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The Japanese Chocolate War
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From: Marnie Jorenby <mjorenby>
Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2001 12:30:29 -0500
I am glad that we are discussing Robert Cormier this month, because I have just been thinking about his book The Chocolate War and the Japanese book of the same title (Chokoretto Senso, or Chocolate War ) by Oishi Makoto (Rironsha, 1979). Evidently, the identical titles are a coincidence. Cormier says he got his idea from an incident in which his son refused to sell chocolate for a school fund drive. (Interestingly, the school respected his son's choice and there was no conflict!) In Oishi's case, the author was sitting in a coffee shop when some kids came in and ordered French custard puffs. He was surprised that the boys were willing to spend so much of their allowance on fancy sweets, and immediately thought of a sweet shop as a setting for a novel. Whether or not Oishi was aware of Cormier's book (which predates his by 5 years) or not is uncertain, but I don't believe that The Chocolate War (Cormier) was translated into Japanese at that time.
It's fascinating to me how these two books parallel each other, yet their philosophies are totally opposite. I'm sure most of you are familiar with Cormier's The Chocolate War, so I won't summarize it. In Oishi's Chocoretto Senso , the plot is as follows: the narrator runs across an odd ritual in which students at a certain elementary school are regularly delivered a fancy chocolate cake by the boss of a large sweet company. The story of the cake is told to the narrator by a school administrator. Impressed, he decides to write it in his own words. The following is the story: Two boys, Koichi and Akira, are admiring a large chocolate tiered cake, the piece?-resistance of Kinsendo (Golden-Spring Hall), the most expensive sweet shop in town, when the window in front of the cake suddenly shatters. The boys are called in front of the owner of the shop
(this man represents the social, financial and moral power of adults in the community). The kids are innocent of the crime, but of course they are not believed. A sympathetic teacher from their school pleads their case and they escape. To get even Koichi devises an elaborate plot to steal the cake (the ultimate symbol of the shop) from the window. He convinces the reluctant Akira, and enlists the help of three other young mischief-makers from the school. Unfortunately rumor of the boys' plan leaks to the owner. The owner maliciously replaces the cake with a cheap plaster imitation, fills it with publicity balloons, and the great robbery is taken as a mere publicity stunt for the shop. However, due to a zealous girl reporter, who covers the boys' side of the story for the school paper, the incident becomes known to two truck drivers. In fact, a rock kicked up by their tire caused the window to break. They sheepishly turn themselves in and the story is in all the papers. Kids begin to boycott the candy store. In order to restore his reputation the story owner apologizes handsomely and starts the custom of treating the students of that school to free cake. Although the cake robbery was a failure, the kids win in the end.
Doesn't the scenario sound familiar? Both heroes are screwed by the adults' system, fight back, and lose. However, in the Japanese Chokoretto Senso , they triumph in the end. To me, these two books have something to say about the difference in how two cultures view the world. There are belief systems at work behind each book. Cormier's The Chocolate War creates a Biblical world, with a Christ-like hero and devil-like anti-heroes. (The Catholic school setting reinforces these not-too-subtle parallels. . .) Added to this is the American belief in the evil of the System, any System. The System cannot be redeemed, only battled. Cormier makes it very clear that society in his world is a place where dark powers are at work, and that these powers are so entrenched that they cannot be fought by a person alone. Like Christ, Jerry "dies" by the will of the masses. However, (and this is the darkest part of a dark novel) resurrection is not a given, or seemingly even likely. Even martyrdom is doubtful.
On the other hand, Oishi's Chokoretto Senso takes a very different view of society. Although there is a villain and he is a part of the System of adult power, he is not part of an organized network of evil, nor does he represent the Devil in a religious dichotomy, as Brother Leon could be said to. Japanese religion, originally a pan-theistic religion with multiple deities, does not have a pervasive division between good and evil, devil and god. Spirits contain various potentials within them, and are to be respected both for their dangerousness and for their benevolence. (The added influence of Buddhism, of course, complicates this picture, but Buddhism, also, emphasizes change and reincarnation, not irredeemable damnation.)
This background quality of Japanese society can be seen in Chokoretto Senso. Whereas like Cormier's book it begins with an injustice by the System and rebellion against that injustice (refusing to sell chocolates vs. stealing the cake) the subsequent developments lead toward a different end. Although he takes a brief blow when his store is boycotted, the businessman cleverly settles with the children and his store's sales increase more than ever. The truckers make the right choice and turn themselves in. The children win the game, and they get cake. This is a society where compromise and ultimate good intentions solve the problem, a big difference from Cormier's damning conclusion.
One might argue for either interpretation of the world. It seems to me to be a case of the blind men touching the elephant in different places, and coming to different conclusions. Someone who was bullied unmercifully at school and not helped by their teachers (or who had a bad experience at a strict Catholic school) may passionately champion Cormier's view of society. On the other hand, a person such as myself who went to a quiet Midwestern school and had an average experience (and does not see the world in Christian terms of good vs. evil) may shake their head in disbelief at Cormier's vision of society. In the case of Oishi's Chokoretto Senso, the accusation could be raised that this view of society is too harmonious: that the businessman shouldn't triumph so easily, that the harmony in the end is a false note, an adult's idealistic vision of how this children's story should end. Yet at the time it was written, this story was considered to be groundbreaking. Children are morally in the right, and adults are cowed into realizing this. Not only that, but the power of the "pen over the sword", in this case newspaper coverage by the kids themselves, shows how children have the power to change adults' decisions. This is far removed from the traditional adult conclusion that children should learn moral lessons from adults. In other words Oishi's Chokoretto Senso, like Cormier's The Chocolate War, is a radical book showing kids different interpretations of society than they may be used to.
Since I'm hoping to write about these two books for a Japanese journal of children's literature, I'd appreciate any thoughts you might have about the contrast between the two. (I'm sorry, but Oishi's Chokoretto Senso has not yet been published in English, as far as I am aware. I would love to translate it, if there is an audience out there!!)
Received on Tue 07 Aug 2001 12:30:29 PM CDT
Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2001 12:30:29 -0500
I am glad that we are discussing Robert Cormier this month, because I have just been thinking about his book The Chocolate War and the Japanese book of the same title (Chokoretto Senso, or Chocolate War ) by Oishi Makoto (Rironsha, 1979). Evidently, the identical titles are a coincidence. Cormier says he got his idea from an incident in which his son refused to sell chocolate for a school fund drive. (Interestingly, the school respected his son's choice and there was no conflict!) In Oishi's case, the author was sitting in a coffee shop when some kids came in and ordered French custard puffs. He was surprised that the boys were willing to spend so much of their allowance on fancy sweets, and immediately thought of a sweet shop as a setting for a novel. Whether or not Oishi was aware of Cormier's book (which predates his by 5 years) or not is uncertain, but I don't believe that The Chocolate War (Cormier) was translated into Japanese at that time.
It's fascinating to me how these two books parallel each other, yet their philosophies are totally opposite. I'm sure most of you are familiar with Cormier's The Chocolate War, so I won't summarize it. In Oishi's Chocoretto Senso , the plot is as follows: the narrator runs across an odd ritual in which students at a certain elementary school are regularly delivered a fancy chocolate cake by the boss of a large sweet company. The story of the cake is told to the narrator by a school administrator. Impressed, he decides to write it in his own words. The following is the story: Two boys, Koichi and Akira, are admiring a large chocolate tiered cake, the piece?-resistance of Kinsendo (Golden-Spring Hall), the most expensive sweet shop in town, when the window in front of the cake suddenly shatters. The boys are called in front of the owner of the shop
(this man represents the social, financial and moral power of adults in the community). The kids are innocent of the crime, but of course they are not believed. A sympathetic teacher from their school pleads their case and they escape. To get even Koichi devises an elaborate plot to steal the cake (the ultimate symbol of the shop) from the window. He convinces the reluctant Akira, and enlists the help of three other young mischief-makers from the school. Unfortunately rumor of the boys' plan leaks to the owner. The owner maliciously replaces the cake with a cheap plaster imitation, fills it with publicity balloons, and the great robbery is taken as a mere publicity stunt for the shop. However, due to a zealous girl reporter, who covers the boys' side of the story for the school paper, the incident becomes known to two truck drivers. In fact, a rock kicked up by their tire caused the window to break. They sheepishly turn themselves in and the story is in all the papers. Kids begin to boycott the candy store. In order to restore his reputation the story owner apologizes handsomely and starts the custom of treating the students of that school to free cake. Although the cake robbery was a failure, the kids win in the end.
Doesn't the scenario sound familiar? Both heroes are screwed by the adults' system, fight back, and lose. However, in the Japanese Chokoretto Senso , they triumph in the end. To me, these two books have something to say about the difference in how two cultures view the world. There are belief systems at work behind each book. Cormier's The Chocolate War creates a Biblical world, with a Christ-like hero and devil-like anti-heroes. (The Catholic school setting reinforces these not-too-subtle parallels. . .) Added to this is the American belief in the evil of the System, any System. The System cannot be redeemed, only battled. Cormier makes it very clear that society in his world is a place where dark powers are at work, and that these powers are so entrenched that they cannot be fought by a person alone. Like Christ, Jerry "dies" by the will of the masses. However, (and this is the darkest part of a dark novel) resurrection is not a given, or seemingly even likely. Even martyrdom is doubtful.
On the other hand, Oishi's Chokoretto Senso takes a very different view of society. Although there is a villain and he is a part of the System of adult power, he is not part of an organized network of evil, nor does he represent the Devil in a religious dichotomy, as Brother Leon could be said to. Japanese religion, originally a pan-theistic religion with multiple deities, does not have a pervasive division between good and evil, devil and god. Spirits contain various potentials within them, and are to be respected both for their dangerousness and for their benevolence. (The added influence of Buddhism, of course, complicates this picture, but Buddhism, also, emphasizes change and reincarnation, not irredeemable damnation.)
This background quality of Japanese society can be seen in Chokoretto Senso. Whereas like Cormier's book it begins with an injustice by the System and rebellion against that injustice (refusing to sell chocolates vs. stealing the cake) the subsequent developments lead toward a different end. Although he takes a brief blow when his store is boycotted, the businessman cleverly settles with the children and his store's sales increase more than ever. The truckers make the right choice and turn themselves in. The children win the game, and they get cake. This is a society where compromise and ultimate good intentions solve the problem, a big difference from Cormier's damning conclusion.
One might argue for either interpretation of the world. It seems to me to be a case of the blind men touching the elephant in different places, and coming to different conclusions. Someone who was bullied unmercifully at school and not helped by their teachers (or who had a bad experience at a strict Catholic school) may passionately champion Cormier's view of society. On the other hand, a person such as myself who went to a quiet Midwestern school and had an average experience (and does not see the world in Christian terms of good vs. evil) may shake their head in disbelief at Cormier's vision of society. In the case of Oishi's Chokoretto Senso, the accusation could be raised that this view of society is too harmonious: that the businessman shouldn't triumph so easily, that the harmony in the end is a false note, an adult's idealistic vision of how this children's story should end. Yet at the time it was written, this story was considered to be groundbreaking. Children are morally in the right, and adults are cowed into realizing this. Not only that, but the power of the "pen over the sword", in this case newspaper coverage by the kids themselves, shows how children have the power to change adults' decisions. This is far removed from the traditional adult conclusion that children should learn moral lessons from adults. In other words Oishi's Chokoretto Senso, like Cormier's The Chocolate War, is a radical book showing kids different interpretations of society than they may be used to.
Since I'm hoping to write about these two books for a Japanese journal of children's literature, I'd appreciate any thoughts you might have about the contrast between the two. (I'm sorry, but Oishi's Chokoretto Senso has not yet been published in English, as far as I am aware. I would love to translate it, if there is an audience out there!!)
Received on Tue 07 Aug 2001 12:30:29 PM CDT
