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Cannery Boat and Other Japanese Short Stories
- GenresJapan
271 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1933
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About the author
Takiji Kobayashi
59 books43 followersTakiji Kobayashi (小林 多喜二) was a Japanese author of proletarian literature.
Kobayashi was born in Odate, Akita, Japan and was brought up in Otaru, Hokkaidō. After graduating from the Otaru School of Higher Learning, which is the current Otaru University of Commerce, he worked at the Otaru branch of Hokkaido Takushoku Bank. His most famous work is Kanikōsen, or Crab-Canning Boat – a novel published in 1929. It tells the story of several different people and the beginning of organization into unions of fishing workers. He joined the Japanese Communist Party in 1931. The young writer was killed during a torture session by Tokkō police two years later, at age 29.
Kobayashi was born in Odate, Akita, Japan and was brought up in Otaru, Hokkaidō. After graduating from the Otaru School of Higher Learning, which is the current Otaru University of Commerce, he worked at the Otaru branch of Hokkaido Takushoku Bank. His most famous work is Kanikōsen, or Crab-Canning Boat – a novel published in 1929. It tells the story of several different people and the beginning of organization into unions of fishing workers. He joined the Japanese Communist Party in 1931. The young writer was killed during a torture session by Tokkō police two years later, at age 29.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 5, 2021
These stories are a brief introduction to working class life and politics in Japan in the 1920's written at the time from the perspective of Communists and trade union activists. They were part of the proletarian literature movement and suffer in places from dated translation, but even so real life shines through.
This collection has been dismissed in places (including on GR) as communist propaganda but although some are of uneven quality as stories, they are entertaining if disturbing, form an important historical document and surprisingly, lessons for political and trade union organising in difficult circumstances even now.
The Cannery boat describes work conditions similar to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle but these are also remarkably close to the conditions reported on boats currently fishing. Some have hit headlines when crew escaped and reported violence, theft of wages and traffiking, semi-starvation, and filthy conditions. Others became infamous for sinking and the deaths of crew such as the S. Korean trawler Oyang 70 that sank on 18 August, 2010.
Some of the stories are about strikes and ordinary people fighting for better lives in capitalist crisis. Some are about how people became socialist. There's a powerful impression of state violence. It's not just that the Japanese Communist Party was banned in 1925 under the "Peace Preservation Law" and Takiji Kobayashi was murdered by the Special Higher Police, Tokkō. Young women strikers wanting to influence railway worker in one story, have to throw the leaflets at the workers and run. One is grabbed by plain clothes police and beaten up in the street.
Another strike is smashed by police with sabres and an army unit. But the censors won't allow references to that so the author uses code. If the authors weren't witnesses to these events they were very close to the people who took part.
It's a moving and inspiring book because even in terrible times ordinary people keep fighting for a decent life and it tells some of those stories.
This collection has been dismissed in places (including on GR) as communist propaganda but although some are of uneven quality as stories, they are entertaining if disturbing, form an important historical document and surprisingly, lessons for political and trade union organising in difficult circumstances even now.
The Cannery boat describes work conditions similar to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle but these are also remarkably close to the conditions reported on boats currently fishing. Some have hit headlines when crew escaped and reported violence, theft of wages and traffiking, semi-starvation, and filthy conditions. Others became infamous for sinking and the deaths of crew such as the S. Korean trawler Oyang 70 that sank on 18 August, 2010.
Some of the stories are about strikes and ordinary people fighting for better lives in capitalist crisis. Some are about how people became socialist. There's a powerful impression of state violence. It's not just that the Japanese Communist Party was banned in 1925 under the "Peace Preservation Law" and Takiji Kobayashi was murdered by the Special Higher Police, Tokkō. Young women strikers wanting to influence railway worker in one story, have to throw the leaflets at the workers and run. One is grabbed by plain clothes police and beaten up in the street.
Another strike is smashed by police with sabres and an army unit. But the censors won't allow references to that so the author uses code. If the authors weren't witnesses to these events they were very close to the people who took part.
It's a moving and inspiring book because even in terrible times ordinary people keep fighting for a decent life and it tells some of those stories.
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July 1, 2009Kobayashi's best known work is enjoying a resurgence of recognition among Japanese "freeters" 70 years after he was arrested for being a communist and tortured to death in prison. This vivid tale of workers on a factory boat portrays the hardships and cruelty suffered by the workers at the hands of the (capitalist) ship superintendent.
January 30, 2018
Picked it off the local library shelf. Rather bland.
Do not read unless you're adamantly fond of Japanese communist propaganda.
Do not read unless you're adamantly fond of Japanese communist propaganda.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews