The Sun Goes Down: Last letters
from Japanese suicide-pilots and soldiers
edited by Jean Lartéguy
translated from the French by
Nora Wydenbruck
New
English Library, 1956, 128 pages
Students from Japan's elite universities, who were conscripted after
graduation or during their studies when draft deferment for students ended in
late 1943, wrote the letters, diary entries, and poems in this book. The
original Japanese book, first published in 1949 as Kike Wadatsumi no Koe
(Listen to the Voices from the Sea) by the University of Tokyo
Consumer Co-op Publication Department, became
immensely popular and provided inspiration for the postwar peace movement.
Jean Lartéguy originally translated the soldiers' letters to French, and an
English translation came out in 1956. Another English translation of Kike
Wadatsumi no Koe, published in 2000 with the English title of Listen to
the Voices from the Sea, contains the same letters as The Sun
Goes Down and additional letters from subsequent editions of the
Japanese original. The
review on this web page focuses on unique aspects of Lartéguy's book. The book review
on Listen to the Voices from the Sea
includes additional comments and background
information about Kike Wadatsumi no Koe.
This book, published in Britain and also available for sale
in several other countries in the British Commonwealth, did not get distributed
in the U.S. Even though the soldiers' letters have been translated twice, once
from Japanese to French and then from French to English, the translations
generally capture the correct meaning based on comparisons to Yamanouchi's
translations in Listen to the Voices from the Sea. Lartéguy's book
includes only about half the number of letters and pages as Yamanouchi's book,
but this shorter book captures the essence of the desperation and anguish of
the soldiers. The book cover shown on this page comes from the New English
Library paperback edition first printed in 1975. In contrast to this intense
image of a kamikaze pilot's face, the unassuming original book cover in 1956
had a painted Japanese flag with Mount Fuji in the background.
The letters in this English translation are classified into five major historical
periods: (1) The War Against China, (2) Pearl Harbor and the Beginning of War
in Japan, (3) The War in the Pacific, (4) The Kamikazes, and (5) Hiroshima and
the Defeat. This classification and the order of the letters differ from the original Japanese
publication, which had three divisions: (1) Before the War in the Pacific, (2)
The War in the Pacific, and (3) The Defeat. Each section has a brief historical background and a selection of
letters written during that period of the war. The book's Preface and the
section backgrounds make up about one third
of the book.
The Sun Goes Down contains only limited explanatory
notes and lacks background information on the publication history of the
original Japanese book containing these letters. Each of the five sections has a general historical background,
but certain statements by Lartéguy seem prejudiced and unsupported, such as the
following long sentence from his introduction on the kamikazes (pp.89-90):
By employing suicide-planes it became possible to inflict
heavy losses on the American fleet, blows which the Japanese fleet was no
longer capable of dealing, as well as to galvanize a wayward population, which
was prone to forget all about the war one moment and despair the next, but
above all to appeal to the sinister, inhuman sanguinary side which has always
been present in the character of this people, with all its love of flowers and
birds.
Kamikaze pilots wrote only about one fifth of the letters in
this book, but these eight letters reflect a wide variety of emotions and
opinions related to their planned suicide attacks. The letters, both from
kamikaze pilots and other soldiers, surprisingly do not reflect hatred for the
enemy. Many complain of the military's brutality, unreasonable restrictions,
and heartlessness. This book has only one kamikaze pilot's letter not included
in Yamanouchi's book. The author of that letter, a young former student of Keio
University before being shot down off Okinawa in May 1945, writes, "But
freedom is the very essence of human nature and cannot be annihilated. Even if
one attempts to stifle it, it will fight on and will end by being
victorious" (pp. 99-100).
This older British book has some value related to
research of kamikaze images since World War II. However, anyone interested in
the letters of Japanese student soldiers, including kamikaze pilots, should
read Yamanouchi's Listen to the Voices from the Sea, which has more
background, better translations, and more letters.
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