The Super-Big Takiji Post!
Instead of several small posts on Takiji this week, I decided to give you a big one. My hope is that you'll have enough here to spark a lively discussion on a very significant writer in the comments section below. In other words, I'm hoping you will respond to one another below as well. Of all the novels and stories I teach, The Factory Ship tends to be one of my students' favorites. I'm looking forward to learning if that will be the case for you all. There are also a few scenes that sometimes spark fierce debates. We'll see what you all do with this week's material!
First: A Note on Names
Some famous people are referred to in special ways or just by a single name. I can mention "John and Yoko" or "Kobe and Shaq," and you'll know the people I mean (probably), and I can mention Picasso or Da Vinci, and the effect is the same. In the case of Japanese literature, some of the most famous (early) modern and premodern authors are known by their given names. KOBAYASHI Takiji is known as Takiji. He was murdered when he was very young, which might have something to do with why he is, affectionately for some of us, referred to as Takiji. For those of you who've taken other classes with me, you'll know that Ichiyô, Bashô, Saikaku and others are also nown by their given names. And yet other writers are known by their surnames (or family names). MISHIMA and ÔE, for example, are known by their surnames, and so are some much earlier writers like CHIKAMATSU. Sometimes people writing at more or less the same time and with more or less the same level of fame are referred to in different ways, so there is no fixed rule, but it does seem that by the 1930s, more and more writers were getting referred to by their surnames. And yet ... the contemporary novelist YOSHIMOTO Banana is referred to as Banana. But if you were named Mahoko and took the pen name Banana, people would probably call you Banana too.
On a related note, which characters in The Factory Ship have names and which don't? What's up with that?
Second: Takiji's Life and Death
Takiji was a proletarian writer and activist. What does that mean? Have you ever heard the term before? Why do you think I am having you read this novel in a class on anarchism?
As I briefly mentioned in class, at the age of 29 (in 1933), Takiji was tortured to death by the Japanese military police. Anyone want to guess why? This is a photo of his comrades gathered around his brutalized corpse. One of my students in the first Japanarchy course described this as "the most haunting image" he had ever seen.
When Professor Norma Field of the University of Chicago was here last year, she talked to my classes about Takiji. Among the many things she shared that I will never forget was the story of how the following photos were removed from one of the only places where they could be seen. She is writing about the circumstances behind that decision for an upcoming book, but we can talk about it in class too if we have time.
I was familiar with the photo above, but I had never seen these photos before her visit. They are difficult to see.
Norma Field also told us that the police used torture techniques on Takiji that were taken from one of his novels, March 15, 1928. What do you think of that?
We have an excellent documentary on Takiji in the UI library. Unfortunately, it's not subtitled, but if you want to watch it in Japanese, it's 『時代を撃て・多喜二』 (22619 VHS) in Media Services in the Main Library! It's really good.
Third: The Factory Ship Manga
In Japanese, the title of The Factory Ship is 蟹工船 (Kani Kôsen), which is really a crab-factory (or crab canning) ship.
I told you about a contest for people under 25 to write a short essay about the work you are currently reading. The winner will be flown to Otaru, Japan for the awards ceremony. I hope those of you who can read and write in Japanese will give this a try! (Big cash prizes too!) See me if you have any questions. The contest is connected to the release of a new comic book (manga) called Manga kani kôsen! Below are the first pages of this companion piece to the novel you are reading. Enjoy! (We have it in the UI library.) To view a larger version, just click on any image below. It begins with Takiji's grieving comrades gathered around his corpse. They are in shock at the tragedy of his horrible murder. They know he couldn't have suffered a heart attack like the military police claimed. (He was, after all, an excellent swimmer with a strong heart.) This scene is used to introduce the story "The Factory Ship."
Fourth: Location
Click on any of the images below to see a larger version. The stamp features Takiji and the work we are reading this week and was issued in 2000. The photos are of the Sea of Okhotsk & Kamchatka.
Finally: An extra reading for those who know about the TV show "24" and want more ideas to discuss in class
Try reading "The Epistemology of Torture: 24 and Japanese Proletarian Literature" by Heather Bowen-Struyk!
posted by adrienne @ 12:26 PM
25 comments
25 Comments:
what do i even say? yes, i love this story, i am very gripped and disturbed by it, but also find it extremely informative. i think he is a remarkable writer. can we take much of what he says about the way capitalists and entrepeneurs treat(ed) laborers as fact? is this fairly accurate on how it went for migrant farmers, miners, factory workers, etc.? i am so glad someone was intelligent, brave, insightful, and talented enough to write such a story that incorporates detailed accounts of the proletariat struggle. Proletariat is poor folk, like really super poor folk with nothing but the ability to work; it's hand-to-mouth. this is important in a class about anarchism because anarchists ally themselves with the proletariat struggle; anarchists seek to dissolve the economic system that oppresses laborers, or the proletariat. As Takiji shows, a capitalist economy enslaves countless workers in order to maintain itself, and anarchists struggle against all systems of domination and subordination. i have a question for people: what would an anarchist economy look like? how would it take shape, how would it function?
mmartah, while The Factory Ship is most definitely a work of fiction, it is nonetheless directly inspired by very real events. For example, we can think of the real story of the Hakuai Maru, a canning ship in the Sea of Okhotsk that was the center of a news story in 1926. The abuse of workers on that ship was reported to have been severe, including beatings, brandings, and lynchings. While the workers on that ship were able to sue their employers successfully, most cases went unreported and unaddressed. Takiji began researching the conditions on ships after he read about that story in the newspapers.
You might be interested to know that Takiji wrote The Factory Ship (and other works) while he was working for a bank! He wrote this kind of fiction "on company time," in other words. In one story, he exposed the way his employer was cheating tenant farmers. As you might imagine, he was fired after that story appeared. Although he was educated and was able to find work at the bank, it's important to remember that Takiji also understood the struggles of poor people intimately. He was born into a poor farming family. We'll be able to discuss more in class, but hopefully this answers your question enough for now.
There's really a lot to talk about in this story. I think one of the reasons why it was considered dangerous is because it very explicitly says that the Japanese Empire is degrading and corrupt. Worse than that, it valorizes Russia, Japan's enemy. I noticed that the mentions of the emperor in the story fit in with other things we've been saying about the "empty center" of the emperor system.
Also what was up with the part with the guys having sex? It's part of the motif of the terrible things that the men are forced to do because of their awful conditions. It even says that not having women is "unnatural" (what a problematic word), which I guess means that these guys having sex with each other is unnatural too. That's fucked up.
My goodness! This class cuts right to the chase! mmartah started off with the most common question I get (is the story "real"?), and then Joshua brought up one of the most frequently discussed topics (what is up with the descriptions of sex on the ship?). If you keep up this level of engagement, we might not have anything left to discuss on Wednesday! :)
Was this work based on Russian class struggle theory? If it wasn't its interesting to see to different cultures have the same take on a socio economic class system.
In response to a question asked earlier about an anarchist economy....hmmmm....i suspect it would be a barter based system that could only work on a person to person scale. Though keeping that in mind i dont see how that could function on a practical scale in modern day (I will admit i have only had three semesters of economics though).
I haven't finished reading it yet, but so far it has been very disturbing, but interesting. Takiji really allows you to understand what is happening in the story by writing very descriptive details.
To be honest, I really don't know why some names were mentioned and some were not, and Mmartah pretty much answered the second question. But, I believe I know why Takiji was beaten to death.
In the story, a group of Russians were explaining to Japanese fishermen that Japan needs to have Proletariat people because without those people, everyone will die. The Russians were also explaining that Japan is "hopeless" if they do not have Proletariat people by assigning EVERY Japanese citizen to work.
So, I believe the police beat Takiji to death because the Japanese were buying the enemy's(In this case, Russia because of the Russo-Japanese war) propaganda.
(Sorry for the long comments)
In response to Mmartah's question, I think it's almost impossible to decribe an anarchist economy because there are many types of anarchists.
Some anarchists want to kill anyone just for fun because they are freaks, but other anarchists, such as Kanno, kill a specific person to "make a statement."
If you combine the two to form an economy, you will have many dead bodies lying around. But, if you just combine anarchists like Kanno, you would most likely see a totally different economy.
It's difficult to think what it would be like, but I know for sure that EVERYONE would be treated equally. There would be no emperor or discrimination against men and women. As for the government other politcs, I really don't know....
I haven't finished reading the story either, but i was very disturbed to see the tortured body of Takiji. i can agree with the "haunting image" comment.The fact that the torture tactics were taken out of Takiji's own writing was also disturbing to me but also drew my attention. to see that his writing caused this much of a controversy just shows the impact of his writing and so i am looking forward to finishing the FActory Ship.
The conditions on the ship were so horrible I found myself wondering half-way through the story why the workers hadn't rebelled much, much sooner. I guess maybe it is the influence of culture and status and hierarchy (and maybe hopelessness?) but if I had been on that ship, the lice alone would've made me do it!
I'm going to start off my post for this story the same way I started it off the last time I read it. With a link to a looong list of metaphors and similes that Takiji uses throughout.
http://home.mchsi.com/~5oclockcharlie1/factoryship.html
I remember being struck the last time with how frequently the people on the ship are compared to animals etc. I think reading it a second time is just as horrifying as the first time. I don't feel that any of the trauma (as it were) was reduced when reading it a second time. It is just as forceful and nightmarish.
I believe the "Red propaganda" was a huge catalyst for rebellion for the workers aboard the ship. Though they were uncomfortable with the conditions on board, they never really took an active role in doing anything about it until introduced to the Communist pamphlets. I thought the most interesting thing was that several other ships who returned had similar literature. I bet the Japanese "superintendents" had no idea that their crafty plans to illegally fish Russian waters would ultimately lead to their demise.
I would be interested to know how homosexuality was viewed in 1929 Japan. I realize the use of the word "unnatural" is a little more understandable from a historical perspective, but that's not to excuse blatant homophobia. I believe it does lendsa little more understanding to the use of the word. Even today you'll find those who view homosexuality as "unnatural." You could just as easily claim that scene was pedophilic as well (if I recall, the boy was 14 or 15 years old). The entire story plays with the notion of morality on so many levels. I think the intercourse was a mild interjection juxtaposed against the brutality of Asakawa.
The thing about this that stood out the most was the fact that the police tortured Takiji using methods he himself had written about. That seems like adding insult to injury - like, he himself devised his own death. It feels like the police were sticking their thumb in his eye.
Yeah, Chad, Takiji is definitely calling it a pedophilic relationship. I would call it pederastic, but definitely not pedophilic. Instead of discussing the relationships that Kanno Sugako and Kaneko Fumiko had to sexual abuse at a very young age, Takiji wants to demonize a sexual act which he writes as being perfectly consensual.
I would don't know if we can use our contemporary U.S. defition of "homosexuality" to describe this particular sex act at the particular time, but Takiji seems to make it clear in his writing that men having sex with each other is unnacceptable within the general society as well as within his own moral opinion.
This really was a phenomenal story and I’ve really loved reading my classmates reactions since I was struck by the same aspects of the story and of Takiji’s death. I was extremely surprised that the ‘good guys’ won in the end by successfully striking. The intensely dark tone of the story prepared me for an equally horrific ending, but then viola, hope at the end of the tunnel. And it was the unnamed that succeeded! Like the story of Motonari Mori and the arrows, they were strong when they all stood together and did not give in to the brutality of those in power. Yet this seems a bit naïve, especially considering what happened to Takiji…
Also, I am reminded of Kaneko and her analysis of the proletariat masses. While Takiji believed in the power of the masses, Kaneko decidedly did not. They were at opposite ends of the spectrum, Takiji glorifying the proletariat and Kaneko despising their passive ‘stupidity’. Personally, I feel like a balance of the two may be more logical and useful.
I viewed the sex in the story as just more realism. That is what would be occurring on boats like that and that is how many individuals would have viewed the homosexual/pedophilic act. Takiji did focus on certain things to portray his message but he was also very honest.
I first want to start off by saying how dark and real this story was. But true to all good fiction, it's supposed to be. It was very haunting, and the way it jumped around made it even more real.
That being said, my take on the "sex scene" was not that it was unnatural, or unexpected persay, but the men needed to release they're sexual frustrations in some way. Takiji says in the story "It is unnatrual for men to be seperated from women for 4 or 5 months at a time". Throwing that scene in there is like like saying, "hey this is what happenes." I think is was more the age of the boy, and the fact that it seemed more like the man was witnessing what seemed like a rape that made it problematic.
When the workers are recalling times from some of their past jobs, Takiji brings up the issue of public opinion. With all the exploition of workers that was going on, what was public opinion at the time? Was it to stop the exploition? Or did the propoganda make people see that "this is what has to be done"?
Oh wait! I reread that sex scene and it was definitely NOT consensual! Sorry.
There's just so much going on with this story and all the jumbled thoughts that I'm having. I feel sympathy for the proletariat but at the same time I'm torn with thinking "Well, who else is gonna do that job?" It reminds me of the quote "They don't want to meat the butcher but they want to eat the hamburger." We all turn a blind eye to some form of exploitation because sometimes we wreak the benefits. (For example, Sweat Shops for a lot of those fancy clothes so many people like.)
Also, I think so many people were moved by this story for the same reasons that torture films do well in the box office. We're fascinated with it. Weather that's because we want to see how far the human psyche can be pushed or because it curdles our blood and we're glad that it's not us.
And the sex....I'm sure that it was put there for a significant reason because of the hundreds of significant messages that this book addresses. But I'm tempted to say that it was put there for shock value. Occasionally I'm watching a film and they would be a rape scene or a sexual encounter for no other purpose than just to have it.
Takiji definitely doesn't glorify the workers themselves, though I think he does glorify consider Communism as a panacea. Part of what I love about Takiji is that, while he does write simply and directly, he doesn't try to make the factory workers out to be innocent or naive. They are poor, and largely uneducated, and crude, and yet they are the protagonists. That carries a kind of realism that I don't often seen in modern propaganda. (And it IS propaganda. Good, literary propaganda, but propaganda all the same.)
So what's up with the chicks? Women are pretty strongly objectified in this story; seen mostly as sex objects or devoted mothers. We already know that the Anarchist/Socialist/Communist movements tended to ignore their Feminist counterparts; I think that shows up here. Takiji was concerned with income inequality, class-based discrimination and privation, but he doesn't seem to have given much thought to gender-based discrimination.
"From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs." This is a Marxist slogan, basically saying that as long as you work, you shall eat. Yet we see these poor workers laboring incessantly, and their needs are not met. I think that Takiji probably had something like that in mind as he highlighted the injustice of how the supervisor/captain live and how the workers live.
This is such a powerful story. I have trouble reading through the torture part, though. For one, I LOATHE torture. In my mind, it is as bad as if not worse than murder. So reading such graphic descriptions is horrifying, and because I find it so horrifying, it makes me really HATE the antagonists. The fact that poor Takiji was actually tortured like that, in real life, is just sickening. THAT is what a militaristic government does. THAT is the sort of thing that's been going on at Guantanamo Bay. It's horrible.
The thing about torture is that it's more intense than straight-up murder. To torture someone, you have to demean their very existence, to treat them as subhuman, as not worthy of even the most fundamental kind of compassion. You have to direct so much overpowering negative energy/thought/intent at someone that it literally breaks their will to live, destroys the link of common humanity, and probably drives them crazy. It's the worst thing any human being can do to another, I think.
Martha, I've been wondering about the same question. If anarchists everywhere succeeded in getting rid of governments they don't like, how would the world take shape? Social stratification has existed for thousands of years ever since some individuals obtained more resources than others and controlled trade. With such dense populations and diverse specialization, we need trade and laws to guide it, because it's too much to hope that everyone has common sense.
It seemed like the point of the story was to make the common people rise up against the government because it only looked after the corrupt, rich politicians. Kobayashi Takiji also threw in a touch of communism thrown to show readers an alternate form of government that would save them from their capitalist slave drivers. He said that the emperor was so high up that he was of no concern to the laborers of Japan, so all the hype about "working for the empire" was just empty propoganda. Most of the story revolved around the workers coming to grips with the reality of their situation, and that life was not so simple as the propoganda would have them believe.
The conditions the factory ship workers lived in were apalling and I sincerely hope students in Japan learn about these travesties so they never happen again. However, if it's anything like how we've been educated, they were probably told that such things happend and it was very naughty, but that's the extent of it. I remember when I learned about WWII in social studies, they briefly mentioned the Japanese internment camps, but nothing more. I imagine that if Japanese students want to know more about their history, they're on their own.
I'm trying to figure out what happened to his legs in the picture. Did they break his femur?
I find the relationship between the superintendent and the captain very interesting. The captain is a sympathetic character and the ship is HIS duty. But a man that's representing a business is telling him what to do. I'm sure the captain feels useless and pathetic, maybe not as much as the other workers, but I'm sure he feels very bad.
If I made a film adaptation I would make Asakawa, the superintendent feel somewhat guilty at the end of the film during the strike:
With a bar over the door Asakawa stands on the deck alone knowing the men are coming for him. Asakawa upholsters his gun and with no hesitation drops it over the side int the horrific cold waves. A worker's knife glimmers in the ice covered deck a few feet away. He picks it up and grips the cold slimy blade in his hand. Asakawa's cold eyes become lost in the furious black ocean. The barred door bangs like a tank is on the other side. The worker's sick wretched screams wail and echo throughout the ship. Asakawa's mind is lost in the rain, "I have failed. I failed my wife, my children... the corporation, my country. I have failed my god, my emperor." Asakawa smirks and whispers as if telling the storm a secret, "Banzai". He pushs the sharp blade across his fat stomach and hurtles his body over the railing. Workers break through the door spilling onto the deck screaming for Asakawa. The splash of a body is lost in the whirlwind of rain. The men never find Asakawa's body, he disappeared like a mith creature at sea. The workers thought to themselves was he ever real? Or did he just represent the unwillingness in their minds to unburden their own situation.
Wow!!!!!!!!
Wow, through class we're meeting all these figures who died for their beliefs. Revolutions aren't single events, a few deserving their own chapter in a history book--it seems like the world is constantly revolting...revolving...and I would hope evolving too.
I found the whole story captivating and admirable. After browsing through the chapters and seeing how much reading it was, I thought that it was going to be a drag, but it was quite entertaining. I had no idea that in early times homosexuality was accepted among samuri and that hyper masculinity was associated with homosexual identity. I think the same still goes for Western culture except that we assume that feminine men are "gay" and heterosexual misogynistic men are "straight," but it's though misogynistic men you have to be careful about b/c those end to be the exact opposite, a little FYI.
I think that police brutality is disgusting. It's horrifying to see that the people that are supposed to protect us are capable of torturing a human being like they did Takiji. I honestly think that the people who did it thought that they were being clever using the techniques that he had described. It's not a thing of the past and that brutality, maybe not as severe, still exists today and I think its really scary.
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