Umi to dokuyaku (The Poison and Sea)
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Umi to dokuyaku (The Poison and Sea)
It is true that the condition of human hearts is so fragile yet too stubborn. In the novel "Umi to dokuyaku" (The Sea and the Poison), Shusaku Endo explores the Japanese insensitivity to sin by basing his plot on an actual incident involving the vivisection of a captured American airman in World War II. This novel is loosely based on what happened in Unit 731 (Japanese Imperial Army) in Manchuria where human experimentation was performed for development of biological weapon. Doctors were young, innocent and ambitious then and committed heinous sins on prisoners of war sometimes willingly but sometimes under pressure.
This type of internal human battle does not stop here, it is in every hearts in every countries. Here, he paints with a broad brush, using little subtlety (Yancey, 1995). Endo is a devoted chatholic and he looks into human hearts from an angle where we do not want God to see. Most of his early works examine the Japanese sense of moral guilt in contrast to that of the Christian West (Gabriel and Snyder, 1999).
The main character in the novel is Suguro, an emotional and loyal intern. In May of 1945, Suguro and another intern, Toda, are involved in a power play among the doctors who are seeking the deanship of the Medical School...