and told the church’s radical faction members scattered throughout the country to abandon their plans to occupy a nuclear plant. We are neither saviors nor prophets, he said. Everything we’ve preached till now has been one big joke. We abandon the church. Everything we’ve said and done was a silly prank. Now that we’ve confessed, we want you to stop believing.
“Especially you members of the radical faction, he went on. I want you to understand that our church is a sand castle built as a lark. We enjoyed playing the savior of the world and the prophet at the end time, using all those high-sounding phrases and acting solemn and grave. Thanks to all of you we had a wonderful time, especially getting incorporated as a religious foundation two years ago and receiving tons of money for our playacting. But this is as far as we’ll take it. It’s all a big farce, get it? Look at me, here on TV. How could you possibly believe I’m the savior of mankind? How can this scornful-looking partner of mine sitting here really be the prophet of the end of the world ?
“Through this TV performance, the nation learned all about their Somersault, to use the term coined by the Times correspondent. The word became a popular expression in Japan for a time.
“To tell the truth, I don’t know the scale of this event in Japan. I know that the news shows on commercial networks followed up on the story, treating it as slapstick comedy, though I heard that NHK didn’t report on it at all. Didn’t you see this when you were a child? What interested me while I was in the United States was the correspondent’s follow-up article on the aftermathof the incident. ‘The Japanese have a psychological aversion to recantations,’ he wrote, ‘so with this announcement that everything they preached was just a joke, this false savior and false prophet came under severe attack.’ The correspondent also reported the outrage of ordinary Japanese citizens, who heaped abuse on the two men, and he included letters from people unconnected with the church who complained about its immorality.
“The correspondent found this one-sided attack rather strange. ‘Through the Somersault of this false savior and false prophet,’ he wrote, ‘it is possible that several cities were spared a nuclear holocaust. The authorities insisted it was impossible for a nuclear power plant to be invaded and said a bunch of young amateurs would never be able to convert it into a stationary nuclear weapon. But how true was this? The people of Japan didn’t give any credit to the church’s two leaders who’d risked everything to defuse the crisis, concentrating instead on a moral critique of their recantation. This criticism became even more intense once it was known at the trial of the radical faction that, because of the deal they’d made with the authorities, the two leaders were going to avoid prosecution.’ The correspondent ended by saying that the Japanese were certainly a strange race.
“Ikuo, I’m sure you saw these reports on TV and elsewhere about public opinion in Japan at the time, right? You wanted to be there to see the end of the world, after all. What did you think about it?”
“As I said before, I had nothing but scorn for them,” Ikuo replied, “especially when those afternoon women’s talk shows kept playing the so-called savior of mankind’s recantation speech ad nauseam. Even though I was only a kid, it made me laugh. Deep down inside, though, I think I was disappointed.”
3
Having talked for so long, Kizu drove in silence for a while. From Ikuo’s continued silence, Kizu could sense something he couldn’t quite lay a finger on, something he hadn’t been conscious of recently. His liaison with Ikuo had given him back his self-confidence, though he sometimes felt their relationship was different from that of gay couples he used to see in his university community. Maybe it was the same with those couples, but Ikuo didn’t seem to
“Especially you members of the radical faction, he went on. I want you to understand that our church is a sand castle built as a lark. We enjoyed playing the savior of the world and the prophet at the end time, using all those high-sounding phrases and acting solemn and grave. Thanks to all of you we had a wonderful time, especially getting incorporated as a religious foundation two years ago and receiving tons of money for our playacting. But this is as far as we’ll take it. It’s all a big farce, get it? Look at me, here on TV. How could you possibly believe I’m the savior of mankind? How can this scornful-looking partner of mine sitting here really be the prophet of the end of the world ?
“Through this TV performance, the nation learned all about their Somersault, to use the term coined by the Times correspondent. The word became a popular expression in Japan for a time.
“To tell the truth, I don’t know the scale of this event in Japan. I know that the news shows on commercial networks followed up on the story, treating it as slapstick comedy, though I heard that NHK didn’t report on it at all. Didn’t you see this when you were a child? What interested me while I was in the United States was the correspondent’s follow-up article on the aftermathof the incident. ‘The Japanese have a psychological aversion to recantations,’ he wrote, ‘so with this announcement that everything they preached was just a joke, this false savior and false prophet came under severe attack.’ The correspondent also reported the outrage of ordinary Japanese citizens, who heaped abuse on the two men, and he included letters from people unconnected with the church who complained about its immorality.
“The correspondent found this one-sided attack rather strange. ‘Through the Somersault of this false savior and false prophet,’ he wrote, ‘it is possible that several cities were spared a nuclear holocaust. The authorities insisted it was impossible for a nuclear power plant to be invaded and said a bunch of young amateurs would never be able to convert it into a stationary nuclear weapon. But how true was this? The people of Japan didn’t give any credit to the church’s two leaders who’d risked everything to defuse the crisis, concentrating instead on a moral critique of their recantation. This criticism became even more intense once it was known at the trial of the radical faction that, because of the deal they’d made with the authorities, the two leaders were going to avoid prosecution.’ The correspondent ended by saying that the Japanese were certainly a strange race.
“Ikuo, I’m sure you saw these reports on TV and elsewhere about public opinion in Japan at the time, right? You wanted to be there to see the end of the world, after all. What did you think about it?”
“As I said before, I had nothing but scorn for them,” Ikuo replied, “especially when those afternoon women’s talk shows kept playing the so-called savior of mankind’s recantation speech ad nauseam. Even though I was only a kid, it made me laugh. Deep down inside, though, I think I was disappointed.”
3
Having talked for so long, Kizu drove in silence for a while. From Ikuo’s continued silence, Kizu could sense something he couldn’t quite lay a finger on, something he hadn’t been conscious of recently. His liaison with Ikuo had given him back his self-confidence, though he sometimes felt their relationship was different from that of gay couples he used to see in his university community. Maybe it was the same with those couples, but Ikuo didn’t seem to
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