#4 Myths, folklore and facts ... “Banshu Plain” by Yuriko Miyamoto - Proletarian Literature

 

 

 

Yuriko Miyamoto represents a genre that is well-known in Poland and West block countries – called and acknowledged as proletarian literature. At the very beginning she was very fortunate, her father, a Cambridge professor of architecture at Tokyo Imperial University made her education granted, well-foregrounded. The personal life upheavals and changes occurring in Japan pushed her toward socialism and feminist movements. Her short stories were full of adjectives and metaphors, she was a very good student at Columbia University where she had her internship, but studying in the USA was not her one and only entrepreneurship, she went to Russia, in Moscow she studied Russian culture and literature, and at the same time became interested in Marxism and socialism, she edited Marxist journal and was acknowledged as a main representative of ¹proletarian literature in Japan.

 

Miyamoto was a harsh opponent of a dictatorship, the literature of per-war period describes injustice made by the government. She wrote about women, their role in the society, their faithful and unbound feeling and devotion toward men.

 

One of her most successful works is “Banshu Plain”, the book is complex and didactic, describes the life of a relatively young woman – Hiroko, the background is eerie – the Second World War. For years this book has been considered as a political manifesto, underlining and emphasizing the positive factors of communism and socialism, describing it as a 'good system'. Thorough examination of the book reveals how misleading the notion is, namely, there is not such a thing called “good system”- the protagonist has to struggle to live on, to go on. The social role of the protagonist is centered within man’s world, therefore she tries so hard to be a good wife, a good daughter-in-law, a good person, she tries to fulfill the expectations of every member of her family, with no exception, but, soon she finds out it is not possible. The marriage is politically crushed down, Horiko's husband is jailed and persecuted for his left-sided political ideologies, proletarian activity, he gets a great support from his wife, she is an excellent caretaker, an excellent organizer and a supporter. She takes over his role in the movement, she visits him very frequently, moreover, she writes letters, letters which are wit, cunning, deride from censorship and dictatorship. She is aware of the fact that she would have to pass through this horrible and difficult time, both, she and her husband will be reunited, eventually. Martyrdom is seen at every aspect of her life. She is not afraid of it, she is not ashamed of it. Various aspects of the protagonist's character are described, from heroine's attempts to prove independent and decisive thinking to helpless and hopeless feelings of loneliness and alienation. She misses her family, the husband is a pillar of the marriage, when the flood strikes Hiroko panics, prays for her husband, she wants him back. The hope makes her strong and prevail against all odds. She realizes that the love she has got toward her husband is not fully reciprocated. She feels anguish and despair. Yet, she knows she has to understand it, she needs her husband, however, her husband doesn't necessarily need her as much as she wants to.

 

“(...) she knew that Jukichi would live the kind of life he chose, whether or not she was with him (...)”

 

Eventually, the Abolition Law also known as the Peace Preservation Law is established, our protagonist sets out for a journey to welcome her husband … .

 

The book doesn't focus much on the system, on socialism, much more, though, on mutual relationships between the husband and the wife. Tricky comments of Jukichi hurt Hiroko, but, instead of argumentation and self-defense, she accepts passive, pensive mood, and submits thankful comments later on, about something she did not full noticed at first … her demeanor has to be justified by the fact that she is not, and probably will never be ready to shake off man’s dominant role, even though she struggled hard to survive through difficult time, she will not be successful without her husband and his family.

1Proletarian literary genres emerged and developed quite late in Japan in 1910, the movement was strictly combined with the changes Japan underwent, the transformation of so-called – Taisho democracy. Japanese goverment squeezed all forms of ploletarian movement, the represions were harsh and irreversable. Some members were tortured to the death.