On the Day I Shouted His Name ... (2)

Inoue wrote more than 60 dramas as well as many novels and essays. I have read none of them but have the book of collected photos, "Hisashi Inoue's Dalian*" [1], edited by Inoue and his theatrical troupe Komatsuza. Opening the book, I found Inoue's essay entitled "Dalian, the Dream Town." Reading this essay for the first time, I learned the relationship between Inoue and Dalian from it. I guessed that the photos in the book should have been part of collected data for a drama. However, the relationship had started much earlier. It was when one of his best friends moved to a primary school in Dalian and sent Inoue a picture card of Dalian in the winter of 1943. (I also moved to a primary school in Dalian in September 1944; namely, the friend of Inoue's and I had a similar experience. I bought this book to look at images of old Dalian dear to me.)

On the basis of his thought about Dalian, Inoue made a drama entitled "Enshō and Shinshō." Komatsuza made the first performance of this drama in 2005. It is about this story: Raconteurs Kokontei Shinshō and San'yutei Enshō went for performances in Manchuria** during the war time and were induced to stay in Dalian because of Japan's defeat. They had to do different and difficult jobs to live there for 600 days before coming back to Japan.

The last passage of Inoue's essay is as follows: 'The word "Dalian, the Dream Town" that entered deep in me as a child would not disappear until my death while its meaning is changing." One of the changes was due to his concern about Chinese people who had to live on the outskirts of Dalian when the city was part of Japan's borrowed land. Here we find Inoue's pacifism that made him one of initial members of the Article 9 Association.

Praying for his peaceful sleep in heaven, I wish to follow his footsteps in the efforts to keep Article 9*** of the Constitution of Japan and extend the renunciation of war all over the world.

Notes

* Dalian is a beautiful port city in the Northeast China. It was in the region of the land borrowed by Japan until August 1945, the time of Japan's defeated in the second World War.

** The historical name of the present Northeast China.

*** 1) Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.

2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

Reference

1. H. Inoue and Komatsuza, ed., Hisashi Inoue's Dalian (Shōgakukan, 2002).