日本沈没（上）

by Sakyo Komatsu, 小松 左京

伊豆火山群大噴火、関西に広がる地震多発現象。田所博士が日本列島の沈没を予告するなか、東京は第二次関東大震災の直撃をこうむった。日本中は混乱に陥っていたが、しかし日本人の国外脱出と資産退避を計る巨大プロジェクト〃Ｄ―２〃計画は進行中だった。……一億日本人の国外大移住は可能なのか？　地震国である日本の宿命と、日本人の未来を鮮やかに描いた大巨編。

Genres: Japanese Literature

409 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Born Minoru "Sakyo" Komatsu in Osaka, he was a graduate of Kyoto University where he studied Italian literature. After graduating, he worked at various jobs, including as a magazine reporter and a writer for stand-up comedy acts.

Komatsu's writing career began in the 1960s. Reading Kōbō Abe and Italian classics made Komatsu feel modern literature and science fiction are the same.

In 1961, he entered a science-fiction writing competition: "Peace on Earth" was a story in which World War II does not end in 1945 and a young man prepares to defend Japan against the Allied invasion. Komatsu received an honourable mention and 5000 yen.

He won the same competition the following year with the story, "Memoirs of an Eccentric Time Traveller". His first novel, The Japanese Apache, was published two years later and sold 50,000 copies.

In the West he is best known for the novels Japan Sinks (1973) and Sayonara Jupiter (1982). Both were adapted to film, Tidal Wave (1973) and Bye Bye Jupiter (1984). The story "The Savage Mouth" was translated by Judith Merril and has been anthologized.

At the time of publication, his apocalyptic vision of a sunk Japan wiped out by shifts incurred through geographic stress worried a Japan still haunted by the atomic devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was inspired to write it thinking of what would happen if the nationalistic Japanese lost their land, and ironically prefigured the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that triggered a nuclear plant disaster decades later on March 11, 2011 - the result of which he was interested in "to see how Japan would evolve" after the catastrophe.

Komatsu was involved in organizing the Japan World Exposition in Osaka Prefecture in 1970. In 1984, Komatsu served as a technical consultant for a live concert in Linz, Austria by Japanese electronic composer Isao Tomita. He won the 1985 Nihon SF Taisho Award. Komatsu was one of two Author Guests of Honor at Nippon 2007, the 65th World Science Fiction Convention in 2007 in Yokohama, Japan. This was the first Worldcon to be held in Asia.

With Shin'ichi Hoshi and Yasutaka Tsutsui, Komatsu was considered one of the masters of Japanese science fiction.

Komatsu died shortly after the destruction that followed the themes of his first and hugely successful novel. In the issue of his quarterly magazine published on July 21, Komatsu said he hoped to see how his country would evolve after the catastrophe. "I had thought I wouldn't mind dying any day," he wrote. "But now I'm feeling like living a little bit longer and seeing how Japan will go on hereafter." He died five days after publication, aged 80.

Reviews

[Yupa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Indigeribile polpettone alla giapponese.
L'ho preso in mano dopo aver visto Japan Sinks 2020, serie tv d'animazione ispirata a codesto libro. La serie tv alla sua uscita è stata parecchio criticata: personaggi piatti, storia debole, ecc. Be', in confronto al libro è oro puro.
Il libro in Giappone è considerato un caposaldo della letteratura speculativo-catastrofica, e ne hanno tratto anche un film (che non ho visto), anch'esso considerato un classico.
Durante la lettura mi sono posto per l'ennesima volta molte domande su cosa debba avere un libro per poter sfondare nel mercato giapponese.
Detto in breve, il libro ipotizza che avvenga un terremoto mai visto prima, colossale, titanico, garguantesco, che un po' alla volta porti il Giappone letteralmente a sprofondare nell'Oceano. Potrebbe essere la premessa per una storia emozionante, per riflessioni profonde, ecc. ecc.
E invece abbiamo la solita sterile e incredibile parata di nozionismo che a quanto pare piace tanto al pubblico del Sol Levante.
Entra in scena un batiscafo? Ecco cinque pagine di storia dei batiscafi (sic!). Il megaterremoto si avvicina? Ecco pagine e pagine e pagine di spiegazioni sulla tettonica a placche e sulla deriva dei continenti. Personaggi? Non pervenuti. Storia? Non pervenuta.
E si va avanti così per oltre quattrocento pagine di nozioni e tecnicismi, tolti i quali rimarrebbe ben poco.
E questo è solo il primo volume di due! Ma penso che dal secondo me ne terrò ben alla larga...

[Loae · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was an absolute page-turner.

Although some of the technologies referenced in the book are quite out-of-date, the human elements of the book have not aged at all.

[Liam Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Netflixで視聴したアニメ版よりは非常に物語が深く面白かった。70年代を舞台とする物語であり、現在の日本とは全く異なり良い勉強になったのではと思わされた。

[Yasuo Itoh · Rating 5 out of 5]

2011年3月11日の東日本大震災からまだ復興していないなか、2016年4月14日の熊本地震が発生した。地球物理学的な時間の観点ではほぼ同時に発生した地震ともいえよう。そろそろ東京や南海トラフがやばいことになるんじゃないかと多くの人が思っている。そんな状況を予言したかのような物語。有名な作品なのであれこれ書くこともないのだが、このような時代だからこそ本作品を読んで、さらに恐怖を感じた。天災はいつやってくるか分からない。だから怖い。読んでいるうちにいきなり地震が襲ったらどうしよう、など作品の内容以外のところでパニックになりそうだ。恐怖を引き連れつつ下巻を読む予定。