The sea and poison. The sea and poison : Endō, Shūsaku, 1923 2022-12-11

The Sea and Poison

He flatly describes the time he watched a fellow student, a young boy, get beaten and humiliated by some bullies. It is very unlikely. Nice to finally read some Endo that predates Silence. Mind you, I would hardly categorize any of this morbid history as rooted in science. One can, of course say no, but what will the others think. Japan, like Germany, was not a society where subordinates were used to doubt or even to stand up to their superiors or any higher authority when receiving orders that were ethically doubtful or inhumane. Historically rooted, the story line itself would have been enough to hold my attention.

The sea and poison : Endō, Shūsaku, 1923

For me this is clearly a book about the importance to act according to ethical principles under all conditions. No sooner does one TB patient die than another is brought in to take his bed. Sparse and precise, which most writers can't hope to manage. This is not a fun or an easy book to read, and I would not suggest that it be approached as such. The narrator later meets another physician who trained at the same hospital in Fukuoka as Suguro did, and learns that Suguro was imprisoned for taking part in an experimental operation on a lightly injured American airman.

The Sea and Poison by Shūsaku Endō

This book put him on Japan's map, and given the proximity of its publication 1958 to WWII, I can understand why its themes of individual conscience--guilt, fear, listlessness--resonated with postwar Japan the introduction claims that Endo was really the only Japanese novelist who addressed individual responsibility in wartime. Endou sought to understand how his country had spun so out of control, so fast, and so completely. What is the harm? The process is attended and even filmed by soldiers who've made a bet that they'll cook and eat the man's liver. He lived several years in France and was familiar with the work of authors like Bernanos or Mauriac. The victim was then used for plague and pathogens experiments.

The sea and poison : a novel : Endō, Shūsaku, 1923

It is not about finishing in the western sense; it has more to do with the angst of internal struggle, and in that department, it has few equals. Endo won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize when it was published in 1958. Despite such a harrowing subject matter the telling of the story, although unpleasant at times, was not quite as graphic as I was anticipating. But his ability to show the dichotomy of the tenets of Catholicism and traditional Japanese culture was masterful, subtle, and intriguing. It's disquieting, gorgeously written in parts, clunky in others. But it's obvious that Suguro has great skill even if not a sympathetic bedside manner.

So we can suggest that he had a lot of his own experiences with doctors and hospitals flow into this novel, as well as his views on the freedom of will and personal ethical responsibility for one's actions. In other words: literally blaming the victims. Because as history has taught us time and again, it does take hate to stoke up vileness. And for a number of people like Dr. I might label it psychological drama or historical fiction, maybe both, or maybe something else entirely.

Secondly, The sea and poison reproduces Japanese characters faithfully. Having this most fearful of deeds, will i suffer my whole life thru? The quantitative limits of such a procedure before death occurs are to be ascertained. If he were so capable a doctor, there should have been no need for him to settle in a barren spot like this, so lacking in every attractive feature. We then get 2 first-person statements by members of Hashimoto's squad, Nurse Ueda and intern Toda. Powerful short novel that deals with the life of a Japanes physician poisoned by the experience, as an intern, of bearing witness to medical experiments on American POW's, in Japan during WW11.

General Ishii - still considered a hero by many Japanese - received immunity for his crimes against delivering the results of his "scientific research" to the Americans! Toda, the main surgeon, wants to make a career for himself and for this he needs to have under all circumstances a big number of surgeries performed. Toda readily agrees, knowing that his participation will advance his career. On the first day of First Surgery's project, three prisoners were scheduled for operations. A ordinary man infected with pulmonary tuberculosis who has recently moved to town seeks out the local physician for care, and he meets Dr Suguro, a withdrawn and defeated man who provides him with the treatment he needs, but nothing more. Ostensibly this knowledge will improve treatment of tuberculosis which is ravaging the country.

But because he was jealous of. It has to be mentioned that Endo was a catholic author. Those who are involved in the operation are not some evil monsters or serial killers on the loose, though. Although the team covers for Hashimoto and puts about the story that the patient died later of unforeseeable complications, his reputation is virtually ruined. It is an uncomfortable read but a worthy one for the questions he asks and makes his reader consider. It really strikes a place inside of me that so few books manage to do. This leads to a lack of resolution that paralyzes his ability to act according to his ideal of what a doctor is.

It's more a story about morality and how people come to and then cope with the decisions they make. The story is not strictly accurate in historical terms; Unit 731 was based in China, while the events of "Sea and Poison" take place in a civilian hospital in southern Japan. Air is to be injected into the veins and the volume at which death occurs is t On the first day of First Surgery's project, three prisoners were scheduled for operations. A short but deep novel, The Sea and Poison is an often shocking and grotesque but overall worthwhile read. Then, it is only intern Suguro who feels most uncomfortable about the procedure of cutting and murdering American prisoners. You might say the approach is minimalist. However, the routine surgery goes awry and the young woman dies in the operating theatre.