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y separately published work icon Urashima Taro no shi single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1980... 1980 Urashima Taro no shi
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'...Pulvers uses the Cowra breakout during the Pacific war and its consequences in present Japanese society to describe a particular group of Japanese who express a strong degree of racial prejudice and have not fully accepted that Japan was defeated during the war. Here Pulvers even proceeds to raise the problematic issue concerning the responsibility of the Showa Emperor for the Pacific War. The protagonist, Ron, a correspondent from the Australian Broadcasting Commission, tries to solve the murders that occurred during the Cowra uprising, an activity which eventually leads to the discovery of a plot concerning how the war should be ended to protect the whole system of Japanese society.' Megumi Kato, 'Representations of Japan and Japanese People in Australian literature' PHD (2005): 269.

Notes

  • Author's Note: Urashima Taro is a legendary Japanese figure. He rode the back of a turtle to the bottom of the sea. He spent three years of pure pleasure and ecstasy in a palace there. Before he left for home he was given a box, but was told never to open it. When he arrived home, everything was changed. He knew no one and nothing. He opened the box. White smoke billowed from it. Amidst the smoke was himself, as an ancient man.

    In the early morning of 5 August 1944, over one thousand Japanese prisoners of war broke out of their camp at Cowra, New South Wales. Many of the prisoners who died in the escape are buried in a cemetery there now. A number of the Japanese in the camp had given the camp authorities fictional names, to assuage the shame of being captured. In the Cowra cemetery there is a grave for Urashima Taro.

  • English translation of the title: The Death of Urashima Taro.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Language: Japanese
    • Tokyo, Honshu,
      c
      Japan,
      c
      East Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,      :       Shinchosha ,       1980 .
      Extent: 191p.
Alternative title: The Death of Urashima Taro
Language: English
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Works about this Work

Language and Responsibility: Two Versions of Psychological Reality in the Anti-War Writings of Roger Pulvers and John Romeril David Kerr , 1989 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Commonwealth Review , vol. 1 no. 1 1989; (p. 76-86) John Romeril 1993; (p. 139-149)
Australian Literary Images of Japan: A Japanese Perspetive Megumi Kato , 1996 single work criticism
— Appears in: Crossing Cultures : Essays on Literature and Culture of the Asia-Pacific 1996; (p. 195-203)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (2)
Last amended 22 Aug 2012 14:02:02
Subjects:
Settings:
  • c
    Japan,
    c
    East Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
  • Cowra, Cowra area, Blayney - Cowra - Grenfell area, Central West NSW, New South Wales,
  • 1940s
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