Nikkei Australia member Christine Piper’s debut novel, After Darkness, has just been translated into Japanese and published in Japan. The translator is Masashi Hojo, the publisher is Kadensha.
After Darkness is set during the 1930s and 40s, and looks at the experience of people of Japanese descent who were interned as enemy aliens at Loveday internment camp in South Australia. It also touches upon Japan’s biological warfare program in East Asia.
Available at Amazon Japan
‘It is early 1942 and Australia is in the midst of war. While working at a Japanese hospital in the pearling port of Broome, Dr Ibaraki is arrested as an enemy alien and sent to Loveday internment camp in a remote corner of South Australia. There, he learns to live among a group of men who are divided by culture and allegiance. As tensions at the isolated camp escalate, the doctor’s long-held beliefs are thrown into question and he is forced to confront his dark past: the promise he made in Japan and its devastating consequences.’
When After Darkness was published in Australia/New Zealand in 2014, it won the Vogel Literary Award and was shortlisted for the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award.
The Japanese edition came to fruition due to the efforts of the translator, Masashi Hojo, who was passionate about the story and spent years translating it. He eventually found a Japanese publisher, Kadensha, who released the book this week to coincide with the anniversary of the end of the war in Japan (August 15th, 1945).
（あらすじ）東京帝国大学医学部出身の俊英・茨木智和は、陸軍軍医学校に開設された新たな研究部門の門を叩く。そこは、忠誠心と思慮分別が何より求められる科学発展の最前線だった。防疫研究室での機密下での仕事は、次第に彼の精神を蝕み、その苦悩を知る由もない妻との関係は、崩壊に向かって進んでいく。すべてを失った茨木がたどり着いたのは、西豪州ブルームの「真珠ダイバー」たちのためにつくられた日本人病院の医師の椅子だった。誰にも明かせない「暗闇」を抱えたまま、なんとか現実と折り合いをつけて生きる茨木の元に届いた真珠湾攻撃の報せは、彼を敵性外国人として収容所に送り込む。そこで直面した様々な人間模様は、茨木の現在、過去、そして未来を変えていった――
Read this interview with Christine published in Japanese on Discover Nikkei, the website of the Japanese American National Museum.
And this review of 暗闇の後で in Japanese by Ryusuke Kawai, also on the Discover Nikkei website.
Other stories about Christine Piper’s After Darkness:
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