To answer questions about
Silence,
please sign up.
Roxana Chirilă
I can't know for sure if my hunch is true, but your question strikes me as very American. I come from a country where the best education you can get is in state universities. If I'm not much mistaken, the same is true in Japan. You see, education isn't just a personal asset - if the people in a city will be better educated, they will be able to do more, produce more, and improve the life of those around them.
(Alternately, you could be Russian - but I think in Russia the government is more likely to demand, rather than pay for what it wants.)
Japan is very much aware that education can be a national asset: their borders were closed until 1868, when they were still a feudal empire. When they opened their borders, they realized they were behind in all sorts of ways, culturally, technologically etc. Perhaps others would have been overwhelmed, but not Japan: they sent students abroad, brought them back to teach others, invited foreigners to teach, started the industrial revolution and so on.
While Susaku Endo wasn't part of the first wave of students who got scholarships, the point remains: students are given access to tools in order to improve themselves and therefore improve things back home, rather than to promote any specific political or patriotic purpose.
So, to answer your question: we can't know for sure, but it's highly unlikely that they did. They'd want him to write well and improve Japanese literature, surely, but I doubt they'd micro-manage their writers and artists in that particular way.
(Alternately, you could be Russian - but I think in Russia the government is more likely to demand, rather than pay for what it wants.)
Japan is very much aware that education can be a national asset: their borders were closed until 1868, when they were still a feudal empire. When they opened their borders, they realized they were behind in all sorts of ways, culturally, technologically etc. Perhaps others would have been overwhelmed, but not Japan: they sent students abroad, brought them back to teach others, invited foreigners to teach, started the industrial revolution and so on.
While Susaku Endo wasn't part of the first wave of students who got scholarships, the point remains: students are given access to tools in order to improve themselves and therefore improve things back home, rather than to promote any specific political or patriotic purpose.
So, to answer your question: we can't know for sure, but it's highly unlikely that they did. They'd want him to write well and improve Japanese literature, surely, but I doubt they'd micro-manage their writers and artists in that particular way.
Leslie
Endo was a Roman Catholic and spent some time in France. As an outsider in both Japan and France, he had a unique perspective from which to write about this subject. I highly recommend Makoto Fujimura's commentary on this novel, _Silence and Beauty_. It explains much that we who are Westerners have trouble understanding about Japanese culture.
Manny
I doubt it. It's an historical novel and the ending was based on a historical incident, which probably shaped the novel. It's my guess that Endo started with the ending in mind and created a plot that led to it. It's a very complicated ending and resonates in many directions.
Last Word
Given the nativism sympathies of the author and the ambiguous nature of the novel's resolution, your skepticism is understandable. The Japanese government would certainly be sympathetic to the conclusions but as the translator of the edition I read said, the Christians living in Nagasaki when the book was released were less happy with the book's characterization of their faith.
Anne
he was Roman catholic but has deid a few years back
Nathan Brown
I know Endo was Catholic, not his relationship to the government.
Stephen Hayes
What a strange question?
The bio on the GoodReads page for the book says "At Tokyo's Keio University he majored in French literature, graduating BA in 1949, before furthering his studies in French Catholic literature at the University of Lyon in France between 1950 and 1953. "
Did the Japanese government pay for him to travel to France to study French Catholic literature?
The bio on the GoodReads page for the book says "At Tokyo's Keio University he majored in French literature, graduating BA in 1949, before furthering his studies in French Catholic literature at the University of Lyon in France between 1950 and 1953. "
Did the Japanese government pay for him to travel to France to study French Catholic literature?
Joanie Gutermuth
Endorsed is a baptised Catholic. He did attend college in Japan, but also studied in France. He was employed by a private Catholic university in Japan.
John Vondra
Catholics in Japan, (like Catholics in USA/UK) are just tolerated.
About Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
Dec 25, 2016 10:07AM · flag
Jul 30, 2017 08:59AM · flag
Dec 11, 2017 11:41AM · flag