著者

横山 孝一

出版者

独立行政法人 国立高等専門学校機構群馬工業高等専門学校

雑誌

群馬高専レビュー (ISSN:02886936)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.38, pp.53-64, 2020-03-31 (Released:2022-03-16)

参考文献数

39

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Yoshinobu NISHIZAKI's 1978 anime movie Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato was a milestone in the history of Japan's animation, moving an audience of four million Japanese to tears at the ending where protagonist KODAI made a "Tokko" suicide attack on the White Comet in order to prevent it from invading the Earth. I, the author of this paper, saw the unforgettable film as a schoolboy knowing almost nothing about the background to the source of the powerful emotions. As I grew older, it became clear that we cried for the souls of the kamikaze members who chose to make self-sacrifice just to defend their mother country Japan where their parents, siblings and friends lived; the crew of Japanese Navy's largest and strongest battleship Yamato were such unselfish patriots thinking first of other people's happiness. Through creating the Yamato series, NISHIZAKI devoted his life insisting on the true value of their deeds. Due to the postwar "peace" education in Japan, many of the ex-Yamato fans grew up to be typical Japanese adults who bitterly criticize the theme of Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato, ashamed of the tears they once shed. One of them Harutoshi FUKUI remade the legendary movie to Star Blazers 2202, removing the essence of NISHIZAKI's lifework. However, let us remember that it was the Yamato spirit that overcame the 2011 disaster of the Great East Japan Earthquake, and that Takashi YAMAZAKI's 2010 live-action movie Space Battleship Yamato was true to the original, paying a tribute to the memory of Yoshinobu NISHIZAKI(1934-2010). I also wrote this paper for him with not only respect but everlasting gratitude.

著者

横山 孝一

出版者

独立行政法人 国立高等専門学校機構群馬工業高等専門学校

雑誌

群馬高専レビュー (ISSN:02886936)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.36, pp.9-20, 2018-03-26 (Released:2022-03-11)

参考文献数

47

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This is a critical essay on Bill O’Reilly’s American best-seller, Killing the Rising Sun: How America Vanquished World War II Japan (2016), which, soon introduced through the Internet, shocked some Japanese intellectuals. Considering the pitiless, ill-intentioned content for the Japanese, the book will never be translated into Japanese and probably remain unknown to ordinary people in Japan, many of whom like the United States. The writer of this essay, a Japanese scholar of comparative literature, analyzes how the atomic bombings are justified in Killing the Rising Sun, and criticizes the book using relevant materials, like the TV drama The Pacific produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hunks, which describes how innocent patriots like Eugene Sledge were to become coldblooded killers through the bloody battles against Japanese counterparts in Pacific islands like Peleliu; such theme is so universal that the series still has fans in Japan. The Japanese translation of Tears in the Darkness: the Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath, a wonderful book by Michael & Elizabeth Norman, also has succeeded in moving the Japanese readers with the two different perspectives of America and Japan, and the authors’ sympathetic attitudes toward the ex-enemies. For example, the so-called beasts did not use Japanese swords so often as the fans of Killing the Rising Sun might imagine: in Mr. and Mrs. Norman’s book, a Japanese officer used his precious weapon just after he knew that the captive had stolen some money from one of his dead soldiers. Bill O’Reilly, on the contrary, only tells stories about good Americans fighting bad Japanese. Since he uses the present tense showing how America comes to drop the atomic bombs, it is understandable that his hatred is keen enough to appreciate Truman’s decision to kill hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians even though the president seems to have regretted to know that innocent women and children also died the most violent deaths ever known in human history. As Yuko Tojo, granddaughter of war-time prime minister Hideki Tojo, was welcomed by American veterans, offering flowers at the memorial service for the US marines in Peleliu in 1999, Japan and the United States are now close friends, having forgiven each other. Japan’s war crimes were severely punished at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and other trials in foreign countries such as China, the Philippines, and Russia. Nearly one thousand Japanese were executed, some of whom had been wrongly accused and spent their agonizing last days. General Iwane Matsui, one of the unfortunate, had respected China and had ordered all his soldiers to maintain military discipline, but was hanged for the now-called Rape of Nanking. Having built Koua-Kannon (a statue of the Goddess of Mercy for the Rising Asia) in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, the retired general had prayed every day for the souls of both the dead Japanese and Chinese soldiers. The Kannon statue still exists tenderly preserved by an elderly nun and her supporters. The world will admit that the Japanese are now peace-loving people. The atomic attacks are justified in Killing the Rising Sun in four ways: 1) by insisting that the Japanese were beasts; Tojo was a Hitler; Emperor Hirohito was incompetent, 2) by regarding the bombings as rightful revenge to Pearl Harbor, 3) by stressing that the two bombs saved "hundreds of thousands" of American soldiers, and 4) by mentioning that Bill O’Reilly was born thanks to the atomic bombs which saved the life of his future father who was about to take part in MacArthur’s land invasion of Japan. In answer to these, 1) The Japanese soldiers were not beasts, let alone women and children. Their violent acts were due to the nature of war itself. View PDF for the rest of the abstract.

著者

横山 孝一

出版者

独立行政法人 国立高等専門学校機構群馬工業高等専門学校

雑誌

群馬高専レビュー (ISSN:02886936)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.40, pp.13-24, 2022 (Released:2022-03-25)

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In Japan, some people believe that RoboCop (1987), one of America's finest sci-fi films, was inspired by Robot Detective (1973), Japanese superhero TV drama comprised of 26 episodes now available at Prime Video. Is it true? Although some advertisements affirm it, both the author Shotaro ISHINOMORI (1939-98) himself and his son Jo ONODERA have actually denied the direct influence on the American counterpart. The truth is, ISHINOMORI, not only the King of Manga whose Cyborg 009 series remains popular, but also the giant creator of Japan's superheroes such as Masked Rider and of course Go-Rangers, the progenitors of Power Rangers, was extremely irritated by the sheer fact that he was NOT internationally acknowledged as the first to come up with the idea of a robot police officer as a superhero. In other words, he was disappointed that Robot Detective had been almost forgotten even in his own homeland, obviously thinking that the quality of the children's program did not meet his satisfaction and preferring his own manga version for young adult readers. However, the TV original of Robot Detective is truly worth watching, deserving reevaluation among people all over the world. In the drama, Robot Detective K (often called just "K") learns how to get along with his human colleague SHINJO (played passionately by Jiro CHIBA, younger brother of Sonny CHIBA) and his irascible but humane boss Daizo SHIBA, not to mention that he, using both martial arts and powerful weapons, fights a variety of villain robots. Just as charmed by RoboCop Murphy and his partner Anne Lewis, you will be also fascinated by the good example of Japan's male relationships which were to help achieve the "Japan as Number One" position from the late 1970s to the early 90s, whose dominant influence can be seen in RoboCop 3 (1993), the worst in the series because the very American essence of Paul Verhoeven's masterpiece was damaged by the completely different values. While it is not unusual that Robot Detective K is helped spiritually by Japanese women including his "Mother," the huge female robot resembling Buddhist deity of mercy, it is really discouraging to see the once invincible RoboCop saved by a nine-year-old American girl at the climax of the movie. Having seen the culmination of Japan's economic power, Kaku TAKASHINA (1919-94), the actor who played older detective SHIBA, passed away in the following year. He had made his debut in the 1938 war movie Mud and Soldiers as the First Class Private who is killed in action, saying "For the sake of His Majesty the Emperor." I rediscovered Robot Detective as a drama of Japan's high economic growth by paying more attention to TAKASHINA's marvelous acting which undoubtedly contributes to the immortal merit of this TV program for children as if he had left his secret message of encouragement to the future generations of his country.

著者

横山 孝一

出版者

独立行政法人 国立高等専門学校機構群馬工業高等専門学校

雑誌

群馬高専レビュー (ISSN:02886936)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.25, pp.1-7, 2007-03-23 (Released:2021-12-16)

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Arnold Fine, a Jewish American writer, surely remains unknown in Japan; even in the United States, his name must be unfamiliar to most Americans, though there are fans of his stories. According to his website, which was updated November 1st, 2006, he has been the senior news editor of The Jewish Press for more than 50 years. At the same time he was coordinator of special education at a high school in Brooklyn, teaching handicapped and brain-injured children. Since his retirement from the city school system, he has worked as an adjunct professor at Kingsborough Community College. He was nominated twice as the “Teacher of the Year” in New York State. It seems, however, Arnold Fine will be remembered as the writer of nostalgia stories rather than the excellent teacher of special education. His short stories published in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series have been attracting some attention in several countries, including the U.S. In fact, I am one of the Chicken Soup readers who have found his literary work quite interesting. Even though he is an amateur, his charming stories are worth translating and introducing in Japan. Some may think they are too sentimental but others can really enjoy reading them. So just try in my Japanese version. Here in this bulletin I translated three stories from the above-mentioned series: “The High School English Teacher” and “How David and Lily Got Together” from Chicken Soup for the Single’s Soul (Florida: Health Communications, 1999) and “The Wallet” from Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul (1998).

著者

横山 孝一

出版者

群馬工業高等専門学校

雑誌

群馬高専レビュー (ISSN:24339776)

巻号頁・発行日

no.36, pp.21-26, 2018-03-26

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This is an introduction for young Japanese learners of English to e-future (Korean publisher)'s new graded comic readers series of Vera the Alien Hunter (2016) written by Jason Wilburn & Casey Kim, and illustrated by Seungjun Park & Bioh Kang. The wonderful writing team of Wilburn & Kim reminds us of their former excellent works: Magic Adventures (2012) and School Adventures (2014), in both of which the charming siblings Jack and Bella are actively involved, leading the stories to happy endings. Compared to these adventures, the new illustrations are somewhat inferior to Jaehwan Jung's in techniques; the character designs are rather unoriginal (in fact, Luca will never fail to remind the reader of Japan's well-loved manga character Dora-emon). However, the plot of Vera the Alien Hunter is so well-made that the reader will never be able to predict how the series of Vera and Luca may be concluded. It can be read as a graphic novel of the teacher-student relationship where Luca earnestly teaches and trains Vera until she becomes the earth's reliable alien hunter.The theme is their friendship in a Western sense, but more accurately, the typical, Eastern cultural affection between teacher and student, which can be found similar to the relationship between the Japanese-like teacher Yoda and his disciple Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. In the theme song recorded in the attached CD, Luca says to his student, "You have to trust me. You have to do your best. I'll help you learn the things you need to know," and Vera answers, "Yes, I will trust you. I'll learn all I can learn. I will succeed if I believe in me." Interestingly, the message suggests that the reader will succeed in learning English if he or she trusts this set of textbooks. Through the interesting comic books, it might be possible to gain as great self-confidence as the obedient student Vera has done.

著者

横山 孝一

雑誌

群馬高専レビュー (ISSN:24339776)

巻号頁・発行日

no.37, pp.21-32, 2019-04-26

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Paula Hawkins's sensational world bestseller A Girl on the Train (2015) was accepted as a psychological thriller as soon as it appeared. Her eagerly-awaited second novel Into the Water (2017), however, seems to have disappointed most of her fans who expected a still more exciting and mysterious thriller than her first one. In fact, one crime novel critic did not conceal his utter disappointment, mentioning it would not be the best choice for crime readers because "the mystery and suspense elements of this story take a backseat." Interestingly enough, he could not help admitting that the novel in question is beautifully written, and he even recommended this book he disliked to those who love literary fiction or women's fiction. After all, he is a good critic, correctly pointing out Into the Water is a novel which satisfies academic readers much more than crime fiction lovers. Despite the fact that many readers undoubtedly regard Ms. Hawkins as a crime writer, it is doubtful that she thinks of herself as one. Reportedly she has no interest in Sherlock Holmes, and her editor of Riverhead usually avoids such genre. Which shows that Paula Hawkins is a serious writer who, I imagine, likes great authors of English and American literature such as Henry James, Virginia Woolf, and even Herman Melville. Her notorious techniques in the new novel, like the frequent changes of more than ten point-of-view characters, appear to derive from the l9th-20th centuries' literary experiments. Perhaps a large number of people who want just an entertainment for a weekend night will be unexpectedly at a loss to find the book they bought so complicated that they can hardly understand what is going on and cannot afford to reason who killed Nel Abbot, although Ms. Hawkins prepares a lot of hints. If you want to enjoy Into the Water to your heart's content, you should read it at least twice. Contrary to your first impression, the novel is quite similar to A Girl on the Train: Libby (the same name of the unfortunate baby drowned in the bathtub) is drowned again by a mob of hateful men this time at the opening of the new book. Paula Hawkins's common theme becomes clear due to this repetition. The death of the first Libby was brought by Mac, the irresponsible man who left the young Megan when she most needed him. Tom, another egoistic man, killed Megan when he knew she was pregnant. The heroines Rachel and Anna, though they were ex-enemies, took revenge on him with a corkscrew. Into the Water is a double–plot novel consisting of Nel's mysterious death and Katie's pathetic suicide. The former is a real whodunit which reminds me of Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), but Ms. Hawkins prefers the latter with a strong, feministic massage somewhat related to #MeToo trend. Katie's story is not a mystery at all. She loved secretly Mark Henderson, a good-looking teacher very popular among female students. Since Katie was still a fifteen-year-old girl, Henderson was afraid of being arrested and put into jail where he would probably be the target of manly convicts. Katie drowned herself, trying to prevent their forbidden relation from being known to the public. Lena, her best friend who loved her, exacted revenge on Henderson, stabbing him with a "nail" (a variation of the corkscrew in the first novel) and pushing him off a cliff. This bloody killing is not narrated, the scene intentionally omitted but alluded with enough hints. Seemingly, Paula Hawkins is disappointed in men completely in Into the Water, where there is no Kamal. Again she succeeds in letting her heroine kill unpunished another handsome man as the scapegoat for the violent men who have abused women for many years.

著者

横山 孝一 横山 孝一

出版者

群馬工業高等専門学校

雑誌

群馬高専レビュー (ISSN:02886936)

巻号頁・発行日

no.28, pp.二十九-三十六, 2009

著者

横山 孝一 横山 孝一

出版者

群馬工業高等専門学校

雑誌

群馬高専レビュー (ISSN:02886936)

巻号頁・発行日

no.27, pp.一-十五, 2008

著者

横山 孝一

出版者

群馬工業高等専門学校

雑誌

群馬高専レビュー (ISSN:02886936)

巻号頁・発行日

no.31, pp.31-42, 2012