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paperback £12.99
Faber And Faber
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More reviews by Todd Shimoda
Readers may purchase reviewed books from Paddyfield.com, Asia's online bookseller.North American readers may prefer to buy US editions from Powells.com.
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Occupied City by David Peace
The second book of DAVID PEACE's trilogy set in Tokyo in the early years after World War II, OCCUPIED CITY is based on the true story of the Teikoku Bank Massacre. In January 1948, a man claiming to be a public health official entered the bank and ordered the employees to drink two doses of clear liquids to protect them from an outbreak of dysentery. Immediately after swallowing the second dose, they are dead or near death. The man disappears with much of the bank's cash.
The novel is told from several different points-of-view. Peace acknowledges this structure was suggested by Rashomon, a classic Japanese story in which a sexual assault is recounted by each of the several characters. Of course each has a different perspective of the assault and aftermath. Beside the multiple points-of-view, Peace uses wildly differing styles and techniques for each of the characters. One is told in rambling, repetitive thoughts; another in snippets from a notebook; another in straightforward narrative; another in letters written home; another in a monologue-like theatrical play.
All these points-of-view and styles give the novel a chaotic feel, intentionally so as it mirrors the chaos of post-war occupied Japan. At the time, the black market was rampant, rebuilding had only just begun, and U.S. military forces still controlled the country. There was fear and anger among the population over the war and occupation, as well as lingering suspicions and questions, such as Japan's role in developing and using chemical and biological weapons. The storylines of the bank massacre and an American officer's search for the truth about the clandestine testing of such weapons are loosely intertwined.
The investigation of the heist reveals a few slim clues, but enough to narrow down the suspects to Hirasawa Sadamichi, who is based on the real suspect in the true crime. Sadamichi's actual role in the heist and murders is murky and never fully unraveled, even as we are privy to his thoughts. And he is an unlikely suspect -- a middle-aged watercolorist with a family. As his wife says when told he was arrested for the crime, "It must be a joke." She further adds that their family makes enough money to support themselves and have no need for stolen money.
I don't know if the author intended Sadamichi's doubts about his innocence and guilt as a metaphor for Japan's doubts and ambivalence about its role in the Pacific side of World War II. But it does work in that way. Sadamichi seeks to explain away the damning evidence, but he can't deny it nor fully accept it. After the war, Japanese also questioned the evidence of the atrocities and aggression perpetuated by their leaders and troops. Some justified their country's role, some despised it, others were of two minds. But whether this metaphor was intended or not, OCCUPIED CITY is a deeply complex story, well-researched, and superbly written in a postmodernistic pastiche of styles.
Todd Shimoda
29/12/2009
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