Reference
"The Breaking Jewel" is a novel written by Makoto Oda, a well-known Japanese writer who has been outspoken on the foreign policies of the United States since the Vietnam War. The original title for the book was to be "Gyokusai," a Chinese word adopted by the Japanese meaning “banzai charge,” the final charge of any Japanese soldiers who were left to fight the enemy, most notably against Americans. The backdrop for this book is set in the South Pacific on a small island called Peleliu during the Second World War. The book focuses on two men: Sergeant Nakamura, a Japanese soldier battle tested in Manchuria who follows the ideals and practices of the Japanese army, and Corporal Kon who is a Korean serving in the Japanese army striving to be an honorable and worthy soldier for his emperor.
Oda draws on the association between the Japanese and Koreans in the 1920s through the Second World War and the stereotypes placed on Koreans by the Japanese people. The prejudices against the Koreans are seen in the relationship between Sergeant Nakamura and Corporal Kon, whose name was originally Kim before Koreans were forced to change their names to a Japanese surname. The measure of changing Korean names to Japanese was not for the promotion of solidarity, but to show that the Japanese were superior and that the “peninsula people” were not equal. Throughout the book, Kon consistently makes efforts to show his bravery and loyalty as a soldier to the Emperor of Japan, but is resisted time and again as an equal to Nakamura and other Japanese soldiers. Corporal Kon is not only facing the strength and might of the United States Marines, but also the prejudices of his fellow Japanese soldiers.
As the struggle between the Japanese army and United States continue on Peleliu, there is no reconciliation between the two main characters. Both men are eventually forced with a decision to make a “banzai charge” against the Americans and meet different fates. Nakamura is badly wounded and retreats to a cave where he is meet by Kon. As Nakamura is dying in the cave from wounds he sustained in his “gyokusai,” he never acknowledged Kon’s bravery even after Kon rushes out of the cave into a wave of American steel. One odd note to the book was the momentary meeting between Nakamura had with a woman in the cave who appears to show up out of nowhere never really understanding where this meeting figures into the theme of the book.
From a teacher’s viewpoint, the book is an easy read of 116 pages with a ninth to tenth grade vocabulary. The Breaking Jewel gives the reader a unique perspective from the eyes of a Japanese soldier and what they faced against the United States military. Most American studies on World War II are seen from the viewpoint of the United States. A majority of the time spent on WWII is giving the students a loop-sided view of the war. The Breaking Jewel presents the opportunities for students to give another side of the story and can possibly add new views into studying the war.
