The ambiguous orientation of Japan drove the country into the position of an invader in Asia.
Kenzaburo OeAfter the end of the Second World War it was a categorical imperative for us to declare that we renounced war forever in a central article of the new Constitution.
Kenzaburo OeAs I grew up, I was continually to suffer hardships in different realms of life - in my family, in my relationship to Japanese society and in my way of living at large in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Kenzaburo OeThere could be joy in destruction, too, couldn't there? Isn't Jesus Christ's Second Coming supposed to occur only after a lot of unmitigated destruction? But again, human history is fraught with tragedies in which man spared no effort to destroy with millenarian joy, only to learn that no messiah appeared afterwards.
Kenzaburo Oe