Bones and Iron Fish : The effects of the defeat and its aftermath on the lives and attitudes of Japanese people, as seen through two short stories by women

Abstract

The protagonists in both Fumiko Hayashi's Bones and Taeko Kono's Iron Fish are both Japanese women who have lost their husbands in World War Two. In this essay it is my intention to compare and contrast the effects of the war, the defeat and its aftermath on the lives and attitudes of these two war widows.