A Study of Haruo Umezaki's "Bisei" : His Critique of Falsehood in the 2600th Anniversary of the Nation

Abstract

In 1941 Haruo Umezaki published a story "Bisei" while working at the Metropolitan Bureau of Education. In the story he implicitly criticizes the government, which is allegorically transformed into a company. The workers of the company are kept in thralldom like animals in the zoo, and the executives called "humbugs" endlessly dispute how to plan the company's anniversary without reaching any conclusion. Needless to say, the workers are the public who were placed under the strict control of the government at wartime. The company's anniversary stands for the 2600th Anniversary of the Nation which was actually planned then. Through the executives' meaningless controversy over the anniversary, the author sarcastically exposes the falsehood of the national ceremony. Thus his genius for irony can be found in his earliest career.