The ambiguous orientation of Japan drove the country into the position of an invader in Asia.
Kenzaburo OeIf any suffering was fruitless it was the agony of a hangover; what he suffered now could not expiate suffering of any other kind.
Kenzaburo OeParadoxically, the people and state of Japan living on such moral props were not innocent but had been stained by their own past history of invading other Asian countries.
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