Book Review - Zone of Emptiness by Hiroshi Noma

Zone of Emptiness a novel by Hiroshi Noma

Cleveland OH: The World Publishing Company, 1956

What an interesting read -When  Zone of Emptiness was originally published in Japan in 1952, it not only became a very popular novel, but was one of the many works of art from the early 50s that helped demolish the idea that the Japan of the wartime years consisted of a monolithic country all focused on one purpose and one God-Emperor.

The novel is written around two main characters, Kitani and Soda, who are privates at an army base near Osaka, late in the war. While there is no talk yet amongst the men of losing the war, they know that to be sent to the Southern fronts was a death sentence.

Kitani has just returned to his unit from two years in prison, to which he was sentenced for stealing an officer's wallet. Soda is a university student who has been drafted, and is working in the headquarters section of the unit. Kitani and Soda strike up a friendship, despite their differing backgrounds. Kitani is consumed by rage at his sentence, blaming Lieutenant Hayashi for pressing false charges against him, as well as his lover, the prostitute Hanai, whom he thinks betrayed him. His one desire is to exact revenge against these two, and any other accomplices in his fate. Soda has fallen in love with Kitani, and so tries to help him if he can.

The book's wider themes are the corruption that existed in the Japanese Army - Kitani learns at the end of the book that he was in fact the dupe of another Lieutenant who was engaged in ripping off supplies, which is one of the reasons he gets such a harsh sentence - and the lack of a feeling of duty amongst the men. Like most men in most armies most of the time, they are more concerned with keeping warm and fed, rather than the larger issues of the War, and right and wrong. The casual brutality with which the Japanese Army is associated is on display here, as well as a lack of brotherly feeling between the troops.

In the end the story is a tragedy - Kitani cannot revenge himself for the wrongdoing that he perceives has been done to him, and the corruption within the Army means that he is sent to the Front, as the rich father of one of those initially picked to go bribes the Sergeant to change the names on the list. The book ends with Kitani on the ship at night, waiting for the inevitable, and wondering if in fact Hanai may have been true to him after all.

The title of the novel comes from the character Soda, who sees life in the Army as a Zone of Emptiness - a place that is completely disconnected from the outside world, where nothing of any import occurs. He feels trapped, both physically and mentally, and morally as well, as he witnesses the corruption around him, knowing that there is nothing he can do to stop it.

One can easily see how this book would have made such an impact on publication - given the indoctrination of the Japanese people during the war years, this book would have been seen as iconoclastic, as well as possibly ringing true to those veterans who had made it back home. It is a searing indictment against Imperial Japan.

It seems that there has only ever been one translation into English of this book, the one I read, published in 1956 - interestingly a translation by Bernard Frechtman of the French translation of the Japanese original, which was published as Zone de vide.

Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell