Week 5 - pages 163-192

[step...@brpsk12.org]

#2-  The chopsticks standing up are a way of saying that death is expected.  They speak of it as a sign of thicker gruel, but the thicker gruel would mean more death, more hunger .  Father's words on page 168 correlates death with the citizens lining up to eat...they are lining up willingly to die. 

#3-  What is the writing on little brother's change of clothing?  What does it mean?   I don't know how to take this change....I don't understand the meaning of this kind of clothing.  It possibly foreshadows his death???   In the narrative he changes back to his original clothing, then again to the covering.  Why????

# 4-  pg 171-175     This is a cop who act brutally toward the family, calling them  traitors.  He could be stealing for himself and his family, professing to be doing what the emperor wanted. 

 He would not have to use force to take the sweet potatoes, but he does.  There is no physical retaliation by the family.  Even with his physical attacks the family still upholds respect for the office of policeman by not striking back.  (today there would be retaliation against injustice actions, even though more violence would be coming to you)

  His actions could be seen as Japan taking over a battle, with the cart the reward.  Hurting the mother seems to be over reacting.  Letting them go finally he seems to not know what else to do.  

[morgan...@gmail.com]

The Kanji on the little brother's clothing (金) translates as gold or money or sometimes as wealth.  Knowing this can cause a slightly different reading of the parts when he is wearing that clothing.  Obviously he wears it when they are begging, just like Gen who wears what could be a burlap bag or reeds.  However the little brother doesn't always change out of it when Gen changes back to his normal clothing.  The type of clothing the little brother wears, I have to admit, I'm not very familiar with.  I don't recall ever seeing anything that looks like that except aprons.  

[Lori Stubben]

3.Finally something I'm a bit of an expert in, Japanese folktales.  This clothing is the clothing of Kintaro- he is the super strong nature boy who wrestles with animals in a friendly way and then they work together.  It is a story for pre-k/kinder in Japan (all kids know it- on the level of Goldilocks) and whenever I teach first grade I tell about 15 classic Japanese folk tales and this is one of them.  I found out that during the war there was a new propagandized version of Kintaro, Kintaro the Paratrooper- but I could only find a few images and not the actual story. He still has his animal friends (bear, deer, monkey rabbit) , only they fight the Allies. It was presented on kamishibai.  This is a two dimensional wooden stage that a type of book fits into.  It is numbered sheets of cardstock with the picture side facing the audience and the words on the back of the next card so the storyteller or librarian can read it while the picture is unobstructed.  these stories would be told on the street in the olden days, and in libraries today.

I think Gen's little brother is wearing this outfit like underoos (super hero underwear for kids from the 80s- I had wonder woman). I don't know how popular the Kintaro the Paratrooper story was- there are only a few internet references, but the original folk story is one any kid would know and love in the 40s.  Kintaro represents strength, connection with nature and family (he builds his parents a home after beheading a cannibal monster).  Gen's baby brother must want to channel that energy.

2. I noticed the upright chopsticks as I have had to tell friends not to place their utensil that way before (just like passing food from chopstick to chopstick as they pass the bones of a family member in a funeral) both are bad luck, tempting fate, and irreverent. I was shocked that was part of the story.  It must be showing how desperate people are feeling at this point in the war as I can only imagine that as a F- You to death.  I think everything is falling apart in society (just like the cop basically stealing the sweet potatoes for himself). It is now a totally topsy-turvy world. I would point this out to my students as they would not know this.

[glas...@shaker.org]

GLASIER Discussion:

2. On page 167, the man holding a bowl of gruel is excited that the gruel is less watery than before and to show this, sticks his chopsticks into the gruel and it stands up.  This act, however, is seen in Japanese culture as bad luck.  “Called tsukitate-bashi (突き立て箸), it is incredibly taboo because it reminds Japanese people of funerals, where a bowl of rice is left with two chopsticks standing vertically in the center. It’s also supposed to bring bad luck”(https://blog.gaijinpot.com/dont-stick-chopsticks-bowl-rice/).  So why would the author include this?  I believe it to be foreshadowing of the coming fall of the Japanese empire.  The workers are hungry, there is little food to go around and the gentleman is celebrating gruel that is not to watery.  Nakazawa spends much of the book examining the lack of food in Japan at the time.  It seems to be a preeminent memory for him.  When the country can no longer grow enough for for its citizens during the war, people understand the end is near.  My mother, who grew up in Nazi Germany, remembers her family moving from the city of Remscheid to her uncle’s farm in the country for fear of allied bombing and food security.   In my opinion, this is what the author is doing by adding the scene.  The death of the empire is coming.  

4. In this section, a Japanese police officer accuses the family of stealing a sack of sweet potatoes and confiscates them, with much resistance from the father and sons.  The father accuses the officer of stealing the sack in order to feed himself and abusing his power of authority.  While I understand the current climate in the United States of police brutality and violence may echo the scene in the book, I find them to be two different issues.  In the book, the officer is using his authority to try to improve his position in the country that is falling apart.  It is an abuse of power, for sure, especially by someone who has sworn to protect the public.  The current crisis (and I wouldn’t actually call it current, as there is a long history) has more to do with race relations in the United States.  I believe a better comparison would be examining the family’s Korean neighbor in the story and the history of African-American injustices.  The history of Japan in Korea has some similarities to slavery and second class citizenship of Blacks in America.  As in the United States, that relationship is still very complicated and still plays out today.   

[step...@brpsk12.org]

Lori,  

Thank you for the information about the costume little brother changes into!  It is very fascinating - I had never heard of this.  Godzilla I've heard of!  I can use this in class.  It makes a lot of sense.  

[morgan...@gmail.com]

Lori

Thanks for the information about Kintaro.  I had spent hours scouring the internet for explanation of that clothing but without a starting point I couldn't come up with anything.  

I also like your reading of the chopsticks, an F-U to death, that's interesting.  With teenagers often feeling invincible, I think this is one possible interpretation that many students could discuss or argue in a class discussion.  Every once in awhile I like to post possible reasons for something in a book in a 4 corners activity and have the kids go to what they think-corner.  Then they have to discuss and justify their answers.  I think this part of the book could work well for something like this with one corner being the F-U death/American bombers, one being face value - they did it to show the food was thick, another corner being that the author was foreshadowing death for these people, and the last corner is usually "other."  

[morgan...@gmail.com]

Glasier

There would definitely be a stronger comparison between Japanese-Korean relations and African-American-US relations.  The slavery, forced relocation, work camps, status, treatment, laws...  Although I'm not sure that the book really focuses enough on this information to make it accessible without a fair bit of outside resources.  Although if you are lucky enough to cross-curricular teach this (English and History), I think this would be a excellent avenue to go down with the students.  

You bring up something worth pointing out.  Personally I see the chopsticks the same way, as foreshadowing, but including what you said I think it might go a bit deeper.  As you mentioned one of the big running themes has been lack of food.  There's no food anywhere.  The men in line for the rice gruel even comment on how it is usually little more than flavored water.  But here, just before the city is destroyed, all of a sudden there is an ample supply of food for this meal that just happens to also include the taboo with the chopsticks.  Perhaps the amount of food was necessary to make the taboo possible, but I think the dialogue opens the door for other reasons.  It's almost like Nakazawa is giving these characters a death row inmate's last meal, or possibly something about their empty bellies not being a problem anymore.