Naoki Hyakuta Books

Your grandfather was a coward. That is the angry recollection with which a former Zero fighter pilot greets two Japanese siblings who, typically, despite being educated, know next to nothing about a defining war in the Pacific that took place within living memory. The testimony rattles and confuses aspiring lawyer Kentaro and newly minted journalist Keiko since virtually the only fact they’ve grown up hearing about Kyuzo Miyabe is that he died a kamikaze. When the young pair digs deeper into the man’s past, other surviving comrades only seem to confirm the verdict, but its very import begins to shift in surprising ways. In addition to providing a window into the experiences of the losing side’s flyboys and a frank look at contemporary Japan’s amnesia regarding the war, this novel also undertakes a blistering critique of the folly and inhumanity of the Imperial Navy and Army and a nuanced exploration of the differences between kamikaze pilots and today’s suicide bombers. At its core, however, it is a mystery of sorts about a long-dead man’s actions and intentions and a reconfiguration of the meaning of wartime loyalty and sacrifice. A debut novel that was published when the author was fifty, The Eternal Zero has become Japan’s all-time top-selling mass-market paperback and the basis of a blockbuster film of the same name.

「娘に会うまでは死ねない、妻との約束を守るために」。そう言い続けた男は、なぜ自ら零戦に乗り命を落としたのか。終戦から60年目の夏、健太郎は死んだ祖父の生涯を調べていた。天才だが臆病者。想像と違う人物像に戸惑いつつも、1つの謎が浮かんでくるーー。記憶の断片が揃う時、明らかになる真実とは。

国を追われた二匹のアマガエルは、辛い放浪の末に夢の楽園にたどり着く。その国は「三戒」と呼ばれる戒律と、「謝りソング」という奇妙な歌によって守られていた。だが、南の沼に棲む凶暴なウシガエルの魔の手が迫り、楽園の本当の姿が明らかになる...。単行本刊行後、物語の内容を思わせる出来事が現実に起こり、一部では「予言書」とも言われた現代の寓話にして、国家の意味を問う警世の書。