Yoko Ogawa on Literature as a Means of Remembering

At The New York Times, author Yoko Ogawa reflects on the literature published following the atomic bombings in Japan during World War II, including Masuji Ibuse’s Black Rain, Kenzaburo Oe’s Hiroshima Notes, and Tamiki Hara’s Summer Flowers. “We appeal to the power of literature, a refuge we turn to when forced to confront contradictions that lie beyond reason or theory,” she writes. “Through the language of literature, we can finally come to empathize with the suffering of nameless and unknown others. Or, at very least, we can force ourselves to stare without flinching at the stupidity of those who have committed unforgivable errors and ask ourselves whether the shadow of this same folly lurks within us as well.”