is a 1966 short story by the Japanese author Yukio Mishima. The work depicts the spirits of young officers who were executed by firing squad in the February 26 Incident and the kamikaze pilots who died trying to become Kamikaze typhoon in the Pacific War, both of whom are angry and curse Emperor Shōwa's declaration of humanity.
The story is structured like a of Noh, with two scenes and six acts, and features the poignant and sorrowful refrain that repeats, "Why has our Sumeragi become a human being?" collected in (of that in pp.243,250–261), (of that in pp.107,112–119)
This politically charged work marked a turning point for Mishima in the 1960s, and served as a precursor to his later critical essays such as . collected in ,
A draft of seven songs entitled collected in which is considered a preliminary version of the songs featured in the "Voices of the Fallen Heroes", was discovered in 1999 at the and was made public in the commemorative exhibition catalogue. The phrase alludes to the ambiguous position of the officers involved in the February 26 Incident who were not enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine as . Translating the "Voice" - "Voices of the Fallen Heroes" and "Reigaku Sentei" - 3. Locating the "Fallen Heroes" ()
First publication This work first appeared in the June 1966 issue of the literary magazine Bungei, and was published as a collection of his works, Voices of the Fallen Heroes, by Kawade Shobo Shinsha on June 30 of the same year. This book also includes "Patriotism" and the play , and was compiled as the "February 26 Incident Trilogy.", ,
Background Mishima was 11 years old when the February 26 Incident occurred. He stated that one of his motivations for writing "Voices of the Fallen Heroes" was that "with the failure of the February 26 Incident, some great God had died," and that when he traced his "desire to console the spirits of the true heroes who had long dominated me, to clear their disgrace, and to attempt to restore their dignity," he was inevitably troubled by the Emperor's declaration of humanity., ,
In writing this work, Mishima referred to the prison memoirs (Prison Diary and Action Record) of Asaichi Isobe, a young officer who was executed in the February 26 Incident, and The February 26 Incident (1957), written by , the older brother of , who participated in the incident.
Tsukasa Kono has recounted a visit to Mishima's home in Minamimagome, Ōta, Tokyo to discuss the causes of the failure of the February 26 Incident. When Kono said, "I think it ultimately comes down to clarifying the relationship with the Emperor," Mishima agreed, saying, "So that's what you think, too." And, when the young officers accused of being part of a rebel force resolved to commit seppuku, atoning for the crimes they had committed as the Emperor's children, and requested through a chamberlain that an imperial emissary be sent to assist them, Emperor Shōwa replied, "If they want to commit suicide, do so freely; an imperial emissary is out of the question for something like such persons." Regarding the Emperor's putting his personal feelings at the forefront, Mishima said to Kono, "This is not what a Japanese Emperor should do. It's sad."
Kono further asked Mishima, "If the officers had known what the Emperor had said, would they have died shouting 'Long live the Emperor'?" Mishima replied, tearfully and choked up, "Even if their lord had no virtues as a lord, and had not performed his duties as a lord. I believe those men were sure to shout long live the Emperor, whom they believed to be a god, in keeping with the code of the path of a vassal. But that incident was a tragedy for Japan."
After publishing "Voices of the Fallen Heroes," Mishima wrote in a letter to Tsukasa Kono, "I wrote this work with the intention of dedicating it to the souls of your younger brother and the other officers who took part in the February 26 Uprising. By the way, be that as it may, I cannot help but feel irritated by the satiation, stagnation, and lethargy of modern Japan. Is this just only my particular hysteria?"Mishima's letter to Tsukasa Kono, on May 31, 1966. collected in
And, in an interview from the magazine , he said, "The Kokutai, the national system, has collapsed since the Emperor made his Humanity Declaration. All the moral confusion of the postwar period stems from that," and he argued that this was an important issue related to the question of "love" mediated by the "Emperor" (God), which was born out of Japan's . collected in , ,
In a dialogue with Shun Akiyama in 1968, Mishima said that he was "saved" by writing "Voices of the Fallen Heroes." collected in (of that in pp.33–34)
Composition The story is structured in two scenes and six acts, following the style of of Noh. The Jo-ha-kyū are as follows.
– Appearing of and . – appears. Their questions and answers. – by Mae Shite, and .
Beginning act – by Waki. Break act – appears. and by Nochi Shite. Rapid act – with complaints about the suffering of the .
The characters are; The spirits of young officers who died in the February 26 Incident – Leading roles before Naka-iri The spirits of young kamikaze pilots – Leading roles after Naka-iri Kimura Sensei – Supporting role Shigeo Kawasaki, a blind young medium – Companion of Supporting role
Synopsis The work is written in the form of the narrator, who attended the "Return to God Society" meeting presided over by Kimura Sensei, a recording "as faithfully as possible" what he saw and heard there. It describes how the spirits of rebel officers who died in the February 26 Incident in 1936 and Kamikaze Special Attack Force soldiers who died in the one after another possess and curse a young spiritual medium, Shigeo Kawasaki.
The repeated phrase uttered by the spirits—"Why has our Sumeragi become a human being?"—is directed at Emperor Shōwa. The "betrayed spirits" of the soldiers are saddened and indignant at the Emperor's behavior during the February 26 Incident and his subsequent "Declaration of Humanity" on January 1, 1946, after Japan's defeat, which turned him into a "human being," and the voices of these heroic spirits echo throughout in the Shinto shrine.
The story ends with Shigeo Kawasaki, a medium who has absorbed the power of a spirit with a strong grudge, taking his last breath, and concludes with his face not being Kawasaki's, but having been transformed into the "ambiguous face of someone unknown."
Reactions at the time In literary reviews of "Voices of the Fallen Heroes," at that time, while some expressed sympathy for parts of the work's content, there were few positive reviews expressing complete approval, due to the work's ideological aspects and criticism of the Emperor Shōwa. Because of the criticism of the Emperor, Mishima's home received numerous letters of protest and threats from established right-wingers. And, the established left-wing Japanese Communist Party condemned the work for being cast in "the rhetoric of the Right", in its official newspaper, Shimbun Akahata., , On the other hand, Mishima's home received many "warm letters of gratitude, sympathy, and encouragement," and some even made the effort to visit him. Some even contacted him offering to provide bodyguards, saying, "If necessary, we may send several men to Tokyo to protect you from the Communists."
The reactions from the literary world were, Kiyoteru Hanada, while appreciating it to a certain extent as a critique of the Emperor from the right-wing, criticized it negatively, saying it "plays antics." Jun Etō criticized the work that it is a sensational and controversial work that astutely captures the voids in the national psyche, but what one senses from it is an "exposed idea," and he called it "ideological" and "strangely obscene" compared to "Patriotism," which, despite its theme of eroticism, was "surprisingly clean" and "aesthetic." collected in 、 Etō had a different understanding of Emperor Shōwa's "Declaration of Humanity" than Mishima, believing that the Emperor did not change just because he made that declaration. Shintaro Ishihara commented that it was a mistake for Mishima's methodology, which rejected the secular world, to embark on history.
and Takeo Okuno showed a certain understanding of the work and tried to understand Mishima's intentions. argued that the work is beautiful precisely because it is impossible to "reinstate" the spirits of the war dead. praised the work for its significance, as it seeks to console the souls of soldiers and restore their honor.
Kenkichi Yamamoto agreed with Mishima's motivation for creating the work, which was to criticize the "empty hypocrisy" and "disgusting vulgarity" brought about by postwar democracy, but commented that "for a Mishima's work, the imagination is impoverished." collected in He also commented, as an aside, that while viewing the Emperor as a god was a "hard-nosed rational ideology that emerged after the Meiji era," he noted that compared to the "vulgarity of heart" of modern people who are unable to honestly cherish the "feelings and actions" of the officers in the February 26 Incident and Special Attack Units, the "mental space" of Meiji people who cherished the feelings and actions of the Aizu Byakkotai samurais who died for their feudal lord and the Tokugawa family was "far more admirable."
Jakucho Setouchi realized that the scene at the end of the story, in which the dead spiritual medium's face transforms into the "ambiguous face of someone unknown," is a metaphor to Emperor Shōwa, and thought that "Mishima-san has risked his life for this work," she immediately sent Mishima a letter.Jakucho Setouchi Strange friendship About its hidden intention, was replied, "I am extremely fortunate that the initial response to this work has been such generous praise." "The key is hidden in the last few lines, and it seems your keen insight has detected it. And you called this work Noh, I was aiming for a Shura mono. It is a small piece, but by writing this, I feel like I could at least make up some apology for having survived twenty years after the war." from Mishima.Mishima's letter to Jakucho Setouchi on May 9, 1966. collected in
Tsukasa Kono, the elder brother of Captain , the only officer who committed seppuku in the February 26 Incident, stated that Mishima's "Voices of the Fallen Heroes," clearly articulated things that "we as surviving families simply could not say" even more than 30 years after the incident. And he expressed gratitude that the work "pointedly articulated" both "an understanding of the young officers and, especially, distrust toward the Emperor," adding that "Mishima spoke for every single fervent wish that the incident's participants and their families wanted to express and sought to have understood."
And, in July, the month following the work was published, Tsukasa Kono visited Masaharu Gotōda, who was then the Vice-Commissioner of the National Police Agency, on a certain matter. Gotōda took "Voices of the Fallen Heroes" from his desk and asked, "Have you read this? What are your thoughts on it?" This was shown that the Metropolitan Police Department had promptly reviewed the work's content and was interested in it.
Research and interpretation