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Seventeen's Battle with the Cult of Masculinity: Reading Ōe Kenzaburō's 1960s Critique of Rightist Resurgence in the Age of Abe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
Abstract
1960 was marked by radical political and social upheavals as the Japanese wartime old guard returned to power after the end of the U.S. occupation (1945-1952). In May of that year, unindicted-war-criminal-turned-prime-minister Kishi Nobusuke (1896-1987) forced the controversial Japan-U.S. Security Treaty through the Diet in the dead of night after police removed members of the opposition parties. Over the next six months, millions of Japanese took to the streets to protest this subversion of the political process and the military alliance with the United States. The opposition included socialists, communists, radical student organizations, organized labor, peace and anti-nuclear proponents, and a wide swath of ordinary citizens who were still haunted by memories of wartime suffering. One particularly shocking episode punctuated this tumultuous year in Japan's postwar history: the assassination of the Socialist Party chairman, Asanuma Inejirō (1898-1960), by 17-year-old Yamaguchi Otoya (1943-1960). On 12 October, Yamaguchi, a young man enamored with militant, rightist doctrine, mortally wounded Asanuma in Hibiya Hall, where he was participating in a political debate. It was in this turbulent post-war crucible that future Nobel Prize winner Ōe Kenzaburō wrote the provocative novella Seventeen (Sebunchīn). This essay examines the controversy over the novel at the time and its place today.
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Notes
1 The quotations herein are from Luk Van Haute's translation in Seventeen and J: Two Novels, Foxrock Books (NY, 1996), 1-73. Seventeen in Japanese can be found in “Ōe Kenzaburō shōsetsu Vol 1 (Tokyo: Shinchōsha, 1996), 387-425. Some refer to the two novellas as one text by the name Seventeen because they were originally titled Seventeen and a Politial Youth Dies: Seventeen Part II. The reading herein focuses on the first work.
2 Masao Miyoshi's introduction to Van Haute's translation explains that due to ongoing harassment and death threats from the Right, Ōe has never allowed the reprinting of A Political Youth Dies, the sequel to Seventeen. Miyoshi writes, “Ōe's cautiousness must be respected and, therefore, A Political Youth Dies is not included in this volume.” Seventeen and J: Two Novels, x-xi. It should be noted that Ōe has recently granted permission for A Political Youth Dies to be reprinted in Japanese and translated into German. The work includes historical and literary introductory materials as well as commentary on the translation. See Irmela Hiiya-Kirschnereit and Christoph Heid. Drahtseilakte: der junge Kenzaburo Ōe (München: ludicium, 2015)
3 For more on “fantastic fiction” and Ōe, see Susan Napier, The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature: The Subversion of Modernity, Routledge, 1996.
4 Yuichiro Onishi, “The Presence of (Black) Liberation in Okinawan Freedom: Transnational Moments, 1968-1972” in Extending the Diaspora: New Histories of Black People, eds. Dawne Y. Curry, Eric D. Duke, and Marshanda A. Smith (U of Illinois Press, 2009), 184.
5 Michiko Wilson, “Kenzaburō Ōe: Laughing Prophet and Soulful Healer.” Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 26 Jan 2007. Accessed May 28, 2015.
6 James Sterngold. “Nobel in Literature goes to Kenzaburo Ōe of Japan. New York Times. October 14, 1994.
7 Ōe Kenzaburō, The Pinch Runner Memorandum, Trans. Michiko N. Wilson and Michael K. Wilson, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1994, xi.
8 “Introduction,” Seventeen and J: Two Novels, viii. For more on Ōe's experiences during this time see Letters to the Memorable Year (Natsukashî toshi e no tegami) (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1987). Also of note is the fact that Ōe was again the target of vociferous criticism in 2006, when he was forced to fight a libel case over his 1970 essay Okinawa Notes, addressing the forced mass-suicides of Okinawan citizens by the Japanese military during the Battle of Okinawa. After a two-year ordeal, the court ruled in favor of Ōe.
9 Michiko N. Wilson, The Marginal World of Ōe Kenzaburō (New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc. 1986), 78.
10 Susan Napier, Escape from the Wasteland: Romanticism and Realism in the Fiction of Mishima Yukio and Ōe Kenzaburō (Cambridge Massa: Council on East Asia Studies, Harvard U. 1991), 148-160. Kawaguchi Takayuki, “A Study of Seventeen and A Political Youth Dies: An Archeology of the ‘Pure Emperor‘” (“Sebunchīn” “Seijishōnenshisu” ron: “junsui tennō” no kōkogaku), Kokubungaku kō, Vol. 153, 1997, 33-44.
11 Takahashi Yuki, “The Political Youth' in Front of the T.V.: A Study of Ōe Kenzaburō's Seventeen and A Political Youth Dies” (terebin no mae no “seijishōnen”: Ōe Kenzaburō “Sebunchīn” “Seijishōnenshisu” ron), Showa Literary Studies, Vol. 60, 2010, 27-38.
12 Murakami Katsunao, “Narrative Resisting Fascism: On the Animal-like Voice of the Other in Ōe Kenzaburō's Seventeen” (Fuashizumu ni teikōsuru katari: Ōe Kenzaburō “Sebunchīn” ni okeru dōbutsuteki tasha no koe), Showa Literary Studies, Vol. 67, 2013, 39-50.
13 There may be room to criticize Ōe for this penchant, but that remains to be done within a deeply contexualized discussion of his oeuvre.
14 Philip Seaton, “The Nationalist Assault on Japan's Local Peace Museums: The Conversion of Peace Osaka.” Japan Focus. July 26, 2015. Volume 13. Issue 30. Number 2. See also the writings of Lawrence Repeta on the National Security Legislation, the State Secrecy Act, proposed changes to the constitution, Article 9, and more here.
15 Opposition groups have consistently called this the War Legislation (sensō hōan). See the newspaper published by the Communist Party, Akahata, and the newsletter produced by Japan's only national advocacy group for survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization, for examples.
16 In looking at such images, one cannot help but think of the now disbanded but recently vibrant student movement known as Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy (SEALDs). Although different in tenor, tactics, and scale to their 1960s counterpart, one can recognize the common goal to “aim to rethink and enact democracy.” See English website here.
17 Mark Driscoll. Absolute Erotic, Absolute Grotesque: The Living, Dead, and Undead in Japan's Imperialism, 1895-1945 (Durham and London, Duke University Press, 2010), 264.
18 Another linkage between the Imperial Way and the Nazis appears toward the very end of the novella. “The steel code of ethics of our Youth Group is based on the speech the Nazi Himmler delivered, roaring like a lion, at a congress of SS officers at Poznan on the fourth of April, 1943” (72). If one thinks Ōe's repeated reference to the Nazis is rather overdetermined, I would direct them to Prime Minister Aso Tarō's 2013 public statement that Japan could learn from what the Nazi party accomplished in parliament in 1933. “Germany's Weimar Constitution was changed into the Nazi Constitution before anyone knew. It was changed before anyone else noticed. Why don't we learn from that method.” Jake Adelstein, “Jeers, Apologies, and Silence: Japan 2014 in Quotes.” Japan Times. Dec 22, 2014. Accessed August 13, 2015. Accessed March 20, 2016.
19 Setsu Shigematsu, Scream from the Shadows: The Women's Liberation Movement in Japan (Minneapolis: U Minnesota Press, 2012), 36.
20 Kerry Smith, “‘History is harsh’: Prime Minister Abe, the Joint Session of Congress, and World War II.” Japan Focus. May 15, 2015. Accessed January 26, 2016.
21 This law went into effect on 10 December 2014.
22 Christopher W. Hughes, “An ‘Abe Doctrine’ as Japan's Grand Strategy: New Dynamism or Dead-End?” Japan Focus. July 21, 2015.
23 For more about the critical response to Abe's “attack on the key principles of constitutionalism and the rule of law” from constitutional scholars, see C. M. Rubin. “Japanese Scholars Say No to War.” Huffington Post. July 11, 2015. Accessed January 26, 2016..
24 Nihonkokukenpō kaisei sōan. Jiyūminshutō. April 27, 2012. p. 4. The side-by-side comparison of the LDP's revised proposal and the current constitution aids greatly in identifying the drastic and troubling changes.
25 Hisahiko Okazaki, “Japan's Step Toward Normalcy,” Okazaki Institute, February 26, 2013. Accessed June 11, 2014. Okazaki counters critiques of Abe's platform, arguing, “The change we are witnessing is not a swing to the right but a gradual shift toward normalcy” (2). Offering unsubstantiated evidence, he states that 80% of people around the world are willing to fight to defend their country while in Japan it is less than 50%.
26 “Enough with WWII Apologies: Japan PM Sees no Need to Reinforce Remorse.” RT. April 22, 2015. Accessed January 26, 2016.
27 Nihonkokukenpō kaisei sōan, p. 2.
28 Michael Holtz. “Reviving Shinto: Prime Minister Abe Tends Special Place in Japan's Soul.” The Christian Science Monitor. October 5, 2015. Accessed March 20, 2016.
29 “Atarashii rekishi kyōkasho wo tsukuru kai: Shuisho.” Atarashii rekishi kyōkasho wo tsukuru kai. January 30, 1997. Accessed January 20, 2016.
30 It should be noted that this agreement is effectively rendered void due to the impeachment proceedings of President Park.
31 Yuki Tanaka. “A Critique of Prime Minister Abe's Policy on the ‘Comfort Women’ Issue and Japan's Social Formation of Hegemonic Masculinity.” Hiroshima Peace Institute. Accessed July 05, 2014.
32 While for some time now there has been the informal practice of women using their birth names in professional settings, recent incidents indicate that the Supreme Court ruling is making this harder. See here.
33 Weston, Mark, Giants of Japan: The Lives of Japan's Most Influential Men and Women. NY: Kodansha International, 1999, pp. 294-295. Ōe remembers being repeatedly prompted by a teacher to affirm his commitment to “cut his belly open and die” for his divine emperor.
34 To this day, Ōe remains the only person to refuse acceptance of this order.
35 “Kenzaburō Ōe Urges Abe to Reflect on Japan's Past” The Hankyoreh. March 13, 2015. Accessed March 20, 2016.