#254 Aftermath- Mary Yukari Waters
Makiko is raising her son, Toshi, in occupied Japan after
the war. Her husband died and she is struggling with the rapidly changing
world. “These last few years, however, with the war and the surrender, the
changes have come too fast, skimming her consciousness like pebbles over
water.”
Toshi is seven and being taught and fed by American
soldiers. Makiko bristles at the same force killing her son's father now giving
him sustenance. She tries hard to instill in Toshi the importance of his own
past.
“A man who forgets his past…stays at the level of an
animal.”
However, she herself has bad memories of this past, of her
imperfect husband. What happens to such unpleasant memories? “They get
scattered, left behind. Over the past few years, more pleasant recollections
have taken the lead, informing all the rest, like a flock of birds, heading as
one body along an altered course of nostalgia.”
These aftermath stories are always somber to read, but
important to recognize. We’ve seen two so far during this project, the first
being Hiroshima by Nam Le. That story was so much about the overall destruction
of the war, while this one was more personal and individual.
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