Beasts Head for Home

"Set in Manchuria in the aftermath of the Asian Pacific War. The central character is Kuki Kyz, whose settler parents relocated from Japan to the Manchurian puppet-state as the Japanese empire expanded. Kyz's father, a factory technician, dies shortly after he is born. In the course of Japan's defeat and the Soviet Union's occupation of Manchuria, Kyz's mother is seriously wounded, forcing him to remain behind with her rather than evacuate with the other Japanese citizens. Her subsequent death leaves Kyzalone in the abandoned Japanese settlement, and he is employed as a houseboy by Alexandrov, an officer in the Soviet army. Approximately two years after the end of hostilities, Kyz decides to return to Japan. Providing money, a train ticket, and officialtravel documents, Alexandrov bids Kyz farewell. On the train Kyz meets K, who appears to be a fellow Japanese, much to Kyz's relief. The train is attacked, but Kyz and K manage to escape, fleeing by foot across the harsh Manchurian plains. Kyz gradually comes to realize that K is in possession of stolen heroin and is being pursued by the Chinese Communists, who are battling the Nationalist forces for control of the mainland. Finally arriving at a city, Kyz is betrayed by K, who beats him and steals his identity papers and travel documents. Utterly destitute, Kyz makes his way to a Japanese repatriation center. The difficulty is that Kyz lacks any documents to prove that he is Japanese. Exposure to the elements has left him deeply sunburned, which furthercasts doubt on his Japanese identity. He wanders the city and meets another Japanese named Okura, who takes an unusual interest in Kyz's relationship with K" --

Abe Kobo (1924–1993) was one of Japan's greatest postwar writers, widely recognized for his imaginative fiction and plays of the absurd.

Richard F. Calichman is professor of Japanese studies at the City College of New York, CUNY. He is also the translator and editor of The Frontier Within: Essays by Abe Kobo (Columbia, 2013).