The Return of a Shadow by Kunio Yamagishi

The Return of a Shadow by Kunio Yamagishi

Eizo Osada had his shadow, always there inside his head, ready, unbidden, to announce itself. And it did; criticizing, asking awkward questions, prompting. It had been there since he left Japan for Canada over forty years ago. He had left his wife and three young sons, one of them only two years old, to earn money to maintain the family back home.

Then Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. A worried Canadian government interned Japanese people. Eizo spent the next few years in camps. After his release his shadow questioned why he did not go back to his family, but there was always a reason why he could not. Then there was the last letter from his wife twenty-three years ago asking him to stay in Canada as there was no employment in war-torn Japan. So he stayed, living a lonely life, saving so he could send money back. Now, approaching retirement, the time had come to return to the wife and family he had never known for so long. Little did he know what awaited him and how he in turn would become a shadow.

影の帰還 

山岸邦夫  著
上岡伸雄  訳

2019年、英国ルーベリー国際文学賞最終候補作、並びにカナダの公立３大学図書館の「貴重文献及び特別蒐集品」部門所蔵作品。

「影」として日本に帰国しなければならなかった長田栄造。これは歴史の荒波に翻弄されながらも家族を思慕し一途に生きた一日本人の物語であり、第二次世界大戦中の日系カナダ人強制収容という不当な 歴史的事実を背景に、主人公の心理的葛藤を活写した小説である。