Reading Okinawa

At about the same time as Kiritorareta jikan, Sono Ayako wrote two nonfiction books about the mass suicide issue: Ikenie no shima [The Island of a Scapegoat] was published in 1970, and Aru shinwa no haikei [The Background of a Certain Myth] was published in 1973. Sono conducted interviews and collected data in Okinawa before writing these works. In Aru shinwa no haikei, she makes her final report about shūdan jiketsu (group suicide). In this book, Sono states that the Japanese army did not order mass suicide because she could not find any evidence to support that claim. Quite the contrary, she concluded that the claims that the Japanese army ordered a mass suicide came from unreliable sources.

Kiritorareta jikan is set on Tokashiki Island, where many people died in a mass suicide. On March 26, 1945, U.S. forces attacked the island. The inhabitants could not escape because boats were had been destroyed. They asked the Japanese army for help, but they were turned away from their shelters. Later, the inhabits gathered together, and many of them committed suicide.

The first section of the novel focuses on a fisherman who visits the island. Recalling the Battle of Okinawa, he talks to a woman about his experiences as a soldier. He worked in the air-raid shelters during the war, so he did not about the mass suicide. The second section focuses on woman who was an islander and owner of a small guest house. She talks to the fisherman about her experience of the Battle of Okinawa and the mass suicide. She killed her two children, but could not kill herself. The third section focuses on a priest who was not an islander. He talks to the fisherman about his experience as a priest during the mass suicide. He could not kill other people himself, so he was in the church and accepted U.S. soldiers after they landed on the island.

The priest in the novel is based on the experiences of Shigeaki Kinjō. You can read his first-hand account of the mass suicide on Tokashiki Island here:

“Banzai!” The Compulsory Mass Suicide of Kerama Islanders in the Battle of Okinawa

Shigeaki Kinjō

2. Character List

Fisherman　 釣師
The fisherman arrives from the Okinawan mainland over twenty years after the end of the war. During the Battle of Okinawa, he came to the island as a soldier. While staying on the island, he asks the woman and the priest about the mass suicide. He remembers many things that happened on the island. He worked in an air-raid shelter as a recorder of dead persons. He does not think the Japanese army ordered the mass suicide.

A woman (owner)　女（宿主）
She is the owner of a small guesthouse, where the fisherman stays. She lost her daughter and son in the war. She killed her children and justifies herself to her husband, who returns to the island from the Okinawan mainland after the war. She thinks that the Japanese army directed the inhabitants to commit mass suicide. Her brother died before her eyes. She suffers post-traumatic stress and often blacks out when she sees blood.

Ishikawa　石川
The fisherman and second Lieutenant Noha stayed with Ishikawa and his family during the war. Ishikawa and his family died in the mass suicide.

Second Lieutenant Noha　野波少尉
Noha stayed with the fisherman at the Ishikawa’s during the Battle of Okinawa. He can play the accordion, and he made some music for Ishikawa’s wife. He was involved in the family’s mass suicide and lost his hand. Later, he died because of the injury.

Komatsu　小松
He fought as a soldier on the island, and he died hoping to see his family. The fisherman is the only one who remembers his death.

The woman’s husband　女主人の夫
He comes back to the island after the war and hears that he lost his daughter and son. He went to the Okinawan mainland to search for a job and has never been heard from since.

Priest　神父
He is a priest on the only church on the island. He lives at the church with an old dog. During the Battle of Okinawa, he took care of a woman, whom he named Ewa. He and Ewa survived the bombardment. They arrived at the scene when the inhabitants were killing each other. He considered killing Ewa, but he reconsidered and went back to his church and rang a bell. After that, he held a mass. Some American soldiers attended the mass. When they were praying, he considered killing them with a grenade, but he could not.

Ewa　江和
She arrived to the island on a ship that was requisitioned by the Japanese army. She could not leave the island for reasons of confidentiality. The Japanese army ordered her to become a comfort woman, but she refused to obey. People around her thought she lost her mind, so the chief committed her to the care of the priest, who named her Ewa. She lived with the priest during the Battle of Okinawa, but she died in the mass suicide.


3. Plot

Chapter 1: A Fisherman (5-74)

A fisherman comes to the island from the Okinawa mainland over twenty years after the Battle of Okinawa as a typhoon is approaching. His small ship cannot return to the main land, so he needs to stay on the island. He looks for a guesthouse and finds a small one. A woman is in the guesthouse, and she is the owner. When the fisherman arrives at the guesthouse, he hears that a boy has appendicitis. However, a typhoon is approaching the island. Since ships and helicopters cannot be used, the boy cannot be taken to the Okinawa mainland. (5-12)

After the fisherman goes out of the guesthouse, he goes to the north of the island and finds a radar base. A Japanese guard is at the checkpoint. He sees the fisherman and comes out. The fisherman thinks that the guard will question him, but the guard looks inside the base and whistles. Then a goat, Hanako, comes to him. The fisherman asks him how to get to Mitake. Instead of answering, the guard talks about Hanako and his commanding officer, who is the owner of the goat. The fisherman says goodbye and begins walking toward Mitake. (13-20)

The fisherman walks along a path in the dark by touching a wall. He remembers the past and arrives at the same place in his memory. As he continues walking in the darkness, he steps on something soft. He expects a rotten odor, but the odor is of vegetables. When he notices this, he feels relieved. The cause of the odor is rotten oranges and rice balls. He lights his lighter and sees some bones of fingers and skulls. When he looks at them, he thinks the bones of the fingers are more vivid than the skulls because the skulls seem vain. He puts the bones back where they were and goes back the way he had come. (20-26)

He goes back to the guesthouse and takes a bath after eating dinner. He cuts his finger on a razor on the rim of the bathtub. After his bath, he asks the woman to take care of his cut. However, when he shows the cut to her, she faints. He is confused and thinks she has an illness, but she soon wakes up. The fisherman asks if she is sick, and she says she is not. She takes care of his cut and talks with him. While talking, she finds out that he is not an inhabitant of this island and that he has never come to the island since being here during the Battle of Okinawa. They talk about the night of the mass suicide, in which many inhabitants of the island died. (27-36)

The fisherman wakes up at midnight. While listening to the storm, he remembers the Battle of Okinawa and the Ishikawa family, who died in the mass suicide. During the bombing, the inhabitants made some caves to hide food from the Japanese army. After the bombardment, Ishikawa left the Japanese army to kill his family with grenades that the army gave him. He took Noha to his family’s cave, and Noha was also involved in the suicide of the Ishikawa’s family. Noha lost his hands. The fisherman considers why Ishikawa asked Noha to go with his family. Noha was handsome, and he could play the accordion. When he was under the care of Ishikawa family, he made some music for Ishikawa’s wife, and she looked like happily. The fisherman thinks that Ishikawa perhaps did not forgive Noha. (36-45)

The fisherman remembers the day the island was attacked by the Americans. The island was comparatively calm, but a carrier-based plane came near the island in October. The island was safe, but fishing boats and ferryboats were destroyed. The island was isolated from surrounding islands. During the first air raid, eight people died. The fisherman’s job was to write down the names of the people who died. While doing his job, he hid in a trench. One night, the Japanese army failed to attack to the American army. (45-53)

The fisherman oversleeps because of awaking at midnight. While eating breakfast, he talks with the woman. She recommends that he meet the priest, who is the only priest on the island. They talk about the war. The woman tells him about an American who destroyed their provisions. When the woman and other inhabitants tried to catch a cow, the American shot the cow. And then, when some two inhabitants tried to pick up the meat, they were killed by the American with his rifle. Moreover, the Americans destroyed a field of sweet potatoes with their tank. (57-59)

The woman goes to a boy who has appendicitis to give him a massage. The fisherman thinks that it is difficult to help people who have appendicitis because the island is isolated. The fisherman remembers the past. In those days, many people came to the island, and the government and the people fought together against America. However, most families secretly hid their food in the mountains from the Japanese army. He recalls the death of a soldier who died while visualizing his father and mother. The fisherman thinks that the soldier’s death was particularly cruel. (60-74)

Chapter 2: A Woman (75-106)

The fisherman asks the woman about the mass suicide. She believes that there was an order from the Japanese army, but the fisherman thinks that the Japanese army could not afford to worry about the inhabitants. He also thinks the army was doing the same thing everywhere else. In other words, the army fights for the nation in the abstract, but they do not take care of inhabitants that are near them. The woman thought that the Japanese army would accept the inhabitants if they asked the soldiers for help, but the Japanese army did not accept them. A soldier who stood in front of their shelter turned the habitants away, and said, “You cannot come in here!” The woman did not hear his words directly, but she heard from other inhabitants that that is what he said. After the woman and the other inhabitants left the Japanese army’s shelter, they walked to Mitake, where the inhabitants always gathered to pray to the gods. (75-82)

The woman talks about the mass suicide. The fisherman says that he heard screaming on the night of the mass suicide, but he thinks that the American navy attacked the island because of the screaming. The woman’s family tried to commit a suicide with a grenade, but the grenade did not go off. Suddenly, they started to kill each other using whatever they could find because they thought that it was their duty to kill themselves. In the end, the woman could not die. (83-90)

They continue talking about the war. The fisherman says that everyone was unusual in those days. He thinks the inhabitants could have refused any orders from the Japanese army to commit suicide. However, the woman and the inhabitants thought that if they refused the order, the Japanese army would have shot them as spies. The fisherman asks, “Did you think it would be better to kill yourself than to be killed by the enemy?” The woman says that they wanted to die with honor. When the fisherman hears the answer, he thinks that they wanted to look good to those around them. The woman says that the reason why she did not die was because she was afraid of dying. (90-97)

After the Battle of Okinawa, the woman’s husband returned from the Okinawa mainland. At first, the woman could not tell him that she killed their two daughters. When she finally confessed that she had killed their daughters, she thought that he would give solace to her, but he did not say anything. She thought that a couple that lost their children would not have to divorce, and that they would continue to live together. However, her husband goes to the Okinawa mainland to look for a job and never returns. (97-106)

Chapter 3: A Priest (107-178)

The fisherman goes to the church to meet the priest. The white wooden church was near the beach removed from the village, so during the Battle of Okinawa, everyone thought the Americans would bomb the building. When the priest meets the fisherman, who is shown into the church, he starts to talk happily. He identifies with the fisherman and feels that he is an outsider just like the priest. (107-119)

Before the Battle of Okinawa, the priest came to the island from the Japan mainland. When he came to the island, he doubted that the U.S. would attack such a small island. In fact, the inhabitants were deeply impressed that a Japanese garrison came to their island to defend them. One day during the war, the ward chief brought a woman to the priest and asked him to take care of her. The priest named the woman Ewa. (119-131)

The fisherman and the priest started talking over drinks. The priest says that a Japanese soldier gave him a hand grenade, which the priest understood was for committing suicide if he was caught by American forces. Other inhabitants were given two grenades, one to attack the enemy and the other to commit suicide. The priest was seized with fear at first. One day during the war, the priest and Ewa took refuge at their shelter. When they went out of the shelter to get some water, an American soldier found them and shot Ewa. The American left at once. The priest gave first-aid treatment to Ewa and escaped immediately as he held her. (131-140)

The priest and Ewa reached the place where the mass suicide was about to take place. The inhabitants were silent, but he heard a noise like the buzzing bees, and suddenly the inhabitants started screaming. He took out his grenade and thought that if everyone else was going to die, he would die, too. He thought about the ignorant masses while looking at the scene. He wanted to die, but Ewa said, “Don’t kill me.” Moreover, a woman asked him to kill her, but he did not. He considered that the grenade might help him. When he stopped thinking about dying, the ward chief came and killed the woman. Artillery shells came flying, and many of the inhabitants died. Ewa died, too, but the priest suddenly thought that he should ring the bell to warn everyone about the attack. He returned to his church in a hurry, but the rope of the bell was broken. (140-151)

The fisherman and the priest continue talking about the war. The priest says that he held a Mass during a bombardment, and the fisherman is surprised. The priest also says that he wanted to concentrate on the mass. He says that after he returned to his church, he did not leave again. Shortly after the attack, the American army came into the church, and they surrounded him. He thought that he would be killed, but the Americans gave him a cup of soup instead. As he drank the soup, he realized they had no intention of killing him. He thought that he should celebrate Mass, which the Americans allowed him to do. While he held a mass for the American, he felt animosity toward them. He wanted to kill them with his grenade, but he could not because the Americans were watching him. (151-163)

In the end, the priest could not kill anyone during the war, but he regrets that many inhabitants died. He thinks that if he killed the inhabitants, they might have accepted him as one of their own. He says that he tried to kill Ewa or an American soldier, but in the end, he did not kill anyone. (163-174)

The typhoon passes the island, and the fisherman wakes up in the morning sun. A ship heading to the Okinawa mainland can leave the island, so he decides to return. He gets on the ship about thirty minutes before the ship leaves the island. He sees the priest on his way to the ship, but the fisherman does not call to him. The priest waits for a helicopter, which will take the boy who has appendicitis to a hospital on the mainland. (174-178)


4. Point of View

Narration: Third-person

Point of view: the narrator takes the fisherman’s point of view and sticks to his principles. The narrator knows what the fisherman is thinking and doing, but when describing the woman and the priest, the narrator is not omniscient. The narration accurately conveys the fisherman’s thinking, but what the woman says is contradictory.


5. Symbolism and Imagery

The fisherman　釣師

A fisherman is a symbol of Japanese soldiers. He thinks that Japanese soldiers did not order the inhabitants to commit mass suicide. When he remembers the war, he is in the same position as the Japanese soldiers. In the novel, his thinking is the same as Japanese soldiers’ thinking.

The woman　女

A woman is a symbol of the inhabitants. When she talks with the fisherman about the war, she talks about her experiences, which were the same as most other inhabitants. She blames the Japanese army to atone for her own feelings of guilt.

A storm　嵐

The storm symbolizes the war. The fisherman has never experienced a violent storm on the island, but his nerves are on edge because of the storm. The storm evokes his memories of the war.

A boy who has appendicitis　盲腸の少年

The boy symbolizes the isolation of the island. A boy who has appendicitis cannot visit a doctor on the island, so he wants to go to the Okinawa mainland, but the storm prevents ships from leaving, so the boy cannot leave. Similarly, during the Battle of Okinawa, the inhabitants and Japanese soldiers could not escape because their ships had been destroyed.

The goat　ヤギ

The goat describes unusual conditions on the island. The goat is on the island just like a military base was on the small island.

Church　教会

The church is an apt symbol of peace. During the Battle of Okinawa, the island was attacked with bombed, but only the church was safe because the American soldiers did not attack it. The priest held a mass and the Americans attended, too.


6. Setting

The main story takes place on a small island in Okinawa twenty years after the Battle of Okinawa. The island’s name is not written clearly, but it is clear that Sono is referring to Tokashiki Island, a small island south of the Okinawa mainland. The novel describes how the inhabitants killed each other during the war. In fact, many people died in the island for the war because of shūdan jiketsu, or mass suicide.

In those days, two grenades were given to each family by the Japanese army. The inhabitants were not explained how to use the grenades, and also they did not hear about when they were to use them. Moreover, during the war, they were taught that to die for the nation is an honor. They believed that if they were caught by the American army, men would be cruelly killed and women would be killed after being raped. As a result, they realized that one grenade was to attack the Americans, and the other one was to kill themselves.

Tokashiki Island was the first island attacked by American forces. The island was bombarded from the sea on April 1, 1945. Many air-raid shelters were on the island, but the inhabitants were turned away from shelters used by the Japanese army.

It is unclear whether the Japanese army ordered mass suicide or not. The fisherman says that they could not afford to worry about the inhabitants. He also says that even if they did in fact make such an order, the inhabitants could have disobeyed the order. On the other hand, the woman says that she heard the order from the Japanese army, and that she had been taught that if they disobey the soldiers, they would be killed. In Aru shinwa no haikei [The Background of a Myth], which covers Sono’s investigation about the shūdan jiketsu, Sono states that the Japanese army’s order for mass suicide is from unreliable sources.


7. Criticism

In “Okinawa no senki” [A Record of the Okinawan War], Nakahodo Masanori argues that Sono Ayako’s Kiritorareta jikan focuses on mass suicide as a theme. He argues that the three main characters represent three different responses to the mass suicide: the fisherman represents the soldiers; the woman represents the feelings of inhabitants; and the priest represents the ethics of religion. For example, the fisherman worked to write down the dead person’s names down an account book in the war. He saw a lot of death, but the most cruel death was one that he witnessed at the end of the war. A soldier was lying on the road and suffering from hunger. The fisherman tried to cheer him up, saying, “We can leave the island because the war is over. Do you have a family? You can meet them soon.” Many people died during the war, but the soldier died with a desire to leave the island and go home to meet his family. The woman killed her two daughters out of fear, but she could not kill herself. She has been tormented by a sense of sin. Killing her daughters and to survive was cruel, and she cannot forgive herself. The priest could not kill other inhabitants during the mass suicide. He thinks that he has failed. Nakahodo insists that all of these points of view are unusual. Killing children is not out of mercy and one does not need to reflect about not killing.


8. Themes

Mass suicide

Kiritorareta jikan raises questions about Japanese army’s order for civilians to commit suicide. The novel describes the mass suicide from the point of views of the soldiers and the inhabitants. The fisherman asks the woman why the inhabitants went to Mitake, the place where the people pray to the gods, and where the mass suicide took place. His question reveals that he cannot understand their action that day. The woman says the Japanese soldiers forced them to commit mass suicide. The inhabitants asked soldiers for shelter from the artillery fire, but they were turned away. The soldiers said, “You cannot come here.” The woman did not hear that, but she says that 260 other people heard his words. This claim sounds unreliable and as if it is based on rumor. The inhabitants went to Mitake without any previous arrangement. The woman assumes that it had already been decided to go to there.

The novel suggests that it was unclear whether the Japanese soldiers actually turned inhabitants away. The woman’s response to the fisherman’s questions is vague and inconsistent. When she talks to him about being turned away, she says, “I did not hear what the soldier said, but the inhabitants around me said like that.” She adds, “It had already been decided by an earlier agreement.” On the other hand, the fisherman says, “The Japanese army could not afford to worry about the inhabitants.” Compared to the woman’s response, his response is very clear, and he sounds completely believable.

The fisherman said, “Even if the Japanese army ordered mass suicide, the inhabitants could have disobeyed the order.” The woman answers that if they had disobeyed, they would have been killed by the army. That is to say, she admits that they chose to die. Their way of thinking seems to be based on the Japanese imperialist education. The woman thinks she was justified in killing her own family. She said the Japanese army forced the inhabitants to commit mass suicide, but she is under the impression that her action was right.

Sono wants to suggest that the woman’s skewed thinking describes the inconsistent attitude of many Okinawan people. She thinks that the survivors of the mass suicide wanted to blame the Japanese army in order to explain and justify their own cruel actions. Sono also seems to believe that the Japanese army fought against the enemy to defend the nation, but that they viewed the nation in the abstract and did not consider the inhabitants that comprise the nation.


9. Discussion Questions

1. Why does the fisherman leave the guesthouse in the rain?

2. Why does the woman contradict herself?

3. Why did the inhabitants kill each other? Why didn’t they consider becoming prisoners of war?

4. Why did the mass suicide occur?

5. Why did the priest think that he should hold a mass?

6. Why does the fisherman feel that the woman is disagreeable?

7. How does the fisherman feel when he is talking with the woman and the priest?

8. What does Sono suggest about the mass suicide? Is her view valid, or does it reflect her own biases towards Okinawa?



10. Works Cited

Kinjo, Shigeaki. “‘Shūdan jiketsu’ o kokoro ni kizande.” Kōbunken. 23 June 1995.

Kuwahara, Satoshi. “Okinawasen Shūdan jiketsu o meguru rekishi kyōkasho no kyomō.” Seiron. Sankei shinbun. Web. September 2003.

--- “Shūdan jiketsu to kentei”. Seiron. Sankei shinbun. Web. 23 October 2007.

“Kyōkasho kentei iken. Monkashō no yakuwari wasureta noka.” Ryūkyū shinpō. N.d. Web. 17 April. 2008.

Nakahodo, Masanori. “Okinawa no Senki.” Asahi sensho. 20 June 1982.

Nakanishi. “Okinawa and Kerama.” Asahi Weekly. 21 August 1970: 15.

Ōe, Kenzaburō. Okinawa nōto. Tokyo: Iwanami, 1970.

“Ōe soshō hanketsu.” Ryūkyū Shinpō. N.d. Web. 29 March 2008.

“Shūdan jiketsu katari tsugō.” Ryūkyū Shinpō. N.d. Web. 24 September 2012.

Sono, Ayako. Aru shinwa no haikei. Tokyo: Bungei syunjū. October 1973.

---. Ikenie no shima. Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1970.

---. Kiritorareta jikan. Tokyo: Chūōkōron, 1971.


Original report by Kanako Kinjō. Edited by Kasumi Sminkey.