The Sea and Poison

by Shūsaku Endō, Michael Gallagher (Translator)

In 1950s Japan, Doctor Suguro is carrying on a humdrum practice in a small town still recovering from the war. A quiet, withdrawn individual, he has a horrific secret in his past: during the war he participated in an experimental operation on a downed American airman, carrying out a vivisection which led to his agonising death. As we move from the seemingly tranquil, civilised present back into the wartime past, we learn more about the people involved in the operation. There's sensitive Suguro, whose acquiescence at the time has left him with an agonised conscience; Toda, a worldly colleague who readily participated in order to advance his career; and Ueda, a nurse who had no power to resist the plans of her male colleagues - nor any pity for the enemy.

Based on real events, this spare, harrowing novel is a profound exploration of the pressures of conflict, the moral numbness of conformity, and the painful legacy of violence.

Genres: Fiction, Japan, Japanese Literature, Historical Fiction, Literature, War, Asia

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Shusaku Endo (遠藤周作), born in Tokyo in 1923, was raised by his mother and an aunt in Kobe where he converted to Roman Catholicism at the age of eleven. At Tokyo's Keio University he majored in French literature, graduating BA in 1949, before furthering his studies in French Catholic literature at the University of Lyon in France between 1950 and 1953. A major theme running through his books, which have been translated into many languages, including English, French, Russian and Swedish, is the failure of Japanese soil to nurture the growth of Christianity. Before his death in 1996, Endo was the recipient of a number of outstanding Japanese literary awards: the Akutagawa Prize, Mainichi Cultural Prize, Shincho Prize, and Tanizaki Prize.
(from the backcover of Volcano).

Reviews

[Maziyar Yf · Rating 4 out of 5]

دریا و زهر کتابی ایست که به یکی از فجایع کمتر شناخته شده قرن پیش ، یعنی زنده شکافی پرداخته ، فاجعه وحشتناکی که در میان انبوه فجایع قرن گذشته فراموش شده به نظر می رسد .
جنایتی که نویسنده ژاپنی ، شوساکو آندو از آن سخن گفته ، از شدت حیوانی و مخوف بودن ، غیر قابل باور به نظر می رسد ، اما در حقیقت اتفاق افتاده و تا نیم میلیون هم قربانی به جا گذاشته ، گرچه بعد از جنگ هم توسط دولت ژاپن و هم دولت آمریکا لاپوشانی شده و سخن گفتن از آن در ژاپن ، تابو به نظر می رسیده . از این رو باید شجاعت آندو را در یادآوری این فاجعه وحشتناک ، سخت ستود .
آندو خواننده را با خود به ژاپن در سالهای پایانی جنگ می برد ، همانگونه که مالکوم گلدول در کتاب مافیای بمب افکن شرح داده ، روزهایی که آمریکایی ها به فرماندهی کرتیس له می ، شهرهای ژاپن و ژاپنی ها را می سوزاندند و خاکستر می کردند ، ژاپنی ها هم سرگرم آزمایش های پزشکی وحشتناک بر روی غیرنظامیان و اسیران جنگی بودند .
زنده شکافی و واحد 731
زنده‌شکافی یکی از وحشیانه‌ترین جنایاتی است که توسط ارتش امپراتوری ژاپن در طول جنگ جهانی دوم بر روی انسان‌ها انجام می‌شد. این عمل غیرانسانی و وحشیانه، بخشی از آزمایش‌های گسترده و هولناکی بود که ارتش ژاپن بر روی هزاران اسیر جنگی، عمدتاً چینی‌ها و کره‌ای‌ها و سپس ، در تعدادی بسیار کمتر بر روی اسیران جنگی ( آمریکایی ، انگلیسی و استرالیایی ) انجام می‌داد .
بیشتر این آزمایش ها به دست واحد 731 ارتش ژاپن صورت می گرفت . این واحد نظامی مخفی، تحت پوشش دایرهٔ پیشگیری بیماری‌های اپیدمیک و تصفیهٔ آب ، آزمایش‌های وحشیانه‌ای را بر روی انسان‌ها انجام می‌داد. این آزمایش های وحشیانه شامل آزمایش های سلاح بیولوژیکی ، زنده زنده سوزاندن ، قطع عضو ، بارداری اجباری یا گسترش بیماری از طریق بارداری اجباری و آزمایش های تزریق خون بود
سرنوشت واحد 731 پس از جنگ
سرنوشت واحد 731 پس از جنگ جهانی دوم را فقط می توان یک تراژدی دردناک دانست . این واحد نظامی ژاپنی که مسئول جنایات هولناک علیه بشریت بود، به جای مجازات، از مصونیت برخوردار شد.
به جای محاکمه اعضای واحد 731 به عنوان جنایتکار جنگی، آمریکا با آن‌ها توافقی محرمانه امضا کرد. در این توافق، دانشمندان این واحد در ازای ارائه اطلاعاتشان در مورد سلاح‌های بیولوژیکی، از پیگرد قانونی مصون ماندند و اطلاعات به دست آمده از آزمایش های آنان به صورت محرمانه طبقه‌بندی شد و از دسترس عموم خارج گردید. سپس این اطلاعات در پروژه‌های تحقیقاتی آمریکا مورد استفاده قرار گرفت.
ژاپن و آمریکا تلاش کردند تا جنایات واحد 731 را پنهان کنند و از افشای آن جلوگیری نمایند. به همین دلیل، اطلاعات کمی درباره این واحد در دسترس عموم قرار گرفت و این گونه حقیقت قربانی منافع کشورها شد .
شوساکو آندو به همین بهانه یعنی زنده شکافی ، به بررسی پیچیدگی‌های اخلاقی و انسانی در دوران جنگ پرداخته.
داستان او که در بیمارستانی در ژاپن در دوران جنگ جهانی دوم رخ داده را باید کاوشی عمیق در وجدان آدمی دانست . داستان او ، حکایت های پزشک جوانی ایست که باید بین وظیفه خود به عنوان یک پزشک و تعهداتش به عنوان یک انسان تصمیم‌گیری کند.
موضوعات اصلی دریا و زهر را می توان وجدان انسانی و عملکرد آن در شرایط بحرانی ، اخلاق پزشکی ، جنگ و عواقب آشکار آن بر افراد غیر نظامی و انفعال و خشونت در مواجهه با ظلم و ستم دانست .
دریا و زهر که مستقیم از ژاپنی به فارسی ترجمه شده ، ترجمه خوب و روانی دارد ،ترجمه مهرداد علی بابایی نقش زیادی در جذب مخاطب و انتقال حس قهرمان داستان سوگورو به خواننده دارد . گرچه می توان حدس زد که کتاب چندان از ممیزی در امان نبوده و دست کم ، بدون اشاره به نزدیکی و معاشقه ، کودکی شکل گرفته است !
در پایان دریا و زهر را باید کتابی فراموش نشدنی دانست که به خوبی توانسته است تاثیرات مخرب جنگ بر روح و روان انسان‌ها را به تصویر بکشد. آندو با مهارت و استادی، تصویری به یاد ماندنی و کمتر دیده شده از چهره کریه جنگ ترسیم کرده است .

[William2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set largely in a Fukuoka hospital during World War II, this novel is concerned with lethal vivisections carried out on downed American airmen.

It is told from the first-person point of view of one of the doctors and the third-person perspective of his colleagues who cut open, experiment on, and kill the crew members. The novel is based on a true incident. It was made into the 1986 movie Umi to dokuyaku, directed by Kei Kumai and starring Eiji Okuda and Ken Watanabe. A movie which to my knowledge has not been translated and released to the English-speaking world. I’d love to see it.

The book seems an object lesson in how much may be omitted from a narrative without evicerating it. (Sorry.) The characterizations are quite thin yet they work. You might say the approach is minimalist. In his non-Christian novels, Endo always seems to do a lot with very little. The Christian novels (Silence and The Samurai) seem bloated by comparison.

The Girl I Left Behind, Deep River, and The Sea and Poison are all quite honed with very little waste. This is one of Endo's earliest novels, though not his first. It seems a little choppy in execution but this might be the translation.

[Saman · Rating 4 out of 5]

هنگام جنگ اعضای گروه پزشکی دانشگاه فوکوئوکا از هشت خلبانِ اسیر آمریکایی در آزمایش‌های تجربی خود استفاده می کردند . هدفِ آزمایش ها این بود که ببینند انسان با از دست دادن چه مقدار از خودن خود همچنان قادر به ادامه ی زندگی است . چقدر آب نمک را میتوان به جای خودن در رگ ها تزریق کرد و چقدر از بافتِ شش ها را میشود برید و برداشت بی آنکه شخص جان خود را از دست بدهد . در این آزمایش ها دوازده نفر از اعضای گروه پزشکی شرکت کرده بودند..

این موضوع داستانی است که شوساکو اندو نویسنده ژاپنی در کتاب دریا و زهر به اون پرداخته.موضوعی که درسته میشه از ابعاد گوناگون مثل اخلاق و وجدان و دوراهی هایی که در مسیر انسان قرار می‌گیرند بررسی کرد، اما علاوه بر اینها میشه پی به عمق کثافت و رذالت پدیده خانمان سوز جنگ برد.جنگی که فقط در جبهه ها نیست و اثرات مسقیم و غیر مستقیم فراوانی داره.جنگی که میشه روایتهای مختلفی از اون داشت تا پی به گستردگی آثار مخرب اون برد. فصل اول اثر جنگ رو حتی پس از اتمامش نشون میده و جامعه ای سرد و بیروح رو به خوبی توصیف میکنه.راوی برای درمان ریه اش به شهر دیگری میره.اونجا با دکتری به نام سوگورو آشنا میشه و اون دکتر تزریق دارو به ریه اش رو انجام میده.راوی از شخصیت عجیب و غریب دکتر متعجب و کنجکاو میشه و سعی میکنه بفهمه این دکتر کیست و چه سوابقی داره.در طی این بررسی متوجه میشه سوگورو کسی است که سالها پیش در عملیات زنده شکافی شرکت کرده و مجازات حبس و تبعیدش هم بعدا کشیده.
فصول بعدی کتاب از طرف برخی افراد حاضر در زنده شکافی روایت میشه.ما ابتدا با روایتی از زندگی اون فرد آشنا میشیم و آهسته آهسته به نقطه حساس زندگی این افراد،یعنی شرکت در این عملیات زنده شکافی میرسیم.نویسنده به خوبی از چالش های درونی،دو راهی هایی که مواجه شدند، شک و تردیدی که دارند و البته سردی و بی تفاوتی و بیرحمی برخی افراد دیگر حاضر در این کار سخن گفته و خواننده به خوبی میتونه احساسات مختلف و متضاد این افراد رو بشناسه.بخش هایی از کتاب در مورد شرح همین عمل زنده شکافی است و خب کسانی که حساس هستند باید بدونند این قسمت های کتاب میتونه براشون منزجر کننده باشه.بیشتر کتاب صرف شناخت برخی از شخصیتها به ویژه دکتر سوگورو میشه و اینطور نیست که فکر کنیم اکثر حجم کتاب شرح عملیات بیرحمانه اتاق عمل بوده.اطلاعات و شناختی که ما از شخصیتهای طی مسیر داستان به دست میاریم،جالب،خواندنی و عمیق بود
کتاب ترجمه خوبی داشت و ترجمه هم از زبان ژاپنی به صورت مستقیم انجام شده بود.کتاب به چاپ چهارم رسیده و این کتابی که من داشتم چاپ سوم سال 1401 با تیراژ فقط 300 جلد است.برای من این کتاب از جمله کتابهای قوی کمتر دیده شده بود..چند ماه پیش که از همین نویسنده کتاب سکوت رو خوندم،بسیار پسندیدم و تصمیم گرفتم حتما ازش آثار دیگری بخونم که ظاهرا جز دریا و زهر کتاب دیگری ازش ترجمه نشده که امیدوارم مترجمان عزیز توجهی به آثار این نویسنده ژاپنی داشته باشند.

[Nocturnalux · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the success of the movie adaptation of Silence, I had hopes that Sea and Poison would get a healthy amount of attention on the part of readers worldwide. As it turned out, I was mistaken and perhaps that is to be expected. While Endou's religious ideas do frame Sea, as he himself stated, they are not actually present, as such, in the book proper. No glorified martyrdom here, no grounds on which to build a tale of heroism- even of flawed heroism- and this by design. The entire point of Sea is to explore the ways in which normal, everyday people, are capable of abiding the greatest atrocities.

Endou sought to understand how his country had spun so out of control, so fast, and so completely. He saw Japan as being "sick", hence, "poisoned", and while I cannot disagree more with the reasons he thought were behind this- a lack of a Christian tradition was the explanation he ultimately reached, which, if we consider Fascism, is laughable; this without even considering the ways in which the very Christian German population had no qualms with embracing Nazism- the surely painful effort to come with terms with moral collapse is valid and absolutely necessary.

This goes doubly so considering the extremely ambiguous ways in which Japan, during the post-year years, dodged true accountability in favor of a narrative that places the limelight so firmly on Japanese victims that you would be hard pressed to even know of the many, many, many victims that were exploited, worked to death, raped to death, beaten to death, starved to death, tortured to death, and yes, experimented on to death, at the hands of the Imperial Army.

Sea was a pioneer work in its time. One of the first works of Japanese fiction to draw from the dark legacy of the war and present it in a sober, cool, ever so calm and collected fashion. The tone is clinical, dare I even say, surgical. It has none of the heavy sentimentality of Silence, thus probably ensuring it would not garner half the attention the overtly religious book garnered. It is worth mentioning that there is a Japanese adaptation of Sea, it is fairly old and also lacks histrionics. No Scorsese indulging in sappiness here.

The book goes over the justifications doctors, nurses, and those involved in vivisecting allied soldiers went through in order to be able to act as they did. A junior doctor, for example, finds himself compelled to go along because of the armed soldiers present and the clear threat of violence done against him if he were to refuse. A female nurse marvels at the trust the soldiers place in the hands of the medical personnel: they may be Japanese medical staff but they are medical staff and donning the white robe symbolic of their profession, they gain a status as "safe" before the eyes of the soldiers who gladly and willingly get themselves strapped down the the table. Only when the scalpel is inserted, while they are very much not only alive but conscious, does panic finally hit and the belated realization of what is happening. Her justification is torturous and enmeshed in her deep resentment of white women, having been rebuffed by a German lady, which led her to form a blanket judgement against whites in general. That and a feeling of disgust at the soldiers' sheepish, childish trust in those who turned out to be their butchers. In other words: literally blaming the victims.

Her example is interesting in the way it showcases how racial concerns cut across more official political ones. After all, Nazi Germany was very much and ally, were it not so this German woman would never be in the position of making the nurse's life harder than it need be. But as far as the nurse sees it, German is "white" and American is "white", the conflation makes perfect sense and no amount of rearranging the political chess game would sway her. Nor this is as idiosyncratic as it may seem. Concerns about white imperialism overtaking all of Asia were not amiss, if anything, they already been materialized all too clearly. This fear of a white alliance against Japan persisted even in the halls of power up to- and perhaps it was never entirely assuaged- the union with Nazi Germany. In fact, one of the reasons behind this union was precisely the looming fear that all white nations would band against Japan and proceed to raze it to the ground. There are others, it cannot be denied that there was an ideological kinship that Imperial Japan nurtured with Nazi beliefs- even accounting for crucial differences in their respective race policies and racial self-identification- but the notion that the West was out to get Asia and by extension Japan, was of utmost importance. After all, as high ranking officials would reiterate throughout the late 30's, political alliances crash and bur n all the time but America remains a white nation, just as Germany, just as Great Britain and even, if these feel charitable enough, even the URSS.

In just the same light, Japan was quick to realize it could get away with a lot so long as its victims were not, well, white. While I have no illusions that the so called "Co-Prosperity Sphere" was nothing but a way of neo-Colonizing, that it came to exist as a fabled concept, at all, is telling. None of this is addressed directly nor does it need to be, Sea is a tour the force in many ways but it subtle for all that- arguably something Endou did not always achieve in his fiction that does veer toward the programmatic more often than not- it is all there as background that informs the characters' motives, their reactions and

The book pulls no punches in letting us know just what a vivisection involves. It is detailed but not ghoulishly so, one feels the narratorial voice is deliberately trying to distance itself while providing the reader with as much clarity as to the materiality of the cuts, the blood, the severed vessels, so as to leave absolutely no doubt as to the facts of the matter. How to view them- how to process them- is something the reader is not told. Therein rests Sea's greatest power.

I often hear that the Japanese language is "vague". As per usual, such blanket assessments of something as complex, all comprising and culturally entangled as a language, are not quite right even though one can see the point. Or, to be more accurate, it is partially correct in a sense but very often entirely off in all others.

In this case, while I did not read Sea in Japanese, I'd be willing to be that there is no "vagueness" to be had. Nor does the book delve into any kind of surreal mysticism. It sticks to its guns from start to finish and what it delivers is a painful and profoundly rewarding experience.

Will Sea ever get half the attention that its counterpart, Silence has had? It is very unlikely. The sheer bleakness of the endeavor would probably kill all odds of that happening. That and the fact that the white characters are nameless victims whose death is bloody, horrible, entirely useless and with no ideology as saving grace. Again, there is martyrdom here. Just sheer destruction of human life for "scientific" purposes. No fallen white savior who may fail but whose intentions were so noble that Western audiences can feel comforted- down deep- at "their own" facing off against "obscurantism".

In fact, one of the most horrible things of the whole affair is that there is no "obscurantism". Whatever you blame for how it was possible that such crimes were perpetuated, in mass, you would be hard pressed to go for the borderline "yellow peril" shtick that still dominates a lot of discussion when it comes to Japan during the war. These were not "savages", not even in the sense the West likes to dub others, these were highly educated individuals, acting on their medical knowledge, to commit atrocities. It is miles away from Allied propaganda that viewed Japan as a nation of monkey-like people- literally so, you need only glance at War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War and its many American posters of the day- and also miles away from narratives of "sameness" in which every single Japanese is a carbon copy, radicalized in the same way to hate everyone the state told them to hate.

To be sure, the impact of Japanese propaganda on its citizen leading up and during the war cannot be underestimated. But the reasons every single person finds to go ahead with committing horrors are, almost by definition, of a personal nature and each and each character in this book comes with their justifications. They overlap at several points but are not absolutely identical. While this should go without saying, this idea of the carbon copy has been reinforced because of a double confluence of the way Japanese authorities painted their citizens and the way in which America- as ever, it is mostly America involved in this process- has articulated how the so called "Japanese war psyche" to the world at large.

As an aside, Endou is perhaps in a crucial position to undergo this investigation. Japanese by birth, he became fascinated by Western culture, in particular French literature, from an early age and spent most of the war years abroad. As a result, he was in a sense an outsider to the war furor but also someone with a vested interest in coming to terms with its consequences even as his country tried to "move on".

And it cost him. Endou was something of a persona non grata and was involved in several very aggressive discussions with hardliners would rather he just shut up and let bygones be bygones.

Because as history has taught us time and again, it does take hate to stoke up vileness. But to keep it going you need only a steady dose of indifference, apathy and a desire to not rock the boat too much. May we, if ever faced with the decision, have the courage to rock the boat and pitch everyone into the Sea: rather that, than swallow the Poison.

[عبدالعزيز · Rating 5 out of 5]

الرواية تقع في ثلاثة أجزاء، تتركز حول شخصية الطبيب سوجورو، الذي كان يبدو في الأربعينيات من عمره أو نحو ذلك. وهو طبيب قادر لكنه استقر في بقعة مهجورة، تفتقر لسائر السمات الجذابة. وقد حدث خلال الحرب أن استخدم ثمانية أسرى من سلاح الجو الأمريكي لإجراء تجارب طبية عليهم وقد شارك في هذه العملية أثنا عشر من العاملين في مجال الطب، تعرضوا جميعاً للمحاكمة ودكتور سوجورو هو أحد هؤلاء

إذا كان مفهوم "مستنقع اليابان"( وهو المفهوم المحوري في أعمال إندو الروائية كافة) يتخذ في رواية "الصمت" بعداً دينياً، فيغدو رمزاً لعجز اليابان عن تقبل مفهوم الألوهية المسيحي واستيعابه، فإن هذا المفهوم، الذي يمتص كل ما يأتي من خارجه، فيغيره ويحيله إلى جزء من ذاته، يأخذ في "البحر والسم" بعداً أخلاقياً هو في الواقع امتداد للبعد الديني.

اليابان، على نحو ما تناهت إلى وعي إندو، مستنقع هائل عاجز عن الاستقبال الإيجابي لما هو مفارق لذاته، وفي الوقت نفسه فإن البشر، الذين يعيشون في رحابه، تضيع منهم في غمار دفئه المخدر

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

The structure of many of Endo's novels may seem "unfinished", but I think that misses the spirit of his work. 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. Sparse and precise, which most writers can't hope to manage.

[Saba · Rating 4 out of 5]

هنگام جنگ اعضای گروه پزشکی دانشگاه فوکوئوکا از هشت خلبان اسیر آمریکایی در آزمایش های تجربی (زنده شکافی) خود استفاده کرده بودند.

هدف آزمایش ها این بود که ببینند انسان با از دست دادن چه مقدار از خون خود همچنان قادر به ادامه زندگی است، چقدر آب نمک را میتوان به جای خون در رگ ها تزریق کرد و چقدر از بافت شش ها را می‌شود برید و برداشت بی آنکه شخص جان خود را از دست بدهد.

در این آزمایش دوازده نفر شرکت کرده بودند. سرپرست گروه که استاد دانشگاه بود در اولین فرصت دست به خودکشی میزند. بازیگران اصلی هر کدام به مجازات های سنگین محکوم می‌شوند. سه نفرشان هم نیز دو سال حکم زندان میگیرند.

من بارها درباره‌ی آزمایش های وحشتناک ژاپنی ها بر روی اسرا‌ی چینی و کره ای شنیده بودم اما این اولین کتابی بود که در این باره خوندم.

هر فصل داستان از زبان یکی از حاضران در این کار روایت میشه و ما رو با حال درونی، احساسات و شرایطی که چنین تصمیمی گرفتند آشنا میکنه.

[Darryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This stunning, disturbing and deeply moving novel about the actions of Japanese doctors in a hospital during World War II opens in postwar Japan, in a small town that has been battered and demoralized after the country's defeat. 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. 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 first person narration then shifts to third person accounts of Suguro, a medical intern at the time of the airman's vivisection, along with those of Toda, another intern who is more urbane and comes from a wealthy family, but lacks the moral scruples of his colleague, and a nurse who formerly worked at the hospital but has returned in disgrace after her husband has left her for another woman. The three, along with the power hungry and uncaring supervising physicians, care for patients afflicted with TB who are treated worse than animals, particularly those who are welfare cases and cannot afford to pay for their care. The doctors view these patients' lives as hopeless and unworthy, whose only value is to serve to advance medical science, even if it means they must die premature and pain filled deaths.

After an unfortunate accident, Suguro and Toda are "invited" to participate in the operation on the downed airman. Toda readily agrees, knowing that his participation will advance his career. Suguro initially agrees, but experiences deep moral conflict once he learns of the nature and brutality of the operation. The nurse does not attend the surgery, but becomes aware of the nature of the operation and the effort by the doctors and head nurse to cover up both the operation on the soldier and the earlier accident.

The Sea and Poison, the winner of the 1958 Akutagawa Prize which was later made into an award winning movie, is a powerful tale of man's inhumanity to man, and the role that societal and peer pressure play in causing decent human beings to commit immoral acts toward those in their care or under their power. Based on a real story, it served as one of the first novels that openly criticized acts committed by Japan in wartime against its citizens, enemies and prisoners of war, and brought to light some of the atrocities that the world would learn about in later years.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sea and Poison [1958/92] – ★★★★

“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything” (Albert Einstein).

“Go where the pain is” (Anne Rice).

Japan, the last months of the World War II. The city of Fukuoka, nestling in the Hakata Bay, has been experiencing air raids for quite some time, and its hospital finds itself stretched to the limits as its never-ending line of mostly dying patients is always at the door, riddled with many diseases, worsened by hunger and despair. But one day is no ordinary day for this hospital. Unbeknown to many, the Second Surgery is preparing for a secret vivisection operation on American soldiers taken prisoners by the Japanese, and the goal is to test the limits of air and saline that can be injected into humans before they die. Those who are involved in the operation are not some evil monsters or serial killers on the loose, though. They are some of the most respected people in the institution, as well as their dedicated supporting medical personnel. Through the perspectives of two interns – sensitive Suguro and cynical Toda, as well as haunted-by-traumatic-past Nurse Ueda, Endō shows us how easily the unimaginable can unfold when conditions are led by war-time nihilism and actions are prompted by apathy, despair, helplessness and self-interest. Based on a true story (see "Japan Revisits its Darkest Moments", The Guardian 2015), Shūsaku Endō’s book is as intense as it is disturbing, but at its core is still a touching message to always preserve the spirit of humanity and compassion even in the most highly-pressured and hopeless environments.

The Sea and Poison draws the reader into the narrative effortlessly by establishing what I may call “the atmosphere of psychological claustrophobia or unease”, prevalent in other Japanese literature I read (see Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes and Ōoka’s Fires on the Plain). The prologue introduces us to a couple who moves to a rundown area of west Matsubara, an hour ride from Tokyo, and search for a doctor for the husband’s lung condition. Their only choice ends up to be Dr Suguro, an expert medic, but also a very reclusive and strange man, displaying disturbing tendencies. Our protagonist’s dislike of, and suspicions regarding Dr Suguro, exacerbated by the unbearable discomfort of his new place of residence, “trap” him into searching for answers to his new doctor’s strange behaviour.

When Dr Suguro was a young intern working in the Fukuoka hospital at the end of the World War II, he was working in a kind of medical environment where expediency and “unfair” resource allocation were prioritised, and where doctors’ Hippocratic Oath was far from their minds, with their professional ethics routinely compromised. As Suguro sees through his care of a hopeless old woman dying or the hospital admittance of a beautiful and well-to-do wife of a naval officer for a “routine” operation, patients are pawns in intricate hospital politics, and the growing indifference towards patients’ fates on the part of doctors soon means there is no limit to actions they were prepared to do because of sheer apathy, mindless obedience and deflation of spirit. Dr Suguro’s hospital’s oppressive environment is laid bare in the book: “No matter how many died, there was such an overflow of patients that as soon as a bed became empty, it would be filled again”; “No doubt it was a time when everybody was on the way out. If a man didn’t breathe his last in the hospital, he might well die that night in an air raid”; [Suguro] had the feeling he was a cog on one of the gear wheels turning here, whose movements he had no way of understanding”[Shūsaku Endō/Michael Gallagher, New Directions, 1958/92: 51, 52, 104].

Thus, Endō starts exploring historical, social and emotive backgrounds of people involved in the evil deed of performing live vivisections on unsuspecting American soldiers. He is interested in these people’s psychology and now they managed to arrive at that point in their life where they agreed to the unthinkable proposition of being part of the cruel experiment. Internally desperate and haunted by traumatic past, lonely Nurse Ueda is only too willing to be part of any experiment to keep her place at work and “to get even” with the German wife of Dr Hashimoto, who is performing the experiment (just so to know something that his wife does not), and intern Toda, who looks back on his own past, where he committed many immoral actions, is only shocked at his own complete indifference about the forthcoming operation. He even lectures Suguro on how doctors should behave: “sweetness and sentimentality are forbidden luxuries for a doctor…doctors aren’t saints. They want to be successful. They want to become full professors. And when they want to try out new techniques, they don’t limit their experiments to monkeys and dogs. Suguro, this is the world, and you ought to take a closer look at it” [Endō/Gallagher, New Directions, 1958/92: 50]. Then, it is only intern Suguro who feels most uncomfortable about the procedure of cutting and murdering American prisoners. However, ultimately, peer pressure, his cowardice and internal numbness prevent him from voicing real concerns. Suguro only wanted in life what was the most ordinary, but an ordinary life is the height of luxury in time of want, war and death.

As Endō’s acclaimed book Silence [1966], The Sea and Poison demonstrates that evil is not what it may seem, and as perfection is not an act, but a habit (Aristotle), so evil and inhumanity are not just spur-of-the-moment acts, but states that can grow insidiously and quietly in a person or group until they finally show themselves through one horrifying act. Thus, it is important to cultivate everywhere the conditions and states of kindness, empathy and understanding.

The Sea and Poison is a disquieting story that builds in intensity, but it is also an enlightening and courageous book in many ways, not least because it shed light on one important topic many Japanese must have been very uncomfortable reading so soon after the end of the World War II.

[Yazeed AlMogren · Rating 3 out of 5]

يكتب شوساكو اندو هذه الرواية ناسجًا أحداثها لإظهار صراع الإنسان مع ضميره، أعجبني عمق الوصف في أحداث الرواية

[Heba Tariq · Rating 4 out of 5]

رواية مثيرة وجدلية للغاية! أرشحها بقوة


رواية البحر والسم- شوساكو إندو
تقييمي ٤ من ٥

في رواية البحر والسم تجد نفسك في معضلة أخلاقية كبيرة فيما يخص تعريف الخير والشر.
تبدأ الرواية بعجوز فضولي يتعجب من مهارة طبيب القرية التي لا تليق بعيادته المتواضعة، ليجد في النهاية أنه أحد أمهر الجراحين في البلاد ولكن حدث ما قلب مسار حياته رأسًا على عقب حينما قرر رئيس الطاقم الطبي أن يجري عملية جراحية لأحد الأسرى الأمريكان الذين حُكِم عليهم بالإعدام كجزء من تجربة طبية لتشريح الأحياء لاكتشاف علاج لمرض السل!
لا يكتفي الأديب شوساكو إندو بذلك لكن يضيف عقبة أخرى أمامك، بالتأكيد فالبداية أنت ضد التجربة على الأسرى حتى ولو كانوا سيموتوا أجلًا أم عاجلًا لكن ماذا لو كان كل الطاقم الطبي المشارك في التجربة من ضحايا الحرب الأمريكية على اليابان! ماذا لو كل شخص منهم بداخله ندبة لن تختفي يومًا ما أحدثها هؤلاء الأمريكان! ليس الطاقم الطبي فقط بل كل مرضى المستشفى يذوقون الويل بسبب الحرب! هل مازالت ضد التجربة ؟ لا أعلم.
انهيت الرواية بالفعل منذ أيام ولم أجد إجابة.

[ريحاب · Rating 5 out of 5]

كيف تقتل الحرب الشعور بالذنب في نفوس ضحياها؟!
.والآثار الجانبية التي تصيب النفس البشرية جراء الحرب.
الموت والمعانأة والجوع كلها أشياء تقتل النفس والضمير تجعل الأنسان شخص متبلد المشاعر لا يتأثر بموت أحد أو حتى قتل أحد.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difficult but rewarding read!

Shusaku Endo's The Sea and Poison is a difficult book to write about for a number of reasons. I won't be giving anything away by telling you the story concerns the vivisection of two American POWs during WWII. Despite such a harrowing subject matter the telling of the story, although unpleasant at times, was not quite as graphic as I was anticipating. What makes it difficult is that this seemingly simple text, a short novel of only about 160 pages, is weighed down by subtle meaning and a philosophical and ethical quandary at the heart of the novel. The quandary seems fairly cut and dry to me, but looking back on history--even not so distant history, I can only say the capacity for human cruelty seems large.

We meet Doctor Suguro some time after the war, his promising career ruined, abandoned by his wife, and living in a small town an hour outside of Tokyo. He is still practicing medicine but his surgery has a down and out feel to it, seemingly closed and empty. One wonders why he chose such an out of the way location for his practice. A man recently arrived to the area must visit the doctor for treatment for a lung condition, but Suguro won't treat him without first seeing his chest x-ray and following normal protocol. Suguro exudes about him the same feeling of being uncared for--dirt under his nails, an office that is dusty and filled with an odor of general uncleanliness. But it's obvious that Suguro has great skill even if not a sympathetic bedside manner.

"...it seemed that this man with the grey, bloated face had, somewhere or other, gained a considerable amount of medical skill. 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. Yet he had come. Why, I wondered."

In Fukuoka, as a young intern in a TB hospital during the war, Suguro had been presented with an opportunity for the advancement of his career if he would take part in an experiment, which was presented to him as a way to further science. Suguro was only one of several doctors and nurses that would take part in the vivisection of American POWs who were already slated to be executed. So it becomes a question of conscience and personal responsibility. They are going to die in any case, why not take the opportunity to make discoveries that will help sick patients in the future? What is the harm? That is what the others tell Suguro.

The bulk of the novel is made up of the stories of three central participants who are to take part in the vivisection. Just what in their histories enable them to do such a thing with so little thought and feeling? What is their flaw? And what are the repercussions? Endo doesn't really make judgements, if so they are subtle. Rather he presents to the reader this situation and the circumstances under which the doctors and nurses are working and the choices they make.

The residents of the town of Fukuoka are the victims of almost daily bombardments. Those in the hospital, where there is now something of a military presence, exist in dire conditions. No sooner does one TB patient die than another is brought in to take his bed. The survival rate is low, and despite the efforts of a few who are dedicated, particularly of Suguro, it seems little can be done. Many of the doctors seem more interested in jockeying for position, worried about their futures, than in the real care of the sick.

It's against this bleak background that the military offers the POWs to the hospital staff for a number of different experiments. The fact that the experiments are to be done more or less on the sly and with the knowledge of only a few is telling. Each character has their own inner conflicts--Suguro has seen the patients he has tried to help die ignominiously, Toda has found that he can get away with almost anything without getting caught (why feel guilty if no one else minds), and nurse Ueda has been mistreated and everything she wanted and wished for taken away from her. Although each doctor and nurse is given the choice of participating or not there is still the subtle pressure from those around them that they must do so. One can, of course say no, but what will the others think.

Endo asks far more questions than he gives answers as you can see. Endo raises many issues--the question of conscience and guilt, of culpability (does being present but not participating still taint one?), of responsibility and of what is ethical and moral in science--well, at least these are things that crossed my mind as I was reading. This is a thoughtful book that requires careful attention. I admit I half read it with an eye closed for fear of what I might find before me, so my somewhat rambling post is not doing the book justice. It is an uncomfortable read but a worthy one for the questions he asks and makes his reader consider.

Endo won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize when it was published in 1958. It took many years before it was finally translated into English by Michael Gallagher.

[Mohamed Karaly · Rating 4 out of 5]

رواية مهمة جدا بالنسبالى . بتتكلم عن البرود اللى بيوصلله الدكاترة فى تعاملهم مع العيانين : اللا مبالاة اللى أحيانا بتتحول لعدوانية تجاه المريض . زمن الحرب ، قسم الجراحة فى مستشفى مدينة فوكوكا قرر يعمل تجارب تشريحية على الأسرى الأمريكان بعد تخديرهم . الرواية فيها تحليل ل3 أشخاص شاركوا فى العمليات دى : ممرضة و دكتورين صغيرين ، الأسباب النهائية اللى خلتهم يوافقوا مكانش محددة أوى ، بالذات مع الدكتورين ، واحد منهم مثلا وافق وهو فى نوبة حمى و غثيان جتله بعد هاجس ملح بريحة الموت اللى بيشمها لما يخش عنابر المرضى ، و الغثيان المفرط ، المرتبط بتركيزه البصرى على نقطة محددة : مجمرة بيتحرق فيها بخور و يخرج دخان أزرق ،خلاه يتقبل الموضوع و يوافق ، رغم قلقه المتطرف . الدكتور التانى ، عنده مشكلة مع الندم ، مشكلته انه ما بيندمش على احتقاره للن��س و خداعه ليهم ، و كانت كل مشكلته لما خلص من واحدة غلط معاها و بقت حامل ، بعد ما أجهضها و عرض حياتها للخطر ، و بعدها طردها ، كانت كل مشكلته بعد كل ده انه كان قادر يتنهد بارتياح ، مشكلته الرئيسية مش انه عمل كل ده ، مشكلته انه قدر يتنهد بارتياح . قطيعته مع البشر كانت كاملة . لدرجه انه كان بيستدعى باهتمام و تركيز كل تفاصيل أخطائه عشان عاوز يجرب شعور الندم و تمزق القلب ، لكنه مكانش بيحس بأى حاجة
............
الطب جريمة . الطب هو نموذج مصغر و مركّز للجريمة الكبرى اللى هى الواقع . الجريمة بتكبر لحد ما بيبقى احتقار الآخرين شىء بديهى و عادى ، بل و بيتم التصالح معاه مسبقا ، و بتواطؤ تلقائى غريب . ذنوب الدكاترة مش كبيرة للدرجة اللى هتستفز مشاعر الندم و بالتالى يتم تفريغ إحباطها بطعم الندم المركز و القوى . ذنبوهم أصغر ، واقعية بشدة و متوغلة فى أعمق تفاصيلهم العملية و مش مكتوبلها حتى نعيم الندم . مفيش شخصية فى الرواية ارتكبت خطأ بنية واضحة . كل الجرايم فى الرواية ليها تبرير ، الأسرى الأمريكان كده كده كانوا هيموتوا لأنه محكوم عليهم بالإعدام ، بس التجارب اللى اتعملت عليهم أفادت الطب . الخدمة السيئة لمرضى التكافل الاجتماعى سببها عددهم الكتير و ظروف الحرب . رغم كل التبريرات دى ، فأشخاص الرواية مُذنبين . التبرير و ضيق ظروف الواقع و عمليّة الطب لا تنفى الذنب ، و كلهم يعلمون ذلك
................
"كان يوما غائما ضبابيا ، و القطار يختفى فى الغمام ، و يتعين علىّ أن أقول أننى تنفست الصعداء"
..
"حينما أقول إحساس بالاضطراب ، فإن هذا القول يتضمن مبالغة ، و ربما كان الأنسب أن أقول : أشعر باستغراب . هناك شىء أريد توجيه السؤال فيما يتعلق به : ألا تشعر أنت أيضا فى أعماقك بعدم الاكتراث لمعاناة الآخرين و موتهم؟ ألسنا جميعا متساوين فى هذا الشعور ؟ ..ثم ألا يساورك خاطر بأنك غريب قليلا ؟"
(من مذكرات الطبيب المساعد تودا)

[Soňa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Námetom knihy sú udalosti z druhej svetovej vojny, kde autor rozoberá morálku japonských doktorov, ktorí sa zúčastňujú vivisekcií na amerických vojnových zajatcoch. Kniha má 3 časti, každú ešte rozdelenú na polovicu a v každej je vlastne opis jednej z postáv. Príbeh začína úplne bežne, presťahovaním sa rozprávača do malého mesta, kde stretne zvláštneho doktora. Až po návšteve Fukuoky a miestnej knižnice zistí, že doktor bol súčasťou aféry s pokusmi na zajatcoch. Vtedy sa príbeh zmení a sleduje príbeh mladého internistu, doktora Sugura. V ďalšej časti je príbeh druhého z internistov a mladej sestričky. Všetci predstavujú zbierku ľudí poznačených vojnou i situáciami z mladosti, tvoriac tak neúrodú zmes ľudí, ktorí menia svet okolo seba dosť zničujúcim spôsobom…. Keďže dej hovorí o zverstvách napáchaných v mene vedy , ale v samotnom diele, sa dej dostane len k prvému pokusu. Podľa opisu z úvodu, tých pokusov bolo viac, ale autor ukončuje svoje rozprávanie práve v bode zlomu .

Mottom knihy je vyhlásenie internistu Toda:
"Dnes je každý na ceste na druhý svet. Úbožiak, čo neskape v nemocnici, má ešte nádej zomrieť každú noc pri nálete."

First sentence:
V auguste, v najhorúcejšom období roka, presťahoval som sa sem, do tejto oblasti rodinných domov nazvanej Západná Macubara.
Last sentence:
Nevládal pokračovať ďalej.

Goodreads Challenge 2019: 36. kniha

[Mahshid Naderi · Rating 5 out of 5]

من کتاب رو با ترجمه مهرداد علی بابایی از انتشارات نگاه خوندم. ترجمعه واقعا خوب بود.
همونطور که از خلاصه کتاب مشخصه، نویسنده داستانی رو روایت میکنه که شخصیتهاش سر دو راهی اخلاق انسانی و غیر انسانی گیر میفتن. واکنش ها متفاوته، پیش زمینه ادمها و هدفشون هم متفاوته. و در نهایت بنظرم نتیجه گیری نویسنده این هست که همه ما در شرایط خاص(مثلا شرایط جنگی) ممکنه اخلاق رو ببازیم.
کتاب جذابی هست که میتونه حسابی سرگرمتون کنه

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first encounter with Endo, and I came away a fan. Historically rooted, the story line itself would have been enough to hold my attention. But his ability to show the dichotomy of the tenets of Catholicism and traditional Japanese culture was masterful, subtle, and intriguing. A must-read for any fan of Japanese literature.

[Ramtin · Rating 4 out of 5]

فکرت که عوض شد، وجدانت هم عوض می شود.

[Elena Carmona · Rating 4 out of 5]

El mar y veneno es lo primero que leo de Shūsaku Endō y definitivamente no será lo único. Esta novela está basada en las vivisecciones reales que se realizaron sobre prisioneros de guerra estadounidenses en el hospital universitario de Fukuoka. Me gustó que, en vez de centrarse en la morbosidad de las operaciones, el autor prefiriera contar el recorrido mental de los personajes implicados, la carga de conciencia y las razones que les habían empujado a participar—siendo personal médico—en el asesinato de una persona. Quizá toda la obra se puede leer como la crítica del católico Shūsaku Endō a las batas blancas y al «todo por el avance científico», lo cual me parece bien.

Era necesario mantener una temperatura de veintiún grados en el quirófano durante toda la operación; el aire ya se notaba caliente y viciado. Para limpiar el polvo y la inevitable sangre, corría una mínima película de agua por el suelo. El agua reflejaba la luz de la gran lámpara cenital y todo el quirófano brillaba como si fuera de platino bruñido. Asai y las enfermeras se movían inmersos en ese resplandor, sus figuras oscilando como algas mecidas por las corrientes del océano.

[Sophie]

ამ წიგნს აქ თუ გადავეყრებოდი ნამდვილად ვერ ვიფიქრებდი

აღარც კი მახსოვდა წაკითხული რომ მქონდა :დდ


წლების წინ, ალბათ მეშვიდე ან მერვე კლასში ვიყავი (ჯერ კიდევ არ ვკითხულობდი წიგნებს) წავიკითხე

სკოლის ბიბლიოთეკიდან წამოვიღე, სადაც წიგნებს მტვრის სქელი ფენა დასდებოდა. ძირითადად საბჭოთა ლიტერატურა იყო, სტალინის ბიოგრაფია, ლენინის ბიოგრაფია და მისთანები.

რამის წაკითხვა მინდოდა და ეს წამოვიღე, ზამთარი იყო, არდადეგებზე წავიკითხე...

მაგრამ

თითქმის არაფერი აღარ მახსოვს, რამდენიმე ბუნდივანი დეტალის გარდა

რაღაცნაირად გამიხარდა ამის დანახვა :დდ

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 5 out of 5]

A second read proved this Japanese classic is as devastating as I remembered it to be. I had the urge recently to reread some of my Japanese favorites but, since I've been on a European kick the past few years, most of my Asian literature is in storage. My only dream is to somehow live somewhere where I can have all my books with me in one place -- I know, I know, it's ridiculous obviously, far too much to ask for. Walls and bookshelves don't grow on trees, you know! Oh wait...

[محمود راضي · Rating 4 out of 5]

ضمن أحداث رواية (الصمت) لنفس كاتب هذه الرواية شوساكو إندو، وخلال تحقيق حاكم ناجازاكي إينوي مع الراهب سباستيان رودريجز بتهمة نشر الديانة المسيحية التي كانت وقتئذ ديانة محظورة في اليابان، شبه اليابان "بكونها مستنقعًا يجتذب كل شيء إلى ذاته" مدللًا على فشله في مهمة نشر الدين ﻷنه لا يعرف بواطن الثقافة اليابانية التي تتعامل بآليات معقدة ومركبة مع من يقبع خارج حدودها، واضعة الغريب عن هذه الثقافة في معضلة كبيرة لمحاولة فهمها.

في (البحر والسم)، يعود إندو مرة آخرى لاكتشاف الجوانب المظلمة والوحشية في الثقافة اليابانية، وهذه المرة خلال الحرب العالمية الثانية، أي في ذروة بروز النعرة القومية التي ميزت اليابان في هذه الفترة المظلمة من تاريخ البشرية، ومن خلال طرح مواجهة جديدة بين اﻷنا واﻵخر لكن على خلفية مختلفة، فبعد أن كانت خافية الصراع في (الصمت) على أساس الدين، يأتي الصراع في (البحر والسم) على أساس الوطن، وكيف نظر اﻹنسان الياباني في هذه الفترة إلى من لم ينتمي لنفس وطنه: مجرد شيء مستباح لهم ﻷي غرض، وهو ما نراه هنا من خلال تشريح اﻷسري اﻷمريكيين وهم على قيد الحياة.

نحن نرى هذا من الخارج فعلًا شريرًا ولا أخلاقيًا، لكنه بالنسبة ﻷبطال الرواية الضالعين في هذه المهمة المشينة ليس كذلك، وهو ما يبرز داخل الرواية أسئلة بالغة التعقيد على غرار أسئلة (الصمت): هل يبرر الهدف اﻷخلاقي المنشود أية أفعال غير أخلاقية تقام في سبيله؟ وهل كل من يقع خارج دائرة (اﻷنا) لا يتمتع بنفس الخصال اﻹنسانية التي يتسم بها؟ وهل كل التقدم العلمي والتحضر اﻹنساني الحادث لم يفلحا في تهذيب الطبيعة الوحشية للإنسان؟

[Chris]

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. Imposition of mind numbing military totalitarianism on a people produces a loss of conscience. The evolution of conscience in a social form requires freedom of choice. In the short term, as described by Terrence Des Pres, conscience does not die even under extreme adversity. However, a system that raises children to obey an irrational set of dictates and imposes them with brutality will destroy conscience as witnessed by Tomba in this novel.

[anđela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I, who fear only the eyes of others and the punishment of society, and whose fears disappear when I am secure from these, am now disturbed.

To say 'disturbed' is perhaps to exaggerate. To say 'feel strange' would probably be nearer the mark. There is something I would like to ask you. Aren't you too, deep down, unmoved by the sufferings and death of others? Aren't we brothers under the skin perhaps? Haven't you, too, lived your life up to now without excessive self- recrimination and shame? And then someday doesn't there stir in you, too, the thought that you're a bit 'strange'?

this book was insane, i didn't expect to absolutely devour it.

[Francisco Barrios · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esta novela parte de una premisa apasionante: la responsabilidad individual frente a los actos cometidos en tiempo de guerra por población civil.

No olvidemos —a manera de paréntesis— que médicos japoneses llevaron a cabo experimentos y vivisecciones con prisioneros de guerra. Esto es justo, envuelto en el halo de la ficción histórica, de lo que trata “Mar y veneno”.

En términos generales, la novela es sólida, pero la tensión interna va de más a menos. La introducción —algo que ocurre en el “presente” (1958)— es emocionante: descubrimos que un médico rural, el Dr. Suguro, tiene habilidades notables para el tratamiento del pneumotórax. ¿Cómo es posible? Poco a poco descubrimos, junto con el narrador, que Suguro recibió una condena menor por su participación en crímenes de guerra.

La primera parte nos lleva al pasado y contextualiza lo que pasará después: Suguro es un residente médico en el hospital universitario de Fukuoka. Es un chico tímido, incapaz de no involucrarse emocionalmente con sus pacientes enfermos de tuberculosis. Poco a poco, víctima de las circunstancias, las autoridades militares y hospitalarias lo orillan a participar en las vivisecciones.

La segunda parte es donde la continuidad se rompe en apariencia: inicia con un par de retrospectivas de otros personajes secundarios —la enfermera Ueda y el residente Toda— que, si bien dotan de profundidad humana a estos, aligeran toda la tensión que se construyó en la primera parte. No es un “defecto” como tal —dado que en el canon japonés estos “flashbacks” son bastante comunes y aun podría considerarse como algo intencional por parte del autor—, pero para un lector occidental puede sentirse como un cambio de velocidad inesperado. La tercera parte, mucho más breve, nos lleva al clímax y desenlace de los distintos conflictos narrativos.

En suma, “Mar y veneno” es una gran historia, escrita con un gran nivel de maestría narrativa y traducida de manera consistente y genialidad.

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

“How strange, I thought, that up to today, I had hardly reflected at all upon this. Now, this father of a family coming in through the door, perhaps during the War he killed a man or two. But now his face as he sips his coffee and scolds his children is not the face of man fresh from murder. Just as with the show window in West Matsubara, past which the trucks rumble, the dust of the years settles on our faces too.”

Towards the end of World War II, at Fukuoka Imperial University Hospital a number of doctors and nurses performed vivisections on several American airmen. They reasoned that everyone was at risk of dying anyway. Those that didn’t die in the hospital got a chance to die every night in an air raid. The city was diminishing daily, as the burnt out section of Fukuoka was expanding. The general view was that sentimentality was a luxury forbidden in hospitals during the war. Also, doctors weren’t saints; they sought promotions, and looked for opportunities to try out new techniques. Their experiments were not limited to dogs or monkeys. It was easier for Suguro and Toda, both interns, to submit to peer pressure from their superiors and let things go as they were. Trying to figure out motives and morals felt too heavy and oppressive for them to think about. And so, one day, they found themselves in an operating room eviscerating, experimenting on, and eventually murdering prisoners. All in the name of science. What about their conscience, you might wonder. Well, people always find ways of coping with their capacity for evil.

“There is something I would like to ask you. Aren’t you too, deep down, unmoved by the sufferings and death of others? Aren’t we brothers under the skin perhaps? Haven’t you, too, lived your life up to now without excessive self-recrimination and shame? And then someday doesn’t there stir in you, too, the thought that you’re a bit ‘strange’?”

I loved this book. For me this was a 5 star read.

[Pragya · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[S P · Rating 5 out of 5]

[May write a proper review later. This is one of my favourite books. It's disquieting, gorgeously written in parts, clunky in others ... yet I cannot easily explain why I admire this book so much. It really strikes a place inside of me that so few books manage to do.]

[Pascale · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spine-chilling novel about the vivisection of an American POW in a Japanese hospital during WWII. One great strength of this book is its construction. Endo starts by showing us one of the main protagonists, Doctor Suguro, through the eyes of a nameless tuberculosis patient who is surprised to find such a capable but obviously depressed practitioner in the backwater where he has just moved. Struck by the doctor's regional accent, the narrator then makes use of a trip to Fukuoka to research Suguro's past. The story then cuts to what happened at the Fukuoka hospital during the war. Due to the abrupt death of the Dean of the Medical School, fierce competition flared up between 2 factions for his succession. Suguro was part of the team of Doctor Hashimoto (aka the Old Man), an aging surgeon married to a German woman named Hilda. On the other side was the team of Doctor Kando. In order not to let the coveted post go to Kando, Hashimoto decides to hurry through an operation on a member of the dead dean's family. However, the routine surgery goes awry and the young woman dies in the operating theatre. Although the team covers for Hashimoto and puts about the story that the patient died later of unforeseeable complications, his reputation is virtually ruined. Partly as a consequence of this debacle, Hashimoto decides to undertake 3 operations of "scientific value" on POW. The justification for this blatant violation of the rights of prisoners is that these procedures will yield important information on how to treat tubercular patients in war time. Of course this is only a game of oneupmanship between Hashimoto and Kando. We then get 2 first-person statements by members of Hashimoto's squad, Nurse Ueda and intern Toda. Ueda is an embittered woman who not only lost her first fetus, but also her matrix. Repudiated by her worthless husband, she is easily persuaded by cynical Doctor Asai to assist in the vivisection, simply because it makes her feel good to know something about Hashimoto that his wife Hilda won't be told. The second statement, to me, is the core of the book, and an unforgettable description of a man without a conscience. From an early age, Toda chose to make his way in the world by playing the part of the good boy, when he was anything but. Various childhood anecdotes show him behaving badly without ever being found out, and realizing that as long as he wasn't punished for his misdeeds, he really couldn't care less. It stands to reason that such a man wouldn't blink when asked to assist in a vivisection. All Toda ever feels about his heinous actions is "a bit strange". What makes him sick is to think that the men who ask him to cut open the POW must be exactly like him under their veneer of sophistication. The realization that part of mankind is devoid of a conscience is a scary prospect. The book then details the extraction of the lungs of an unsuspecting POW, who of course dies. The process is attended and even filmed by soldiers who've made a bet that they'll cook and eat the man's liver. Some of these men experience an erection while watching the operation. The page where Toda delivers the still warm organ to the officers made my hair raise on end. Endo chooses to finish the book with Suguro, who neither had the strength to refuse the assignment nor to play his part in it, therefore remaining a emotional cripple for ever after. Everything about this book is compelling, but especially the portrait of Toda, the man who despairs of mankind because he has found out that he has no conscience, and that his predicament is not unique.

[Raimu · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my view, reading The sea and poison is the most delightful experience since it shows the Japanese spirit during the WWⅡ.

First of all, this story is based on a non-fiction story. In 1945, there was a case of American military’s vivisection in Kyushu University which was occurred instead of execution. This book refers to those frightful cases. Although this story is fiction, it will shows us reality, so we can consider about those living times in WWⅡ, Japan. It is very interesting the way how they look the American military.

Secondly, The sea and poison reproduces Japanese characters faithfully. The main character, Katsuro, has a typical personality of Japanese. He is shy, can't excuse from his boss's command and always is swayed by the opinions of others. I think foreigners can understand those Japanese peculiar thoughts more easily from this book.

The most obvious reason for recommending this book is the author, Shusaku Endo's writing style. This story is written like a character's reminisces and describes each character's feelings with many details; fear, sense of guilt, impatience and despair. We, the readers will sympathize with their thoughts very easily. Also, this story will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Although this book needs much time to read and some people might think too much trouble to read it, I think it is worth reading because this story will make us reconsider “ The crime against humanity ”. It will be a valuable experience for you. You have my word.

Therefore, I highly recommend you to read Shusaku Endo's The sea and poison.