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Living Soldiers/Dying Soldiers: War and Decivilization in Ishikawa Tatsuzo's Soldiers Alive

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

David Askew
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Ikiteiru heitai (Living soldiers or Soldiers alive) by Ishikawa Tatsuzo (1905-1985) is arguably the best piece of war literature to emerge from the Sino-Japanese War of 1937 to 1945. In Japan, the novella has been published and republished throughout the postwar era, most recently as a Chuko Bunko in 1999, and is now available for the first time in English [1]. Providing a strong indictment not only of the conduct of the Japanese military in China but also of war itself, Ikiteiru heitai is a powerful, deeply disturbing work

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 3 , Issue 9 , September 2005 , e1
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2005

References

Notes

1 Ishikawa Tatsuzo, Ikiteiru heitai, Tokyo: Chuko Bunko, 1999. Ishikawa Tatsuzo, Soldiers Alive (translated by Zeljko Cipris), Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2003. In citing from Ishikawa's novella here, I have drawn largely upon Cipris’ translation, but have at times made changes to it in consultation with the translator.

2 For the dates 29 December and 8 January, see Ishikawa Tatsuzo “Ikiteiru heitai” jiken Keishicho ikensho-choshusho (Ishikawa Tatsuzo, Living soldiers case: The Metropolitan Police Headquarters’ opinions and hearings). Unpublished manuscript, 1938, np. Note that there is some confusion about these dates.

3 Hino Ashihei was a major, if not the major, and certainly at the time most popular, author of Japanese war literature, including his celebrated soldier trilogy, and especially the first volume of the trilogy, Mugi to heitai (Wheat and soldiers). In addition to Hino's works, see David M. Rosenfeld, Unhappy Soldier: Hino Ashihei and Japanese World War II Literature, Lanham, Boulder and Oxford: Lexington Books, 2002.

4 During his trial, Ishikawa was asked about the meaning of his title. He replied that by “ikiteiru” (living, alive) he meant soldiers who had survived in the face of death, and also meant soldiers who were true human beings. See Ishikawa Tatsuzo “Ikiteiru heitai” jiken Kohan kiroku (Ishikawa Tatsuzo, Living soldiers case: Court record). Unpublished manuscript, 1938, np.

5 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, pp. 92, 138-139. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, pp. 121, 157-158.

6 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, pp. 106, 108. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, pp. 131-133.

7 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, p. 79. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, pp. 111-112.

8 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, p. 108. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, p. 133.

9 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, pp. 63-64. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, pp. 100-101.

10 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, pp. 76-77. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, pp. 109-110.

11 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, pp. 149-150. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, pp. 167.

12 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, p. 98. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, p. 125.

13 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, pp. 90-91. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, p. 120.

14 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, p. 60. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, p. 98.

15 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, pp. 10-11, 49, 85, 97. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, pp. 59-60, 89, 116, 124.

16 See for instance Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, pp. 115-116. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, pp. 138-139.

17 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, p. 112. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, p. 136.

18 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, p. 45. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, p. 86.

19 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, pp. 93-94. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, p. 122.

20 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, pp. 77-78. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, pp. 110-111.

21 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, p. 100. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, p. 126.

22 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, pp. 49, 86. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, pp. 90, 117

23 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, pp. 133-134. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, pp. 153-154.

24 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, pp. 102-103. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, pp. 127-128, 129.

25 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, p. 103. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, p. 129.

26 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, p. 156. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, p. 172.

27 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, p. 176. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, p. 189.

28 Ishikawa, Ikiteiru heitai, pp. 182-183, 185-187. Ishikawa, Soldiers Alive, pp. 193, 195-196, 197.

29 Donald Keene, Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era, Fiction, vol. 3, History of Japanese Literature, New York: Columbia University Press, 1998, p. 914.

30 See, for instance, Haruko Taya Cook, “The Many Lives of Living Soldiers: Ishikawa Tatsuzo and Japan's War in Asia”, in Marlene J. Mayo, J. Thomas Rimer and H. Eleanor Kerkham eds., War, Occupation, and Creativity: Japan and East Asia, 1920-1960, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001, and Haruko Taya Cook, “Reporting the ‘Fall of Nankin’ and the Suppression of a Japanese Literary ‘Memory’ of the Nature of a War”, in Fei Fei Li, Robert Sabella and David Liu eds., Nanking 1937: Memory and Healing, Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 2002.

31 Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory, New York: Oxford University Press, 1975, p. ix.

32 See Ishikawa Tatsuzo, Ikiteiru heitai, Tokyo: Kawade Shobo, 1945.

33 Keene, Dawn to the West, p. 912.