Reflections of National Mourning of Japanese People After the Kobe Earthquake; “UFO In Jushiro” by Haruki Murakami

Humans are to exist in close relation to their surrounding natural world, and even if they are not ready to acknowledge it – still their lives are impacted by natural disasters to a great extent. The Kobe earthquake had a terrible influence upon people of the city, as well as the whole nation. The earthquakes in Japan leave the traces of tremor and despair for the people, living in those areas. Such tragedies became the integral parts of the collective consciousness for Japanese people. They are to live with the thought that nature could strike at any moment of time and demolish everything, disregarding social or financial status of individuals. Certainly these facts have direct impact upon the life philosophy, developed by Japanese people and their lifestyles. The story UFO In Jushiro by Haruki Murakami is the reflection of the unique talent of the author in exploring of the inside world of the individuals, who had to face emotional and physical challenges in their lives and sink into self-consideration, distance from the society. The protagonist of the story is Komura, who suddenly finds out that he was left by his wife. He takes up a needless journey without a concrete aim and there meets another woman, who gives him a chance to reconsider his life and his future. The main symbol of the story is the Kobe earthquake and life of the whole Japanese nation after it.

The Kobe earthquake becomes the turning point for the relationship between Koruma and his wife. Koruma was shocked to know that his wife saw their relationship absolutely in a different light in comparison to him and wanted to divorce him. Komura’s wife was watching the news of the Kobe earthquake for five days and then she took the decision to leave her husband, informing him in a short note that she was not coming back: “you have nothing inside you that you can give me. You are good and kind and handsome, but living with you is like living with a chunk of air. It’s not entirely your fault, though.” (Murakami 2007). When she saw the terrible incident, related to the earthquake, she started to reconsider her own life and her own position in the world. “His wife, on the other hand, disliked Tokyo’s crowded urban life style and longed for Yamagata. She missed her parents and her two older sisters, and she would go home to see them whenever she felt the need.” (Murakami 2007). She came to conclude that she does not want to spend the rest of her life with Komura and should better leave him. As the Kobe earthquake happened, it finally destroys the last defense line within the wife’s heart and she made up her mind that she will no longer stay with this guy, who has different lifestyle in comparison to her. The reason why she looked at the news for such a long time can be explained by the fact that there’re so many tragedies happened, she found that life is short and she should cherish every moment in her life, so she is no longer willing to spend her time with a guy she dislike.

The Kobe earthquake is a natural collapse and at the same time the symbol of the collapse of Komura’s inside world. He seemed to have happy life before the earthquake and as soon as his wife leaves, he has to face emptiness and lack of any further life aims. He does not even have the aim to stop his wife. Instead he takes a useless journey without any concrete aim, just to deliver the box to his colleague’s sister – Shimao. When they meet with Shimao, there was a moment during the dinner, when it seemed that Komura started to develop his interest towards Shimao and he even remained with her, when she told him: “you need to lighten up and learn to enjoy life a little more. I mean, think about it: tomorrow there could be an earthquake; you could be kidnapped by aliens; you  could  be  eaten  by  bears.  Nobody  knows  what’s  going  to  happen.” (Murakami 2007). The main idea here is that people should learn to enjoy their lives today, without waiting for something good to happen or being afraid of something bad to take place. Finally, Komura failed to have sex with her and gave up the attempts. His mind was overloaded with the images of the earthquake, “images of it had come to him one after another, as if in a slide show, flashing the screen and fading away. Highways, flames, smoke, piles of rubble, cracks in streets.” (Murakami 2007). His inability to have intimate relations with Shimao is one more proof of his ill-balanced inside world, hindering his normal life functions. Komura is not able to stop and he goes deeper in researching of himself and his feelings as he is not able to forget the words of his wife that she was living with “a chunk of air”. Considering this idea, Komura says: “that there is nothing inside me, I guess. … I’m not sure, though. I may have nothing inside me, but what would something be.” (Murakami 2007). Koruma appears to be perfect in front of other people, where he is handsome, good at work, and never has any affair with other women after the marriage, but the earthquake collapses his ‘perfect cover’ and reveals his empty inner part to the world.

The strongest symbol in the story is the box, and the box is symbolizes the forgone of his past (within the box) and the rebirth. When Komura is bothered with his own inside world, he felt that he needed to know what was inside that box, which he had brought. Shimao gives a rather mysterious comment to Komura’s considerations about the box, she says “it’s because that box contains the something inside you. You didn’t know that when you carried here and gave it to Keiko with your own hands. Now you’ll never get it back” (Murakami 2007). The loss of the box is somehow associated with the loss of a close person. Komura lost his love and his wife and understanding of this fact does not usually come immediately, rather gradually. At the same time the loss of box could mean the loss of his self, and still there is a chance for rebirth for the main hero of the story, to the same extent like there is a second chance for the people, who experienced the earthquake, lost their close people and still remained alive and could overcome their mental and physical collapse and continue moving on in the their lives.  Shimao said to Komura “you’re just at the beginning,” and the story doesn’t really give out any resolution, but rather just leave an open-ending to the readers, which allows the readers to think deeper of what the new beginning means to Komura.

UFO In Kushiro explores the feelings and emotions of individuals, who had to go through serious ordeals in their lives and the author shows, how these emotions impact their relations with other people around and their whole lives. Komura’s communication with his wife and with Shimao, who was his colleague’s sister, is impacted by Komura’s feelings of confusion and numbness. Actually these are usual feeling of an individual, who has to face some tragic or traumatic event in his life, suffering from the sense of loss and loosing order in his life. On the one hand such individuals start to lose their interest in usual life joys, like communicating with friends or traveling, on the other hand they become even more sensitive and depressed.

Overall, UFO In Jushiro by Haruki Murakami uses his magical realism along with surrealism elements with the aim to penetrate deeper into human minds and reveal how an individual might try to investigate his own inside world and become perplexed by its intricate nature. The Kobe earthquake is the symbol of the Komura’s collapse in his life, it becomes the turning point in his relations with his wife and in his whole life. The box symbolizes the past of Komura and at the same time unexpectedness of the future for him, as well as for other people, who suffered serious losses as the result of the Koba earthquake.

Works cited:

Murakami, Haruki. After the Quake: Stories. Vintage International. Kindle Edition, 2007

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]
close
Haven't found the right essay?
Get an expert to write you the one you need!
print

Professional writers and researchers

quotes

Sources and citation are provided

clock

3 hour delivery

person