagi, a remote corner ofJapan at the northern tip

of Tōhoku in Aomori Prefecture. His father was a member of the House of Peers and

was thus often away from home, and his mother was chronically ill after having given

birth to 11 children, so he was brought up mostly by the servants.

Tsushima wrote at a feverish pace and used the pen name "Osamu Dazai" for the first

time in a short story called Ressha (Train 1933): his first experiment with the first-person

autobiographical style that later became his trademark.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Dazai wrote a number of subtle novels and short stories

that are frequently autobiographical in nature. His first story,Gyofukuki (1933), is a grim

fantasy involving suicide. Other stories written during this period include Dōke no

hana (The Flowers of Buffoonery, 1935), Gyakkō (Against the Current, 1935), Kyōgen

no kami (The God of Farce, 1936), and those published in his 1936

collection Bannen (Declining Years), which describe his sense of personal isolation and

his debauchery.

A number of the stories, which Dazai published during World War II were

retellings of stories by Ihara Saikaku (1642–1693). Wartime works included Udaijin

Sanetomo (Minister of the Right Sanetomo, 1943), Tsugaru (1944), Pandora no

hako (Pandora's Box, 1945–46), and the delightful Otogizōshi(Fairy Tales, 1945) in

which he retold a number of old Japanese fairy tales with vividness and wit.

In July 1947 Dazai's best-known work, Shayo (The Setting Sun, translated 1956)

depicting the decline of the Japanese nobility after World War II was published,

propelling the already popular writer into a celebrity. This work was based on the diary

of Shizuko Ōta. Ōta was one of the fans of Dazai's works and first met him in about

1941. She bore him a daughter Haruko in 1947.

Always a heavy drinker, he became an alcoholic; he had already fathered a child

out of wedlock with a fan, and his health was also rapidly deteriorating. At this time

Dazai met Tomie Yamazaki, a beautician and war widow who had lost her husband

after 10 days of married life. Dazai effectively abandoned his wife and children and

moved in with Tomie, writing his quasi-autobiography Ningen Shikkaku No Longer

Human, 1948, translated. 1958) at the hot-spring resort Atami.

The Characters

Kazuko – Daughter of an aristocratic family that loses all of their money after World War

II. She used to be married but divorced after an affair with another man. She moves with

her mother to the countryside and takes care of her.

Kazuko’s mother – elderly, sickly woman who becomes lost and depressed after losing

all of her money and having to leave her old life behind. She eventually dies of

tuberculosis.

Naoji – a soldier in the war, was addicted to narcotics and opium. Has a very negative

view of the world, as evident in his “Moonflower Journal”. Eventually commits suicide.

Mr. Uehara – a novelist who is married with a child. Kazuko is in love with him, and he

claims to love her back but never responds to any letters Kazuko sends him.

Uncle Wada – Kazuko’s uncle, who financially supports Kazuko’s family for a time until

he is unable to do so anymore.

Novel Analysis

Symbolisms

The title “The Setting Sun” and the other imageries

Chapter 1 – Snake

In the opening pages, Dazai introduces us to Kazuko and her mother. The mother is

“old school” traditional and at the time, wealthy and an aristocrat. Kazuko and her

mother represent the changing women’s role in Japanese society with the traditional

mother who takes the path of passive acceptance and Kazuko as the modern divorcee.

As the title of this chapter suggests, snakes represent a powerful symbol which is

repeated throughout the rest of the novel. When Kazuko’s father dies, the snakes twist

themselves around the tree outside the house. To Kazuko, this appears to be a bad

omen, and when she sees what she thinks are poisonous serpent eggs, she burns the

eggs to exorcise her torment and perceived evil. Perhaps her own experience having a

stillborn child scarred her more than she initially realized.

Kazuko’s mother changes from an aristocrat to a pauper upon the death of her

husband, a role she never fully accepts even in her death. She tells us about others that

“just because someone has a title doesn’t make him an aristocrat” (4). It’s more a sense

of how a person handles themselves and lives their life. The mother doesn’t deal well

with moving to the country or becoming poor, as though her fragile conscience just

cannot accept the consequences of her life.

Chapter 2 – Fire

“Carelessness leads to conflagrations” (29). Kazuko accidentally starts a fire, and while

no real damage is done, she feels tremendous guilt. This chapter again focuses on the

differences between mother and daughter, and additionally portrays the nihilistic role of

Naoji, Kazuko’s opium addicted brother, who recurrently steals from the family for his

own personal fiends. The end of the chapter discusses how secrets kept, even with the

best of intentions, often surface with a vengeance.

Chapter 3 - Moonflowers

This chapter mirrors the author’s life. In the chapter, we find Naoji has returned from

Tokyo or whatever opium den he has been hiding in, only to get drunk and steal from

his mother. He also tells her that “To die by being sucked into an act of desperation…

no, thanks. I had rather die by my own hand” (66). This statement foreshadows Naoji’s

death in chapter 7.

Chapter 4 – Letters

This chapter is confusing. Kazuko believes that her life is slipping away and that her life

will be better if she has a child. At age 30, she considers herself middle-aged. In her

letters to M.C., a teacher of Naoji’s who is revealed later in the novel as Mr. Uehara,

Kazuko professes her love and she wishes that he would agree to father her child. She

writes three very strange letters and receives no response.

Chapter 5 – The Lady

In this chapter, the author focuses the text around the mother and her eventual death

from tuberculosis. Kazuko’s mother is portrayed as the last traditional lady of Japan.

The author adds some interesting context including economic theory from Luxemburg

and Marxism belief from perfection to destruction; “Man was born for love and

revolution” (114). Also, we are shown a couple of recurrent themes in the reference to

sails and the mother’s dream about the snake. The snake, perhaps, seeks revenge for

her eggs and achieves its goal through the mother’s death. Kazuko laments at the end

of the chapter; she believes that life is a struggle, a battle, and tells us that “I must go on

living” (124).

Chapter 6 – Outbreak of Hostilities

This chapter was a little confusing. Kazuko discusses how she can depend on love and

nothing else, speaks about more than just physical love or human love. I believe she’s

talking about the two kinds of unconditional love, both spiritual love and the

unconditional love a parent has for a child. Maybe this is why she appears so darn

desperate to breed with Uehara. There are obvious conflicts at work in the text. On the

one hand, we have Naoji, nihilistic and overwhelmed, who kills himself, and Kazuko and

Uehara who profess their love and eventually procreate.

Chapter 7 – The Testament

This chapter is Naoji written memoir which serves as his suicide note.

Naoji portrays his personal torment when he says that “only those who wish to go on

living should” (153). In the memoir, Naoji laments about his unrequited love for Suga,

the painter’s wife—a contributing factor to Naoji’s negative mindset.

Chapter 8 – Victims

In the closing chapter, Kazuko is pregnant and Naoji is dead, portrayed by Dazai as

“victims of a transitional period of morality” (173). As Japan rebuilds, traditions change

and the modern world definitely creeps in. At the end Kazuko tells us that “in the

present, the most beautiful thing in the world is a victim” (174). I found the characters in

the novel rather flat compared to Western novels. They lack depth and do not appear to

grow or change. Maybe that was the point. I just do not know.

Review of the Related Literature

Japan during the making of the novel

Can Japan's spirited youth save their ageing nation?

Japan’s 20-something generation – those born during a heady ‘bubble economy’ they

can’t recall – are coming of age in an era of sliding national status and eyeing retirement

when, many predict, the country’s economic sun will have set.

Fracturing of the post-World War II system that propelled Japan’s economy to the

number two global spot – a status now lost to China – has pushed many to seek

security by trying to cling to what remains. But for others, the uncertainty itself is giving

birth to a do-it-yourself mindset that could generate welcome dynamism. “If we expect

the country to take care of us, we may end up not being able to make a living,” says

Megumi Kawashima, 27, a  web designer. “We should be sensible enough to know we

need to take care of ourselves.”

For now, these DIY youths appear to be a minority, whose voice has been drowned out

by a drumbeat of reports about Japanese youth’s generally passive response to a

dismal future. But experts say their ranks will grow as traditional corporate and social

systems crumble further. “On the one hand, you have young people who are taking

matters into their own hands in the face of companies and a government who have little

to offer them in return,” said Yasuo Suwa, a professor at Hosei University’s graduate

school. “But on the other hand, you have young people who are looking for an easy way

out, seeking shelters that are fast disappearing,” Suwa said. “It will be slow, but I think

there will be more gutsy young people going forward.”

Daunting demographicsThe macro-economic and demographic trends confronting Japan’s youth are indeed

daunting. Japan’s public debt has risen to about twice the size of its $5trn economy

from about half of GDP in 1980, and is forecast to be nearer 250 percent by 2015.

Credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s in January downgraded its rating on Japan’s

sovereign debt to AA minus from AA, warning that Japan’s government debt would keep

rising and citing political deadlock as a concern.

Nearly one in four Japanese are now aged 65 or over, with the figure expected to reach

40 percent by 2050. The economy has been mired in mild deflation for most of the past

decade.

The ageing of Japan is forcing politicians to face up to the need to raise a five percent

sales tax to finance bulging pension and healthcare costs, breaking a long-time political

taboo. Social-security spending could reach more than 28.7trn yen ($351bn) in the next

fiscal year, accounting for a third of the overall budget. But while many lawmakers on

both sides of the aisle agree higher taxes are unavoidable, struggling Prime Minister

Naoto Kan is having little success luring feisty opposition parties to the table to discuss

specific reforms.

Time bombTwenty-something Japanese know they now face a less secure future in a system in

which fewer than two workers will be supporting one retiree by 2030, from three now.

“Japan’s fiscal state is like a ticking bomb,” says Hiromi, 26, who joined the elite finance

ministry after watching a banking crisis unfold in the 1990s when he was a student. “As I

think about having a child in the future and wonder what his or her future will be like, I

want to do something to fix the situation,” added Hiromi, who asked to be identified only

by his first name so he could speak more freely.

But few 20-somethings expect the government to do much to fix  Japan’s problems or

secure their future. A survey of college students conducted last year by fund manager

Fidelity International showed that 65 percent were pessimistic about  Japan’s future –

and an equal percentage believed they would have to rely on their own assets and

savings in their old age, more than pensions.

Youth are keenly aware of China’s lengthening shadow as their giant neighbour bumps

Japan out of its number two global economic ranking, though many seem little phased

by Tokyo’s relative decline. China had long been leading Japan in national might except

for the past 100 years or so,” says Tsunehira Furuya, 28; “China getting ahead of Japan

economically is sort of a return to the historical norm, and that does not bother me.”

Japan’s relative loss of global status may be inevitable given demographics and the

maturity of its economy. But a growing self-reliance and willingness to take risks could

translate into a less gloomy future than many have predicted. “If you know that the best

and the brightest only go to GM or Ford, all the other places that could innovate don’t,”

said Brian Heywood, CEO of Taiyo Pacific Partners, which has about $2bn invested in

Japanese shares. “If it is no longer the case that they only go to Toyota or Sony … you

could have real dynamism in the economy,” he said. “It doesn’t happen overnight.”

For now, many young people seem to be seeking an elusive security, an attitude

scoffed at by members of the DIY tribe. “Japanese in general these days are really

spoiled and not ambitious, and just happy enough with what they are or what they

have,” says Juri Imamura, 28, who got a graduate degree in New York before taking a

job at a Japanese e-commerce firm with aggressive overseas plans. “They aren’t

hungry.”

Surveys of university students by publishing and human resources firm Recruit show a

steady increase since 2005 in the percentage of those wanting to spend their entire

career at the first company that hires them, rising to around 80 percent as the economy

faltered.

But with Japan’s famed lifetime employment system crumbling to be replaced by a

labour force where one-third of workers have unstable jobs with uncertain benefits,

chances today’s youth can live out their lives in a secure corporate cocoon are

shrinking. “I think of a company as a place that provides me with challenges and where I

can build networks and develop my skills,” Imamura said. ”So if my ideas and the

corporate direction don’t match, naturally I would consider leaving.”  Youth

unemployment is stuck near record highs at around 10 percent.

That’s low compared to many other advanced countries, but alarming for students faced

with strict hiring practices that mean they may get only one shot at a full-time job after

graduating. Firms seeking more vibrant hires are turning to Chinese and other

foreigners as they target profits from growing overseas markets. But Jiang Yue, who left

China at 19 to study in Japan, says she still confronts institutional discrimination in a

country where many choose to associate foreigners with crime and social friction.

“Both my boyfriend and I work for firms listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock

Exchange. But when realtors call apartment owners, 70 percent of the time they say

no,” said the 27-year-old Jiang, who graduated from a Japanese national university and

now works for an IT network firm in Tokyo. “We are working hard and receiving salaries.

Why is it that we can’t rent a place?”

Experts say that with a population forecast to shrink 30 percent by 2055, Japan has to

look seriously at opening up to immigrants, a sensitive subject in a country where many

worry more foreigners mean more crime and less social cohesion. Lawmakers in both

major parties have proposed more liberal immigration policy, but neither side wants to

air the topic these days for fear of alienating voters.

Opening the doors to more immigrants would require sorting out thorny issues such as

who should pay for language education and other assimilation costs, and how to guard

against friction between newcomers and local residents.

EqualityThe  World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, measuring equality between

men and women, ranked Japan 94 out of 134 countries. A study by Japan’s Gender

Equality Bureau of the Cabinet Office found that women accounted for only 4.1 percent

of department managers in 2008 – a modest increase from 2.1 percent in 1999.

“Women are treated as a minority,” says a 20-something female banker who is looking

for a different job. “Men’s attitudes get cold and harsh when women try to play on the

same level,” added the banker, who declined to be identified for fear of repercussions at

work while she seeks another job.

Fukushima: Aftermath and Implications

The Japanese people call their islands "the Land of the Rising Sun." They are indeed

among the easternmost islands before the broad expanse of the Pacific Ocean extends

for thousands of miles toward the Americas. From the mainland to the west, the place

from whence the ancestors of the modern Japanese came, the sun seems to rise from

these islands on its westward journey across the sky.

Were they alive today, those ancient ancestors would gaze in awe and perhaps dismay

at what Japan has become. Its rugged, mountainous beauty is marred by wholesale

urbanization and overcrowding. Japan supports 127 million people on about 375,000

square kilometers of land for a population density of nearly 300 people per square

kilometer, the most for any major industrialized nation. Notwithstanding, its citizens

boast one of the world's longest lifespans and enjoy the fruits of life in the world's third

largest economy.

This land of teeming humanity and economic power must also deal with the violence of

nature. Situated on the "ring of fire" that encircles the Pacific Ocean, Japan is a prime

candidate for devastating earthquakes and fiery volcanic eruptions. The mountainous

terrain causes flash flooding whenever heavy rains push through, and the islands'

location frequently makes them vulnerable to tsunamis and hurricanes. The Japanese

consider natural disasters a matter of when not if.

Historically, the Japanese government has been militaristic and imperialist, having on

several occasions tried to expand its hegemony to Korea, China and Southeast Asia.

World War II put an end to such ambitions, punctuated by the atomic bombs dropped on

Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. Since then, Japan's constitution,

drafted under the guidance of General Douglas MacArthur, forbids its military any

offensive authority. Even so, using only on average one percent of its gross domestic

product, Japan arguably has the strongest armed forces in Asia.

Japan is a bundle of contradictions: beautiful but marred; rugged but vulnerable; fragile

but strong; powerful but weak; capable but restrained. Is she on the rise or in decline?

Will her economic power continue to fail or rebound? Will she shake off her

constitutional restraints to become a military power once again? Is Japan a rising or

setting sun?

From Ashes to Riches

Like Germany, its Axis ally in World War II, post-war Japan overcame the destruction

and humiliation of defeat and created economic prosperity from the ashes of its

bombed-out factories. After the United States and China, Japan now ranks as the third

largest economy on the planet and the second most technologically powerful nation. Its

amazing growth can be traced to several factors: close cooperation between

government and industry, a strong indigenous work ethic and employee loyalty, an

ability to improve and/or miniaturize existing technologies, and a lack of need to spend

revenues on defense. Add in the facts that its currency, the yen, has remained fairly

strong even during downturns; it exports over $100 billion more goods per year than it

imports; and it receives nearly $10 billion each year in economic aid, and all the

ingredients are available to make a very strong economic cake.

Yet the picture is not as rosy as it may seem. Between 1960 and 1990, economic

growth was spectacular, with ten percent growth in the ‘60s, five percent in the ‘70s, and

4 percent in the ‘80s. As the ‘90s began, however, growth plunged as a result of over-

investment both at home and abroad along with governmental policies designed to

curtail speculation in the stock and real estate markets. In 1996, growth nearly reached

four percent again in reaction to low interest rates and government stimulation of the

economy. But the next few years saw Japan crushed in deep recession. Banking and

real estate problems again raised their heads, along with corporate and labor problems.

These problems remain. Japanese industry has lost its competitive edge as a result of

the convergence of internal rising costs and more efficient external rivals. In addition,

one of its positives—the yen's steady high value—is causing Japanese exports to cost

more, resulting in fewer sales abroad.

The government under Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has been unwilling to make the

necessary changes to the system to halt the bleeding. It has wasted huge sums trying

to bail out established industrial firms from bankruptcy rather than allowing market

forces to cull the weaker corporations and reward the stronger ones. It has also begun

massive public works projects, ala Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, to stimulate the

economy out of recession. In both these cases, most analysts believe it is too little, too

late, as well as an unwarranted waste of the nation's resources.

Most economists believe the situation will only worsen. Because of its close ties to the

American economy, as long as the U.S. remains in the doldrums economically, Japan

has no chance of solving its problems. Even some of the "cures" for America's woes

could hurt Japan further. For instance, too large of an American interest rate cut would

make Japanese exports even less competitive, driving it further into recession.

Also, private Japanese capital is leaving Japan for overseas ventures, particularly in

developing areas like Eastern Europe, where the rate of return is far greater than at

home, where interest rates are nearly zero. In addition, unemployment is rising, wages

are decreasing, the population is aging, gross domestic product is shrinking, Japanese

businesses are dumping their shares of other Japanese businesses on the stock

market, and the nation's political situation is weak. One of the few positive signs for the

Japanese economy is that the American economy seems to have stabilized for the

moment, and many analysts forecast a slight upturn in the U.S. economy in the second

half of 2001. If this does not occur, the Japanese recession could deepen considerably.

From Bonds to Bombers

Economic woes do not exist in a vacuum. Japan's moribund economy is already

beginning to have consequences both political and military. Declining economic clout

reduces political power because the nation's leaders cannot guarantee they can back

their words with action. Prime Minister Mori cannot deal with the financial crisis because

he does not have the resources to apply the needed fix, which makes him appear weak,

which further reduces his ability to act. It is expected that this vicious cycle will end with

either his resignation or a sound defeat in the next election in July. Unless the economy

makes a miraculous turnaround, his successor will face the same quandary.

In addition, over the past few years, the Japanese people have begun rethinking their

country's pacifism. Many of those without memory of World War II believe Japan should

be allowed to decide for itself whether to use its military to project its will. Though the

United States originally pressured the Japanese to accept the pacifist provision of its

constitution, it has recently urged them to take a greater role in regional security, which

would require amending the nation's constitution. This growing political movement,

however, has been mired down by the greater worry over the economy.

On this point, Prime Minister Mori's government does not want to fight a two-front war. It

has thus stalled passage of legislation through the parliament that would initiate the

overseas deployment of Japanese troops and materiel. Mori cannot afford another hit in

the public opinion polls by seeming so distracted by this constitutional matter that he

cannot focus on the economy. He must at least appear to be spending his time on what

is most important to the Japanese people: their financial well-being.

The economic crisis has also put key military programs in jeopardy. These programs

include the acquisition of equipment vital to sustained offshore deployments. If the

Japanese economic plight continues, the government may not be able to procure large

aircraft-capable warships, Aegis-equipped destroyers, advanced jet fighters, and sundry

equipment to mobilize a rapid-reaction force. These are all necessary if Japan is to

participate in regional security exercises.

Internal security is another potential headache. Though Japan is often considered by

outsiders to be monolithic and stable, underlying tensions could be exacerbated by

prolonged economic decline. The ruling Liberal Party has seen its majority steadily

eroded over the past few elections. Small, unconventional parties have made gains, and

independent candidates have enjoyed noteworthy success, especially in local elections.

The hard times have also made the Japanese Communist Party more popular.

Japanese terrorist organizations cannot be ignored either, and they will only become

more attractive to radical minds as discontent increases. The Japanese Red Army,

dangerous and effective, still exists, though it has not committed any recent attacks.

Also active is the "religious" sect called Aum Shinrikyo, better known in English as the

"Supreme Truth" cult, which killed 12 people in the deadly sarin gas attack on the Tokyo

subway in March 1995.

In a nutshell, economically, politically and militarily, Japan has little to feel good about.

All indications are that it will be a long, hard and dirty climb out of the hole the nation

finds itself in.

Origins and Destiny

Where will Japan go from this juncture? What is prophesied of the people of this distant

island nation?

The Japanese people are difficult to find within the pages of the Bible. As the church

traditionally understands racial origins, their Oriental features place them within the

family of Japheth. The "best guess" of those who study the origins and migrations of

biblical peoples trace the Japanese to Javan (Genesis 10:2, 4), primarily on linguistic

grounds.* Moses adds, "From these the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were

separated into their lands, everyone according to his own language, according to their

families, into their nations" (verse 5). It is not clear if this explanatory material refers to

"the sons of Javan" in verse 4 or to the whole line of Japheth.

In other biblical passages, Javan is clearly Greece (Daniel 8:21; 10:20; 11:2; Zechariah

9:13). Situated on the Mediterranean Sea, Greece would be a natural trading partner of

Tyre (Ezekiel 27:13, 19). However, notice Isaiah 66:18-19, speaking of a time just

after Christ's return (described in verses 15-16):

It shall be that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and see My

glory. I will set a sign among them; and those among them who escape I will send to the

nations: to Tarshish and Pul and Lud, who draw the bow, and Tubal and Javan, to the

coastlands afar off who have not heard My fame nor seen My glory. And they shall

declare My glory among the Gentiles.

This could not refer to the Grecian peoples of the Mediterranean region because

Greece is a "Christian" nation. Indeed, the New Testament was written, preserved and

distributed in its language! Certainly, the Bible—not to mention the preaching of the

apostle Paul—is a significant enough witness to qualify as having heard God's fame and

seen His glory. Christianity, however, has had little success in "the coastlands afar off"

of Asia.

This leads biblical ethnologists to believe that Javan split in early times into a "Western"

and an "Eastern" branch, part of which now resides in "the Land of the Rising Sun." It is

likely that the descendants of Japheth, being the progeny of a Caucasian father and a

Mongoloid mother, had combinations of these features and separated by racial and/or

language type around the time of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11).

Other than this theory, we know nothing for certain about Japan's origins, and we know

even less about its role in the end time. Revelation 9:13-19 prophesies of a 200 million-

man army that originates somewhere beyond the Euphrates, and this vast host slays

one-third of humanity. Many have drawn parallels between this prophecy and that of

Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38-39. The latter prophecy, though, fits better at the end of

the Millennium, when Satan inspires vast numbers to descend upon "the camp of the

saints and the beloved city" (Revelation 20:7-9). However, the 200 million-man army

may be an end-time precursor of the late-Millennial army.

If this were the case, it would be difficult to imagine Japan not being involved with this

vast horde out of Asia. As mentioned earlier, Japan is the second most technologically

advanced nation in the world, and such a huge army would need Japanese technical

know-how. Japan has already begun partnering with other Asian nations to secure Asia

from Chinese hegemony, so it is not farfetched to imagine a pan-Asian confederacy

coalescing in response to the power of the Beast when it rises to dominance.

Whatever happens, the Japanese are a resourceful and persevering people. It is difficult

to keep them down for long. Dark days may still lie ahead in the short term, but as

Solomon notes, "The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place

where it arose" (Ecclesiastes 1:5). Whenever the sun sets, we know that after the dark

of night, the sun will rise again.

*Another hypothesis derives the Japanese from Ashkenaz, son of Gomer, son of

Japheth (Genesis 10:3). Like Javan, Ashkenaz is little mentioned in God's Word apart

from genealogical references (Jeremiah 51:27). The ancient Ashkenazi, who called

themselves "Nisaei," lived in what became known as Scythia, which they named "Land

of the Rising Sun." Herodotus describes these original Scythians as having a rounded

face and chin, a flat nose, and little or no body hair; speaking a peculiar language; and

wearing a distinctive dress. They also drank a libation called asky, which linguistically

resembles saki (see Harman Hoeh, Compendium of World History, vol. I, pp. 340-346).

The Novel

Close inspection of The Setting Sun by Dazai Osamu allows one to see a particular

family battle changing times that are affecting a whole nation of people. Paralleled in

many ways by the author's own reality, we see how this deep message is more than just

a fiction story. As a nation, Japan had just surrendered to the U.S. ending their

participation in WWII. With the end of this battle, a new one on the home front began. In

a sense, the tradition of Japan died with the war; there is a definite passing of a

generation/era of people. The country is now caught in a state of shock as they try to

piece together new lives. This is by no means a simple task when tradition is pulling

from one side and an influx of modern ways and ideas are pulling from the other.

Through the analysis of Mother, Kazuko, and Naoji, the notion of a nation struggling to

grasp a new modern identity while coping with the decline of a social order that has

stood strong for so many years is unfolded from beginning to end creating mixed

feelings of hope and depression for the people of the setting sun.

Due to WWII, Kazuko and her mother must leave Tokyo and establish residents in

nearby village. Kazuko's brother, Naoji, has been fighting in the war and upon its

conclusion, comes home to his sister and mother with a terrible drug addiction. Naoji

has an artist friend who acts as a mentor/drinking buddy. The death of the mother

shows the passing of a generation, and the suicide of Naoji exemplifies the feelings of

depression and hopelessness that float over Japan. Kazuko becomes the heroin of the

story when she creates a positive experience in the middle of this chaotic time. She

bears a child which acts as a symbol for a fresh start and new hope during a time when

that is just what is needed.

The beginning scene of the novel is a great description for the type of women that

Mother was. By explaining how she eats her soup or "wee wee's" in the garden, we can

see that she is looked at by her children as being a good aristocrat. She had class, but

was not afraid to act in her own ways. Eventually people were forced to take care of her

due to her failing health, but never once do you see her attitude change to the negative.

As she began to die, she never complained at all about her condition. She is among the

last of a generation of good aristocrats; her ideals and morals about how life should be

lived are dying with her, while the ways of the new times are rushing in with the new

aristocracy. Victims. Victims of a transitional period of morality. That is what we both

certainly are. She takes pride in the fact that she has allowed her children a connection

to the good of the old days while they attempt to handle the transition into the modern

world. This is evident in the way that she treats Naoji on his arrival back home. He

receives the same amount of love as Kazuko even while he blatantly disrespects and

defiles his body and culture. Her death creates a new life in Kazuko, while playing a part

in the ultimate death of her son. Her role in dying sums up her role in the novel, as her

pulse was being taken by the nurse, watched over by Naoji and myself, her two

children, my beautiful mother, who was the last lady in Japan. Kazuko has lived with her

mother from beginning to the end. She has treasured the time spent with last of the true

aristocrats. When the war has ended, she has to deal with so many issues that a feeling

of despair seems to lurk over her character. She makes it clear that love and revolution

are what makes the people go, Before the war, even during the war, we were convinced

of it. Since the defeat, however, we no longer trust the older and wiser heads and have

come to feel that the opposite of whatever they say is the real truth about life…they

(revolution and love) are so good that the older and wiser heads have spitefully fobbed

off on us their sour grapes of a lie. Feeling alienated by her own class of people (due to

their actions), she looks to Naoji's artist friend Uehara for a sense of belonging and

passion. She writes a series of letters proclaiming her love for him. In the end, she is

able to have a child by him. This act in the novel takes us into a deeper issue. Modernity

is once again made evident with the role of Christianity in the novel. The birth of her

child symbolizes the rebirth that you can have in Christ, as well as symbolizing the

rebirth of a nation. As Kazuko witnessed the deaths of her mother and brother, it is

surprising yet relieving to see her character end the novel with a new positive hope.

This child is her way to cope with the coming age, and it is her gift of life to the child that

also allows her to handle the deaths of the very family that has made her who she is for

so many years. Naoji has developed many more thoughts and feelings on the state of

his nation compared to his other family. Mother only looks at the past, Kazuko looks at

both wondering what to do, and Naoji takes an active role in saying to hell with all of

them. The reasoning for such strong feelings can be noticed at once in the novel. The

fact that we know he does not like the present aristocracy, that his mother's people are

the only true ones, makes us dig for an answer as to why. Some of these feelings

appear to have come from fighting and risking your life for a country and people, only to

lose and have them turn their backs on you. Deep resentment is built up do to this, and

as a way of coping with it, Naoji takes to drugs and eventually alcohol. Getting caught

up in Marxist theory and ideas of Christianity are the first signals to the incoming

modern world. The way Naoji handles these and the dying of the old aristocrats (his

mother) is a very good explanation for his habits. The friends that he makes are just as

superficial as his hourly lovers. Naoji is depressed at the fact he fought for what he

believed in, and since it failed, he wants nothing to do with the new world that is

entering. He seems to appreciate the new ideas and thoughts that make up modernity,

but the powers at be that determine how those ideas will be filtered down become his

enemy. Knowing all this, we understand why he decides to spend the rest of his days in

drunkenness and sexual pleasure. The fact that he was born into a family of aristocrats

eats at him. He is ashamed of the class he makes up because of what they have turned

into. They have in a sense taken away his pride, leaving him naked to the new cold

world, Merely because we were born into such a family, we are condemned to spend

our whole lives in humiliation, apologies, and abasement, like so many Jews. This

aristocratic family parallels the country it resides it. Being able to carry honor and class

for so many generations, and now, to have it all stripped away leaves the both in a state

of shock and disarray. The old die off with the memory of what was held deep in hearts.

The new, fresh minds of the day are rotting away in bars and brothels with physical

pleasure being the method of choice as opposed to mental pleasure; there are also

those like Kazuko, who are able to witness the full picture and make a critical decision

on her own about what to do. As we saw, she chose life as her answer. Not only is she

making the most of what is left of hers, but she is also bringing a new one into the world

with the hopes that it can bring back the honors of an aristocratic family that seems to

be no more.

The Old Social Orders in Japan

This part of the paper examines the changes in old social order depicted in 2

novels: THE MAKIOKA SISTERS by Tanizaki Junichiro (1949), & THE SETTING SUN

by Dazai Osamu (1948).

Both Tanizaki and Dazai adopted the seemingly oblique approach to extensive

social change and nostalgia for what had irretrievably passed. For, throughout the

novel, it is not so much the cherry blossoms themselves as the human 'interaction' with

them that is important.

The mid-twentieth century was a time of immense upheaval in Japanese society.

Tanizaki had originally planned an even broader novel that "was to be a picture of the

'corrupt and decadent' upper-class society," but the vigilance of the censors--who

disapproved of any suggestion that there were fundamental social p roblems in the

nation--convinced him to rein in his story and "omitmost of the decadence" (Chambers 7

). The principal difference is that the position of the Makioka family was far less exalted

and the conditions of their decline are far less severe. This may be a function of Dazai's

assumption that his readers will understand their circumstances without too much

explanation. Works Cited Chambers, Anthony Hood. But Kazuko did not give into

longing for what could not return. . Like Dazai, Tanizaki employs a traditional, natural

image as one of his principal means of commenting on the inevitability of change. When

he returns they are speechless and, as Kazuko recalls, "we parted without words, just

like that, and the young officer never again appeared" (41). As Rimer notes, it was

certainly the case that his novel "touched on concerns of importance to his countrymen"

and the term "setting sun tribe" was adopted as a popular description of "those who lost

their money and their place in society at the end of the war" (Rimer 182-83). She is also

divorced and has, in a very real sense, become nobody as she finds herself outside any

form of "hierarchically classified" order that "society at large" recognizes (Miyoshi xi),

The Setting Sun. The world may go on and the Makioka sisters may survive the storm

that is coming, but there is no guarantee for human arrangements such as exists for

those of nature. As her mother slowly dies, her brother destroys himself with drugs and

wastes the last bits of the family's money while her uncle's family takes no interest in

her. Even though blossoms could be seen anywhere Sachiko, especially, was

committed to this event and treats it as an essential element of the family's leisured,

cultured mode of existence and, therefore, as a reminder of the past that is quickly

fading away. Throughout the story the repeated trips lose their charm and, and their

importance, for the various sisters as conditions in the family's life change. This is a

curious choice of words if she is only affirming that she accepts the snake a sign of

death. They did this in a traditionally Japanese way, presenting their displaced

characters' problems not as a need for "the self's discovery of the self"--the Western

ideal--but as "the self's discipline of itself into a production model hierarchically

classified. In other words, it is only when she becomes fully resigned to the inevitability

and permanence of all the changes around her that Kazuko will be able to move on. It

may be that the inseparability of character from narrative of which Miyoshi is a reflection

of the character's own desire to be integrated into their worlds and of the level of

psychological complexity in Japanese characters--which differs from that of most

Western fiction but hardly reduces them to mere types. Yet when Miyoshi goes so far as

to argue that it is "almost always" true of characters in Japanese novels that they are

"types and not living individuals" this seems oversimplified (xi). Two such works are The

Makioka Sisters (1949) by Tanizaki Junichiro (1886-1965) and TheSetting Sun (1948)

by Dazai Osamu (19 9-48). Everything is gone and when Kazuko recognizes this she is

forced to decide between going on or giving up. Donald Keene. In order to connect the

various stages of Kazuko's process of dealing with this displacement Dazai employs the

imagery of snakes, which are connected with the deaths of both of Kazuko's parents

and with her own fears about the future. Snakes, however, are widely feared and are

often associated with death. New York: New Directions: 1956.Miyoshi, Masao. Instead

she experienced pangs of nostalgia and moved on. But she also takes the snake's

message fully to heart. The Secret Window: Ideal Worlds in Tanizaki's Fiction. As

militarism and war, defeat and occupation shook the nation from the 193 s to the 195 s

the old social order was often violently rearranged. Simply asking, however, whether the

reader of either book would have an easier time predicting the behavior of Isabel Archer

or Makioka Yukiko in some freshly imagined situation makes it clear that this distinction

regarding psychological complexity is too simple. Significantly, Miyoshi uses Naoji

rather than Kazuko to demonstrate this thesis. But this permanence fails in the case of

the family's pleasure in the blossom-viewing trips. Miyoshi's point about the difference

between Japanese and Western perceptions of the self is well taken since this

difference often has important effects on the nature of narrative and character in fiction.

Edward G. The snake was not a danger and her attempt to destroy the eggs--as she is

reminded by the sight of the snake looking for the missing eggs and by her mother's

chiding--is an anti-maternal gesture. Her brother essentially finds himself in the same

position and his decision is to refuse to struggle against it. Despite the evanescence of

the annual blossom display they imply permanence because they come again each

year. But when Kazuko fears that there is a viper in the garden and decides to burn the

snake's eggs she turns out to be mistaken. Tanizaki hints at them and draws on the

readers' sense of what comes after the end of the book, while Dazai plunges directly

into the worst effects of the social changes that have transpired. This certainly seems to

fit Dazai's novel, but when he further claims that this is "the essential pattern of

Japanese prose fiction, toward which even the most panoramic social novel gravitates,"

he seems to leave little room for Tanizaki's book--which he does not discuss (xii). The

Japanese sense of "the continuity of personality in time, the relationship of the individual

to others, and of the individual to nature" leads to the creation of narratives, such as

Dazai's The Setting Sun, that may seem shapeless to Western readers because,

especially in his treatment of Naoji, Dazai does not feel compelled to fill in all the blanks

(Rimer 7). But, as Rimer notes, life itself is shapeless and the supposedly greater

'realism' of one convention over another is certainly debatable. Human arrangements,

unlike those of nature, are subject to change that can be permanent. Kazuko clearly

sees that she is to be left alone--completely without family or any regular position in the

world at all. Indeed their appearances at the deaths of Kazuko's parents indicates this

connection. Casual references to the "China Incident" (474) or Mrs. Stolz's assurance

that "Hitler will take care of the Czech problem" (254) leave readers no room to escape

the fact that the problems that consume the Makiokas at the present moment will soon

be more insignificant than they can imagine. This is the true strength of this image and

its function in the novel. The notion that an aristocratic family of means necessarily lives

on the productivity of its financial and real property holdings may, after all, merely be a

Western assumption. Miyoshi, however, provides some context for this difference with

his description of the "I-novel" or shi-shosetsu, in which the individual's confrontation

with the collective Other "replac[es] the pluralist 'real world'" (xii). Thus there signation

that 'germinates' inside her is equivalent to the child that will do the same. Yet, even

though it is not a first-person narrative, Tanizaki's novel does take the same essential

position as Dazai's in terms of the dilemmas faced by the characters and the

approaches they take to resolving them. Snakes shed their skin annually yet remain

entirely the same beings no matter how many times the process is repeated and, in the

end, Kazuko's decision to go on is essentially the choice of adopting the lesson inherent

in the snakes. Kazuko's initial reaction is to accept them as symbols of death and she

notes that her mother "had a mortal dread of snakes ever since" a snake had appeared

at her father's deathbed (12). She at first takes the snake, in other words, to be a

harbinger of death but, in attempting to destroy its young, she learns that it is a symbol

of the manner in which life continues in spite of change. Despite the fact that the two

writers were of different generations and wrote very different kinds of books both were,

early in their careers, strongly influenced by Western novels and both came to display

an even greater debt to traditions in Japanese fiction. This snake itself seems to Kazuko

to be the same one whose eggs she had burned and its maternal persistence seems to

hint at the course she should take. The "annual procedure was fixed" for the outings to

Kyoto to see the spring blossoms (86). A comparison of these two very different works

will demonstrate how both display the typical concerns of the period regarding the

disappearance of aspects of the old social order and insecurity over what was to

replace them. The Makioka Sisters. Although both Rimer and Miyoshi profess to find the

snake symbolism obscure its meaning seems to be connected with the notion of change

and the persistence of the original object--not unlike the symbolism of the cherry

blossoms in The Makioka Sisters. 1949. The novel's Japanese title might be translated

as "light" or "delicate" snow,an image which evokes, "by conventional extension, cherry

petals fluttering to the ground as the blossom season passes its peak" (Chambers 72).

When she decides to make Uehara the father of the child who will be the basis of

reestablishing her relationship to the Other, Kazuko deliberately calls on a man who is

himself at a loss over his place in the world. But their circumstances are also somewhat

clearer because the specific reasons for the decline of Kazuko's aristocratic family are

rather obscure. Thomas. But Tanizaki planned the novel for four years and then wrote it

between 1942 and 1948. New York: Vintage, 1995. Later Kazuko is more grateful for

the ability to do hard work, acquired during the war than she is regretful or nostalgic for

the past that, like the young officer, would never return. In very different ways they

addressed the dilemma of those individuals who most profoundly felt themselves to

have been displaced during this era and were unsure of who they were and where they

belonged. These wealthy, refined, and cultured families constituted a sort of haute

bourgeoisie which proved to be unsuited (and unprepared for) the social and economic

changes brought about in industrializing and, later, war-mongering Japan. Nonetheless,

why Kazuko's mother has no income is not explained--unless one is to understand that

her deceased husband (and the living uncle) work to provide a living for the family.

Despite the suicide and death that end Dazai's novel, however, it offers more of a

glimmer of hope for the future than Tanizaki's book does.Tanizaki's characters will, one

knows, experience many even worse changes than they already know and they are left

headed into the maelstrom.Dazai's Kazuko, however, seems to devise a way of moving

on. Trans. Kazuko, on the other hand, takes the unusual decision to begin again and, in

the most fundamental way, to establish a role for herself in relation to the Other. And

Yukiko herself is associated with the image of cherry blossoms when Sachiko thinks of

her as possessing "the beauty, fragile, and elegant, of the sheltered maiden of old, the

maiden who had never known the winds of the word" (35). Jane Austen's Emma or

Henry James' Isabel Archer would behave in accordance with the Western quest for the

self while Yukiko would always try to figure out her place--in relation to others--in any

version of society. Since the characters are not constructed as portraits of living

individuals, Miyoshi argues, they cannot really be viewed apart from their narratives.

The Makiokas' decline, on the other hand, is part of a general collapse of the old upper-

class merchant families who had flourished since the Meiji restoration and the family

does not experience extreme hardship--although it may be in their unknowable future.

Reintegration is the problem faced by all the sisters in Tanizaki's novel--but it is

especially important for Yukiko--and it is the problem faced by both Kazuko and Naoji in

Dazai's book. This is made apparent in the scene where, working in the fields as a

conscript during the war, she meets a young officer with whom she establishes a

rapport based on their shared sensibility. One would be as easy to predict as the other

—so long as the character's cultural context was understood. Naoji, of course, returned

to his morphine addiction while he was stationed in the Pacific during the war. Her

decision is, of course, to become a mother and in this she devises a way of inheriting

something from her mother, whose strength was expended on behalf of her children.

Berkeley: U of California P, 1974.Rimer, J. Trans. Novels of the period usually reflect

the effects of all these disturbances, yet tend to do so somewhat obliquely as far as

direct contemplation of the events of history is concerned. As she says, "Resignation

first began to germinate in my heart after I saw the snake" (121). Thus the reader is

"always aware of the author's fascination with them, but almost never get[s] to grapple

with them as real people with their own existence" (Miyoshi xii).But it is certainly only in

a limited (and relative) sense that any fictional character can be said to be separated

from the narrative of which she is a part and understood as if one might be able to

predict her reactions to some circumstance outside the novel. Princeton: Princeton UP,

1978.Tanizaki Junichiro. But this sense of the difference between Japanese and

Westernapproaches to fiction is also captured by Rimer's distinction betweenWestern

and Japanese approaches to character and narrative as a matter of different "sets of

conventions that define the relationship" between fiction and reality (7). Yukiko, of

course, is fading as she fails to make up her mind about marriage, but the cherry

blossom imagery is expanded beyond the conventional limits of the gentle "regret for

the passing of spring" and its inherent sense of the continuity of life in the promised

return of the blossoms the following year (87). The novel ended with Yukiko's marriage

in 1941 and the correlation between the state of the nation and the decline of this

individual family is perfectly clear.Tanizaki had outwitted the censors because the

events that were to engulf the nation after 1941 loom ominously over every page of the

book. by society at large" (Miyoshi xi). Since Tanizaki's novel is set in the period prior to

the war proper and Dazai's in its aftermath, their approaches to the changes wrought by

the war are somewhat different. Accomplices of Silence: The Modern Japanese Novel. .

Cambridge: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University- Harvard UP,

1994.Dazai Osamu. Kazuko tells Uehara in her last letter that they are "victims of a

transitional period of morality" but she, unlike her drugged brother or the drunken

Uehara, has learned how to take advantage of the moments when one is thrown outside

one's 'natural' state of relations with the rest of society (173). Thus when her mother is

dying and dreams of a snake, which materializes exactly where she predicts it will be,

Kazuko is convinced that it affirms her mother's imminent death. The depth of the

family's fall is certain, however, and in its extremity it produces change of the most

fundamental sort. 

Conclusion

One of the masterpiece accounts written by Osamu Dazai, this book explains to

us the life in a Postwar Japan when family traditions clash with the need to adopt to

changes of the harsh environments and the collapsing economy. The whole book is the

account of Kazuko, a young girl who transforms into a young woman while still being at

loss in her mind as to whether her destiny is really the one she wants, or whether she

has to keep trying. Though being at loss, she is not at all confused about how to lead

life and how to be responsible, and she takes great measures to make sure she does

what she wants and also attend to her aging mother, whom she loves a lot. She always

keeps trying, and always keeps hoping even in the face of complete destruction and

desertion.The book gives us an idea of what kind of social and moral crisis loomed

within Japan and on the Japanese societies. The author tells us the whole story vividly,

and the narration is as close as possible to a personal experience that can be achieved

by reading a book. Kazuko explains every stage and situation in a very colorful manner,

giving us the feeling of how it is actually like to be in the same situation [though actual

life is always different, but that is not a minus point of this book]. We also get an idea on

how it is like for a female from such a society and almost all the societies in the world to

go through any social crisis differently than a male, simply because of gender [though

that is not the exact focus of the book, since almost everyone in the book is going

through stress and economic crisis.

This should be an interesting read for anyone who wants to know the deep

emotions within any society in particular and the difficulties males and females face in

general, and how each of them copes with it differently and how the results are different

for each of them. Complete with letters, poems and accounts from Kazuko and her

brother, this book should be on your permanent collection if you like keeping good

books around. Since this book involves pregnancies and having some affairs with

others while being married, or the concept of an affair, you may have to think a bit

before giving it to your daughter or son if they are very young. If they are old enough to

be responsible, they may even remember this book forever. The original book was in

Japanese of course, but the translation [by Donald Keene] is superb, and will make the

reader think [if they did not know that it was translated] that it was written by someone

from the Western countries. Overall, a great book to read anytime, it should teach a lot

of lessons to almost anyone and leave a long lasting impression on people. This is one

of the best books I have ever read.

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