Understanding comes hard to persons of high rank who are accustomed to phony lifestyles that involve no daily work.
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 OeThe ambiguous orientation of Japan drove the country into the position of an invader in Asia.
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