カエルの楽園 [kaeru no rakuen]

by Naoki Hyakuta, 百田 尚樹

安住の地を求めて旅に出たアマガエルのソクラテスとロベルトは、平和で豊かな国「ナパージュ」にたどり着く。そこでは心優しいツチガエルたちが、奇妙な戒律を守り穏やかに暮らしていた。ある事件が起こるまでは―。平和とは何か。愚かなのは誰か。大衆社会の本質を衝いた、寓話的「警世の書」。

Genres: Japanese Literature, Fiction

248 pages, Hardcover

First published February 23, 2016

About the author

Associated Names:
* Naoki Hyakuta
* 百田 尚樹 (Japanese)
* 百田尚樹 (Chinese)

Naoki Hyakuta is a Japanese novelist and television producer. He is known for his right-wing political views and denying Japanese war crimes prior to and during World War II. He is particularly known for his 2006 novel The Eternal Zero, which became a popular 2013 film, his controversial period as a governor of government broadcaster NHK, as well as his support of Nanjing Massacre denial. Hyakuta has written a number of other books, several of which have been turned into films, such as Bokkusu and Monsuta.

Reviews

[Maria · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wasn't familiar with Naoki Hyakuta until I read this book.

From the start there were nationalist, racist and misogynist undertones so I wasn't surprised when I looked him up on Wikipedia and discovered that he in fact is a nationalist who likes to make up lies about Japanese history.

This book blames young Japanese women for being "too lazy and pleasure-seeking to have babies", makes fun of "zainichi" (Japanese of Korean descent) and implies they should go back to Korea if they are critical of Japan, claims that comfort women did not exist and criticises Japanese who oppose the change to article 9 of the Japanese constitution.

I was sad to see that this book has sold over 500000 copies in Japan. This is a sign of the times, I suppose, as a universal wave of ignorance is sweeping over the entire developed world. If the author's intention was to incite hatred, he certainly succeeded. In terms of skillful storytelling, he failed. This story was a rubbish imitation of Animal Farm. If George Orwell had been a talentless, ignorant and bitter old man, he may have come up with something like this.

Japanese people often wonder why their country is so hated by their neighbours. If you want to find out why, read this book. It's exactly because of people like Naoki Hyakuta.

この作品を読む前まで作者のことを知りませんでした。

最初からド右翼、レイシスト、女嫌いっぽい作品だと思いましたが、ウィキペディアで百田のこと調べたらやはり嘘つきで有名だとわかりました。

この小説では日本の減っている人口の原因を「怠けている、遊んでばかりいる」日本人女性のせいにして、在日のことをバカにして、「日本に対して不満があれば、国に帰れ」と仄めかして、慰安婦は実際には存在しなかったと出張して、日本国憲法第9条の排除を反対している日本人のことを批判しています。

５０万部を突破したベストセラーだと気づいて、とても虚しい気分になりました。世界中の先進国が最近無知の状態になっているようです。著者の意思が嫌悪を広めることなら、この作品は大成功です。たくましい物語を書くつもりだったなら、大失敗です。カエルの楽園は『動物農場』のパクリです。ジョージ・オーウェルが才能無しの右翼ジジイだったなら、こんな小説を書いたかもしれません。

日本人がよく「なぜ我が国が周りの国に嫌われているのだろう」と言っていますが、その理由はこの作品を読んだらきっとわかります。この国には百田尚樹のような人間がいるからです。

[アマチュア読者 · Rating 2 out of 5]

百田尚樹你知道嗎?你所說的這個故事完全是可行的，可是這個世界上有更可行的另一套舊方法完全就是你這個故事的翻版，只是上面的人是支持武力制裁的。

同一個套路就算換了湯，藥效還是一模一樣。

而且你知道嗎，不論三戒有沒有廢除，最後都不會是元老們去死。
死掉的永遠都是無辜的無名青蛙。

百田尚樹你知道嗎？你也是隻說書人青蛙，你也是如果你上頭的青蛙大舉肅清時，會存活下來的青蛙。
重點從來都不是議題，而是誰獲得了操弄民意的勝利。

我對故事中提到雌蛙部份十分不以為然，對於「散播謠言，說我們把許多雌蛙抓來當奴隸(p.141)」或是「沒有女兒成為性奴的想像力(p.210)」，都令我感到作噁。

女性說自己的子宮不屬於國家(p.90)錯了嗎?


而且裡面有發過言的雌蛙屈指可數，還是被用來暗示女性只想享樂或是母親不想讓後代上戰場的立場，握有重要發言權的全都是公蛙，真的是十分刻板毫無想像力的一種表現。

[Kamil · Rating 2 out of 5]

What starts as a promising discussion of Japan’s pacifist stance soon dissolves into jingoistic browbeating. A repetitive second half serves up a predictable conclusion - blindly trusting in pacifism won’t protect a country from aggressive neighbours. The lack of insight shows how little credit Hyakuta gives his readers, and the Japanese public in general.

[Phoenix · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book plain awful! Through reading, I was trying to figure out some second degree because I just can't imagine at 21st century there are still people pushing for militarism and get such popularity (of course there are but this book has got such good reviews and featuring on the topselling list...This makes me really upset).

It seems to be extremely silly that the frogs keep apologying without knowing their own history. That indeed is silly because they have to understand why they have to apologize, and apologize sincerely to all the communities to whom they have done wrong. Then, only then can we all move on. Japan in the real world has never apologized to what they have done, contrary to Germany. Any it's true that many Japanese, like the frogs in the story, don't know this part of the history either because they didn't learn it at school or are not interested in the past and that's a pity.

I hope that the popularity of this book is due to people buying it to understand that being part of those frogs who keep silent, they have to know to make their own judgement of what's right and wrong and this can't be achieved without knowing their own history.

Why do we definitely need heros, why should pacifism be considered absurd? It's not human nature to be cannibal. We are not frogs, we don't need to eat other frogs to survive!

If you wish, read the book and make your own judgement.

[Ena Kanai]

I started reading this book one morning, but I finished it by the end of the day. My mother had recommended me this book, and I had decided to read it since I've read another book written by this author and I really liked it.
this is about a frog who's "village" (really a pond kinda place) was taken over by another species of frogs that eat them. The main frog, Socrates went on a journey with several other frogs to find a new home. On the journey, more than 3/4 of the frogs had died. However, one day, the 2 frogs that survived including Socrates found a village. But this village was surprisingly peaceful. they were not afraid of getting attacked or anything. The secret to this peacefulness was the three rules. 1. believe all frogs 2. do not fight with frogs 3. do not hold power to fight.
The frogs that believe in the three rules represent something like a religion, or a cult. They rely and believe in it so much that even when something is going wrong, or when the lives of the frogs are in danger, they do not take action.
I think that this book is very meaningful. Problems in society are represented by frogs and their rules.
Although the extremists made me very annoyed, I really think that this book is worth reading.

[Yan Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

作者百田尚樹有明確的政治立場，在書中也直言不諱地寫出來。對！他本人也扮演著某一隻青蛙，時不時會說出一些他的觀點。但身為讀者的我不會因此感到不適，在閱讀時，我感覺自己就像蘇格拉底，對一切一無所知，會迫不及待的想知道這個國家究竟發生了什麼事，面對侵略時該如何解決？「三戒」的真相是什麼？是否真的有絕對的「對」與「錯」的決定呢？這些都非常值得深思。

而看到這本書在 Goodreads 的評論這麼低，好奇看了大部分給低分的原因。能夠理解為什麼有人這麼討厭這本書，不過這不影響在閱讀時作者帶給我的衝擊與反思。

我想能夠擁有多元的想法就是現在社會美好的地方吧！無論是否贊同作者的觀點，有空可以看看這本書。

[Lam Masaki · Rating 2 out of 5]

幾奇特有趣，寓意深長。但書雖短於後段過於冗贅，且青蛙設定過於愚昧和平面。