By Koshy AV
Fumiyo Kuono’s manga trilogy - reviewed briefly.
Fumiyo Kuono’s manga trilogy Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms I, and Country of
Cherry Blossom II is far removed from any trace of hentai and explains why manga is such a huge
draw in the West and the East. It is something that can touch any reader of any age group when
done in this fashion. At the same time her narrative which zig-zags between several points of time
on a timeline of the past and the present, making the setting as regards to when slightly confusing,
makes the viewer/reader put in a lot of work so it becomes engaging for the complex reader too.
The story is set around Hiroshima and the fateful day of August 6, 1945, and spans about forty to
fifty years from then. It is the story of three generations, Hirano and Fujimi, especially, who
experienced a long life before the day of the bomb, of Minami who experienced the day of the bomb
when she was about ten to thirteen years of age and hardly ten years after it, of Asahi, her brother,
and then of Ninami and Nagio, who grow up and are still impacted by the horror of that fateful day
in obvious and subtle ways.
While the drawing is both clearly recognizable as that of a mature artist whose style has become a
trademark, recognizable, it is also superlative as Kuono (romanized spelling) really knows how to use
space, lines, black and white, and also the absence of everything/drawing in a turn of events towards
the end of the first story “Yūnagi no Machi”, (Town of Evening Calm) where Minami’s blindness and
dying scenes due to nuclear radiation are shown by the absence of everything (use of only white
space) in the panels and only the text of her thoughts in speech bubbles as even speaking has
become impossible for her. This is perhaps the most touching part of the comic/graphic novella. Just
for this revelatory magic, albeit sad, touch the book was worth reading.
The themes are clear, on the one hand, there is the need for no war, the need for peace, the need
for nuclear disarmament, the need for innocent lives of civilians not to be affected by blunders of
governments, the need to not forget and to make new generations aware of what happened that
fateful day so history’s mistakes are not repeated but the most powerful themes are that love,
friendship and family are the only enduring things that can help us face or tide over all this, stem the
darkness and overcome it, even, to an extent, so the final message left is one of spring and cherry
blossoms (sakura) and not of despair and gloom. The hardiness and endurance of the human spirit is
celebrated.
Along with it we have a plethora of moments, small but significant, adding up to a modern-day
masterpiece, that tugs at our heartstrings, like the scene where Nanami and Toko Tone shower
cherry blossom petals and paper confetti on the two boys, Nagio and his room-mate, who are in
hospital to make them enjoy the spring they can’t as they are bedridden. Nanami is Nagio’s sister
and Nagio, her brother, has asthma.
There are many other touching scenes, happy and sad ones, as when Minami in the first part
wonders if someone somewhere who dropped the bomb is happy that she is dying of nuclear
radiation’s effects, as they got one more, and when she wonders why she who is supposed to be a
survivor is also not able to survive just when she had a chance at becoming happy, having found
someone to marry her. This is offset by the last part of the story where Asahi is proposing to Kyoko
Ota on a bridge and Nanami says she was watching it from heaven and that is the instant she
decided to be born to the two of them as it was such a heartwarming scene.
We have these unforgettable characters, and setting, and a complex plot as well as the story told
from points of view by the drawings that is gripping, enchanting, and enthralling and in simple
language, and many words to take home with us to make this book an unforgettable classic.
I look forward to reading her other manga now. That her main characters who stand out are
feminine is a great point to admire, like Manami, Nanami, and Fujimi. There is a natural kind of
feminism and gentle questioning of patriarchy in her work that also questions imperialism and
political imperfection quietly and subtly as in the posters on Hiroshima and about the eviction of the
ones living in the poor quarters of Hiroshima which is highly effective.
Belarusian
Summary of Belarus I: The poem deals with the life of an imaginary girl or of the children of Belarus.
Their mothers are like the ruins of bombed buildings due to historically always being in wars or
under the threat of war. The children have a life of poverty, of no food, and gender does not matter.
The only time the women and girls feel free is in the toilet where they can have some time and
privacy. They are like gymnasts walking without a net and looked down on as a nation and regarding
their language. The girls live in fear of being abducted to another country in human trafficking in the
name of love. Despite all this they are survivors and believe that or have hope of a better future.
They can retreat to their mother's bellies symbolically which are like bomb shelters and they can
even jump through the hoop of the sun on the high wire or tight rope as gymnasts in life if need be.
The poet has this hope of a great future or a saviour coming and by writing it is making it come true.
