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Underground 4

The document summarizes a letter from a woman in a magazine about her husband who lost his job after the Tokyo gas attack. Her husband had been commuting by subway when sarin gas was released in one of the cars, causing him to pass out. Though he recovered after several days in the hospital, the aftereffects lingered. At work, he struggled to get back into his routine and was eventually tolerated less by his boss and colleagues, who began making snide remarks. Unable to bear the hostile work environment any longer and feeling forced out, he resigned from his job. The letter itself was recalled to be barely audible and more of a grumble under the breath than an angry rant.

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anirban das
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38 views1 page

Underground 4

The document summarizes a letter from a woman in a magazine about her husband who lost his job after the Tokyo gas attack. Her husband had been commuting by subway when sarin gas was released in one of the cars, causing him to pass out. Though he recovered after several days in the hospital, the aftereffects lingered. At work, he struggled to get back into his routine and was eventually tolerated less by his boss and colleagues, who began making snide remarks. Unable to bear the hostile work environment any longer and feeling forced out, he resigned from his job. The letter itself was recalled to be barely audible and more of a grumble under the breath than an angry rant.

Uploaded by

anirban das
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Preface*

Leafing through a magazine one afternoon, I found myself looking at


the readers’ letters page. I really don’t remember why; I just probably
had time on my hands. I rarely ever pick up Ladies’ Home Journal or
the like, much less read the letters page.
However, one of the letters caught my attention. It was from a
woman whose husband had lost his job because of the Tokyo gas
attack. A subway commuter, he had been unfortunate enough to be
on his way to work in one of the cars in which the sarin gas was

released.! He passed out and was taken to hospital. But even after
several days’ recuperation, the aftereffects lingered on, and he
couldn’t get himself back into the working routine. At first, he was
tolerated, but as time went on his boss and colleagues began to make
snide remarks. Unable to bear the icy atmosphere any longer, feeling
almost forced out, he resigned.
The magazine has since disappeared, so I can’t quote the letter
exactly, but that was more or less what it said. As far as I can recall,
there was nothing particularly plaintive about it, nor was it an angry
rant. If anything, it was barely audible, a grumble under the breath.

*1 would like to make I borrowed useful ideas toward the composition of


clear that
this book from the works of Studs Terkel and Bob Greene.
f Sarin is a nerve gas invented by German scientists in the 1930s as part of Adolf
Hitler’s preparations for World War II. During the 1980s it was used to lethal effect by
Iraq, both in the war against Iran and against the Kurds. Twenty-six times as deadly as
cyanide gas, a drop of sarin the size of a pinhead is sufficient to kill a person. [Tr.]

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