Reality under the surface on the two sides of Dazai Osamu in the Sino Japanese War



The absence of Japanese writer Dazai Osamu during the Sino Japanese War provided a good guidance for his literary evaluation. However, the «Absence» of Dazai Osamu during the war is only a superficial form. Under this surface form, on the one hand, we can see his resistance to the war, on the other hand, through the analysis of Farewell and other novels, we can dig out the nationalist spirit flowing from the bottom of Dazai's thought. This paper will discuss from two aspects: appearance and reality, and attempts to reveal the two sides of Dazai Osamu in the Sino Japanese war.

Keywords: War view, nationalism, National Shinto, two sides.

1. Dazai Osamu 's literary creation

As a famous Japanese novelist, his novels have been translated into many languages, and he is also known as the representative writer of the «rogue school» literature in postwar Japan. The «rogue school» literature shows the malaise of Japan's postwar society in a self abusive manner, alienating itself from the mainstream, resisting socialization with decadence, and resisting the alienation of modern people, which is deeply involved and difficult to be separated from. As a representative of the «rogue school» writers in Japan, the protagonists in his works often show strong Marginal Personality Obstacles in the face of modern society, It's out of place with society. Dazai Osamu's literature is not only a self portrait of his life, but also a reflection of his Showa era. It can be said that the «rogue school» had a far-reaching influence on postwar Japanese literature.

In the past, the research on Dazai Osamu's literature mainly focused on the literary characteristics of his «rogue school» and the characters in his literary works. Because he grew up in a family with a large population and many women, he had a special feeling for women since he was a child, especially for several women who appeared in his career, from the early generation of geisha Koyama, his wife Mizhiko Tsushima, to his confidant Keiko Ota, and finally Toyo Yamazaki, The appearance of these women not only affected Dazai Osamu's life, but also his literary creation. Therefore, we can see that he pays special attention to the creation of female characters in his novels. Through the investigation of female images in his literature, we can say that it is a key to unlock his literary characteristics.

So far, scholars' research on him is still rarely related to the war in his literary works under the background of the Pacific War. During the Pacific War, Dazai Osamu created the «national policy novel» Farewell ", which catered to the war. He also created the romantic literary rewriting works» Yujia grass paper "«, right minister Shichao "«, new interpretation of the stories of various countries «and so on. These works were criticized by scholars as literature works of negative resistance to the war. Among them, «Farewell» did not get as high literary reputation as other works of Dazai Osamui, and readers' praise, and even attracted a series of negative comments from Japanese literary circles; On the contrary, a series of literary rewriting works have become the «alien» in Dazai Osamu's literature, even like the other side of his «decadent style». They are full of hope, have high ideological and artistic value, and can be called excellent works. It can be seen from this that there are contradictions in Dazai Osamu's literary creation during the war. Therefore, this study will study the literary tendency of Dazai Osamu during the war, selected novels published by Dazai Osamu during the war, taking the novel Farewell as the research object, through close reading of the text, historical evidence and other research methods, analyzes the time elements in the novel, following the time line, this paper attempts to reveal the war view of Dazai Osamui hidden in the novels.

2. Representation in the context of time

Dazai Osamu published many well-known novels, such as Eight Scenes of Fuyue, Run, Melos, Setting Sun and Human Disqualification, which have a wide range of readers.He is also loved and concerned by people.In addition, because Dazai Osamu did not go to the front line to report on the war during the war,and did not participate in social organizations supporting the war,so his absence during the war made his literature get a good evaluation in the research field.

After the September 18th Incident in 1938, Japanese fascist militarism was further strengthened. The government proposed to let some writers participate in fascist creation first; When the Pacific War broke out on December 8, 1941, many famous Japanese writers were recruited as war writers; In 1944, under the Commission of the Congress of the Journal of literature and art, Dazai Osamu planned Lu Xun's novel Farewell; In 1945, when Japan was defeated and surrendered, Dazai Osamu published Yujia Straw Paper and other rewriting novels; Finally, in 1948, Dazai Osamui and Tomie Yamazaki drowned themselves in the upper water of Yuchuan. By combing the time context, we can sort out Dazai Osamu's literary creation and social activities during the ten-year war.

On November 5, 1943, the Japanese government held the Greater East Asia Conference in Tokyo, aiming at easing the growing Anti Japanese speech and independence movement between East Asia and Southeast Asian countries under the occupation of Japanese colonial policy. Led by the «Three Kingdoms» of Japan, China and Manchuria, the Japanese government promoted the greater East Asia co prosperity circle of harmonious coexistence, and issued the «Greater East Asia common declaration» and the five principles. In order to actively respond to the policy call of the «Greater East Asia Joint Declaration», the Japanese cabinet intelligence agency and the National Council of literary newspapers decided to launch a number of literary and dramatic works with the theme of five principles. In January 1944, a work agreement meeting composed of about 50 Japanese writers, including Dazai Osamu, was held to widely solicit everyone's opinions. Dazai Osamu, on the other hand, stands out from the 50 writers who applied to write for «Greater East Asia co prosperity» and becomes one of the members of the «pen force». In December of the same year, it was officially decided that the fiction department should launch six literary works and the drama department should launch five romance works. In this context, as a member of the «pen army», Dazai Osamu created the «national policy novel» farewell «to beautify World War II. However, people who study Osamu Dazai's literature generally have the impression of decadence, guilt and self denial.The characteristics of «rogue school» literature is also to show negative resistance to war through self abuse. These characteristics of his literary writing are quite different from the images of traditional Japanese right-wing writers.In particular, Osamu Dazai participated in the activities of the Left-wing student association «Social Science Research Association» in high school, and later took part in the news magazine department with the Left-wing Movement as the core to publicize the proletarian thought. Osamu Dazai was a fanatical participant in the Left-wing Movement in the news magazine department, and his articles on socialist thought were highly praised by the students. His life experience, including his later turn, had a great influence on his literary creation. Before the end of the Pacific War, due to the worsening of the war, many writers either wrote compromise works or kept silent and gave up their literary career. However, through rewriting the famous literary works at home and abroad, Osamu Dazai created a large number of excellent literary works. Donald Keene, a researcher of Japanese literature, points out that: «During the war, there is no doubt that only Osamu Dazai published a series of literary works in succession». His uncompromising and energetic creative process left a deep impression on people. It can be said that he was confronting the war with romance and uncompromising. Therefore, this is one of the elements that we can not ignore when we study the literature of Osamu Dazai. As keno Aono commented on Osamu Dazai: «Osamu Dazai's disregard and denial of war is his consistent attitude». However, in this seemingly «ignored» appearance, did Osamu Dazai really take a passive resistance attitude to the war? The answer is No. he is not absolutely indifferent to war.

3. The truth embodied in Farewell

Yoshiji Usui cited such short stories as December 8, Beautiful Woman and Scattered Flowers to show his attitude of supporting the war, however, it is only a «weak voice of support from a corner of the market». In recent years, the issue of Osamu Dazai's literature and war has been gradually introduced into the research field. This chapter aims to make an interpretation of Farewell, a national policy novel, we can judge the real attitude of Osamu Dazai to the war of aggression launched by Japan again. And combined with the Japanese social trend of thought and the background of the growth of Osamu Dazai, it reveals the potential ideological understanding behind the appearance of his «Absence» in the war, correct the vague explanation and even misreading that may exist in the past, it reveals the relevance between Osamu Dazai and war, and renews the understanding of Osamu Dazai's irrelevant war.

Farewell is a very important work in the study of Osamu Dazai's war tendency. In January 1944, after attending the work agreement meeting held by the National Congress of the Journal of literature and art, Osamu Dazai wrote a nearly six page description of the creative intention of farewell and submitted it to the National Conference of literary newspapers, expressing his willingness to work for the realization of the comprehensive peaceful coexistence between China and Japan.. It seems that the behavior of Dazai Osamu who has always ignored Japanese politics to «speak with political intention» is unusual. However, the writers such as Takeuchi Yoshimi and Takeda Taichun, who have always loved Dazai Osamu's literary works, have shown a disappointed attitude towards Dazai Osamu.Among them, Takeuchi's evaluation is more representative: «The attraction of Dazai Osamu to me is that he adheres to the resistance posture of art. However, the impression of Farewell is quite poor, it goes against my expectation that Dazai will not fall into the mire of war. Dazai Osamu, even you... I started to hate Dazai Osamu all of a sudden. «They all believe that if politics is mixed in literary works, the original appearance and significance of literary creation will be changed。They think that the national policy novels should not belong to the ranks of literary works. In the postscript of Farewell, Dazai Osamu said: «This job is the responsibility of such a Japanese writer as Dazai. It's all written by me freely. The intelligence agency and the National Newspaper Association didn't put forward any words that let me pay attention to or restrict. Moreover, when I submitted my work, I passed it smoothly without modifying my word and a half sentence». That is to say, Dazai Osamu thinks that the creative intention of this novel is not a compromise to the Japanese authorities, and the writing method of this work is still well known as «It is difficult to hide his figure in the work». Just like Sato's evaluation of his «Excess of self-consciousness», this is also reflected incisively and vividly in Farewell. Although these arguments about the intention of Farewell still need further study, however, in farewell, he gave the emperor a high value affirmation. In his book, Dazai praised the historical inevitability and superiority of Japan's «national system» with the emperor as the ruling leader: «The Tokugawa Shogunate entered a period of political exhaustion, internal and external troubles, at the critical moment when Japan is facing the crisis of life and death, researchers in ancient times came forward with the idea of saving the nation. That is, the consciousness of the national system and the emperor's power. The foundation created by Tianzu was carried forward by Emperor Jinmu, the royal family rule Japan solemnly. It was this genuine self-consciousness of the people of the kingdom of God that became the driving force of the Meiji Restoration (omitted). In the event of national calamity, The people will return to their mother like chicks, and give up everything to serve the emperor. This is the essence of the Japanese state and the sacred instinct of the Japanese people. «On the basis of the above understanding of the «national style», the novel Farewell, recognizing the «miraculous effect» of the Japanese emperor as a «God» in history, thus, the emperor's «divine power» is not limited to Japan, As a «Kingdom of God», Japan bears the «heavy responsibility» of «transforming all countries» and rescuing Asia. Farewell was written at the end of Japan's dying war, as for the creation of Farewell, he claimed that this work was completed freely out of the responsibility of a Japanese writer named Dazai Osamu, neither the intelligence agency nor the National Service Association have mentioned the embarrassing matters that restrict my writing. Farewell is his «voice» as a believer of «National Shinto».

4. Conclusion

On the 112th anniversary of his birth, his literary works, represented by «human disqualification», have become the sales champion of novels on major book websites in China. At the same time, it has attracted a large number of readers who like him. Due to the great sales of this work, the research on Dazai Osamu's literature has also re focused people's attention. It can be said that the decade of Showa (1935) in which Dazai Osamu lived was an era of uneasiness and rebirth. As a «pure literature», his works have been sought after by young readers for more than 80 years. The reason is that the «loneliness» embodied in Dazai Osamu's literary works has deeply touched the hearts of today's readers. Dazai Osamu has changed from the so-called «banner bearer of the rogue faction» to the embodiment of the loner in the modern Internet age. In other words, with the progress of the times, people's understanding of his literary works has changed. Therefore, the innovation of this study is to reinterpret all aspects of Dazai Osamu's literary works combined with the characteristics of the times. Especially in the aspect of Dazai Osamu's war tendency and national consciousness, this study tries to eliminate the interference of predecessors on Dazai Osamu's literary judgment, and restore the era's «brand» in his literature by analyzing his wartime life experience and the works of the same period.

To sum up, although his literary works during the war showed two sides, there are literary creations catering to the war, and there are literary creations exploring romanticism, even anti war literature. However, Dazai Osamu's «Absence» of war is only a superficial form. This superficial form conceals his deep psychology of supporting war as a nationalist, it also leads to the wrong or vague interpretation of related issues. Through the analysis of Farewell, we can dig out the thought of «national Shinto» at the bottom of Dazai Osamu's thought. It was this thought that pushed Dazai Osamu to the road of nationalism.

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