The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 9 | Issue 29 | Number 7 | Article ID 3571 | Jul 19, 2011

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Speaking as an Unrealistic Dreamer　　非現実的な夢想家として

Murakami Haruki

Speaking as an Unrealistic Dreamer

Speech by Murakami Haruki on theoccasion of receiving the InternationalCatalunya Prize

Translated by Emanuel Pastreich

I last visited Barcelona two years ago in thespring. An amazing number of readers gatheredwhen I held a book signing. Long lines formedand I still could not finish signing all the bookseven after one and a half hours. The reason ittook so long is that so many of the femalereaders wanted to kiss me. That was timeconsuming.

I have held book signings in many cities aroundthe world, but Barcelona was the only place inthe world where the female readers asked forkisses. That one example is sufficient evidenceof just what a fantastic city Barcelona is. Andwhat good fortune it is that I have anotherchance to return to this city whose beautifulstreets are resplendent with refined culture anda long history.

But, unfortunately, I am not going to talk aboutkisses today. I must talk about something a bitmore serious.

As you well know, on March 11 at 2:46 PM atremendous earthquake shook the Tohokuregion of Northeast Japan. So great was theearthquake that the rotation of the earth wasslightly accelerated, and the day shortened by1.8 millionths of a second.

The damage caused by the earthquake wastremendous. The tsunami that followed left its

deep and terrible talon marks on the earth. Insome places, the tsunami reached a height ofthirty-nine meters. Even if you run to the top ofa ten-story building you will not be safe if atsunami reaches thirty-nine meters. People nearthe ocean had no way to escape, so close to24,000 people lost their lives. Out of thatnumber, almost nine thousand remainunaccounted for. They were carried off by thattremendous wave that swept over the dikes. Their bodies were never recovered. Probablymost of those bodies have sunk to the floor ofthe cold sea.

When I think about it, imagining myself assomeone facing that tsunami, it wrings myheart. Most of those who survived the tsunamistill lost family members and friends, home andproperty. They lost their communities and theylost the foundations for their l ives andlivelihoods. Some villages were reduced toghost towns. There are many people from whomthe very hope that inspires life has been tornaway.

To be Japanese means, in a certain sense, tolive alongside a variety of natural catastrophes.Much of Japan lies on the route of typhoonsfrom the summer through the fall. Every year,inevitably, those typhoons cause terribletragedy and many lives are lost. There areactive volcanoes scattered across thearch ipe lago, and then there are theearthquakes. The Japanese archipelago findsitself situated in a corner to the East of theAsian continent, riding atop four enormoustectonic plates. The location is precarious. Wepass our days, as it were, atop a nest ofearthquakes.

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The season for typhoons is known and to somedegree their trajectories can be predicted. Butearthquakes cannot be predicted. The onlything of which we can be sure is that this recentearthquake is not the last; another greatearthquake will follow, without fail, in the nearfuture. Many scientists predict that in the nexttwenty to thirty years an earthquake with amagnitude of eight or more will strike the Tokyometropolitan region. That earthquake mightcome in ten years, or it might come tomorrowafternoon. If an earthquake of that magnitudewere to occur with its epicenter directly under adense metropolis like Tokyo, nobody reallyknows how much damage it would cause.

Nevertheless, in the city of Tokyo alone,thirteen million people are living “normal” livestoday. Those people continue to ride packedsubway cars to the office and they continue towork high up in tall buildings. I have not heardany indications of a decrease in the populationof Tokyo since the Tohoku earthquake.

“Why is that?” you might ask. “Why do so manypeople think it so natural to live in such aterrifying place? How can they keep from goingout of their minds with fear?”

There is an expression in Japanese, “mujō.”Mujō means that there is no steady state thatwill continue forever in life. All things thatinhabit this world will pass away; all thingscontinue to change without end. We cannot findpermanent stability. We cannot find anything torely on that will not change or decay. Althoughmujō finds its roots in Buddhism, the concept ofmujō has taken on a significance beyond itsoriginal religious sense. This concept of mujōhas been seared deeply into the Japanese spirit,forming a national mindset that has continuedon almost without change since ancient times.

The mujō perspective that all things must passaway can be understood as a resignedworldview. From such a perspective, even ifhumans struggle against the natural flow, thateffort will be in vain in the end. But even in the

midst of such resignation, the Japanese are ableto actively discover sources of true beauty.

In the case of nature, for example, we takepleasure from cherry blossoms in spring, fromthe fireflies in summer and from the crimsonfoliage in autumn. We do so as a group and wed o s o a s a m a t t e r o f c u s t o m . W eenthusiastically enjoy such fleeting seasonalmoments, as if the pleasures they offeredadmitted of no further explanation. The placesin Japan famous for cherry blossoms, or fireflies,or autumn foliage, are crowded with peoplewhen their season comes. Hotel reservationscan be quite difficult to obtain.

Why is that?

Because cherry blossoms, fireflies and autumnfoliage all lose their exquisite beauty in a veryshort span of time. We travel far to witness thatmoment of the natural phenomenon in its fullglory. Yet it is not merely a matter of observinga beautiful locale. Before our eyes, evanescentcherry blossoms scatter, the fireflies’ will-o’-the-wisp vanishes, and the bright autumn leavesare snatched away. We recognize these eventsand we find in these changes a certain relief.Oddly, it brings us a certain peace of mind thatthe height of beauty passes and fades away.

Whether or not that spiritual perspective hasbeen influenced by those natural catastrophesof Japan is beyond my understanding.Nevertheless, we have overcome wave uponwave of natural disasters in Japan and we havecome to accept them as “unavoidable things”(shigata ga nai mono). We have overcome thosecatastrophes as a group and it is clear we havecarr ied on in our l ives. Perhaps thoseexperiences have influenced our aestheticsensibility.

The recent earthquake came as a tremendousshock for almost all Japanese. Even we Japanesewho are so accustomed to earthquakes werecompletely overwhelmed by the sheer scale ofthe damage . G r i pped by a sense o f

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powerlessness, we feel uncertainty about thefuture of our country.

But, in time, we will pull ourselves togethermentally and devote ourselves to the task ofreconstruction. I am not that concerned aboutthat point. We are a nation that has survived along history of such disasters. We will notcontinue to be stunned by the blow forever. Thedamaged homes will be rebuilt and thedamaged roads will be repaired.

Ultimately, we have appropriated this planetcalled earth for ourselves. It’s not as if the earthcame up and asked us, “Please come live here.”Just because the ground shakes a bit is not areason to complain. After all, such is the natureof the earth that it shakes from time to time. Wehave no choice but to live together with nature,whether we like it or not.

What I want to touch on here is not buildings orroads, but rather those things that cannot be soeasily repaired. What I mean by that is thingslike morality, or ethical standards. Those arethings that do not have tangible forms. It is notso easy to restore them to their original state ifthey are damaged. These are things that cannotbe just put together if machinery is provided,materials supplied, and workers recruited.

To be more specific, I am referring to thenuclear power plant at Fukushima.

As all of you are no doubt aware, out of the sixnuclear power reactors in Fukushima damagedby the earthquake and tsunami, at least threehave yet to be repaired and are spewingradiation into the area. Meltdowns haveoccurred and the surrounding soil has beencontaminated. Most likely, highly radioactivewaste water is flowing out into the surroundingocean. In turn, the winds are pushing thatradiation out over a wide area.

One hundred thousand people who inhabit thevicinity of the nuclear power plant have beenforced to leave their land. Fields and rice

paddies, factories, shopping districts andharbors, have been left deserted. The peoplewho lived there may never be able to return totheir homes. And the damage from this accidentmay not be limited to Japan. It is with greatregret that I say this, but the impact of theaccident will probably extend to neighboringnations.

What was it that brought about such a tragicchain of events? The cause is clear. Theindividuals who designed that nuclear powerplant did not take into account the possibilitythat a tsunami of that magnitude would hit theplant. Some experts pointed out that tsunamisof that size had hit the coast previously anddemanded a revision of the safety standards forthe plant. But the electric company did not takesuch suggestions seriously. Why? Becauseinvesting considerable funds to prepare for atsunami that might or might not come once in ahundred years was not a welcome propositionfor a company run for profit.

And the government, which should have strictlyenforced safety precautions for nuclear powerplants, was so busy pushing its nuclear powerpolicies that it seems to have lowered its ownsafety standards.

We must investigate what happened and ifthere have been mistakes, we must make thempublic. Those mistakes have forced over onehundred thousand people from their land andleft them to rebuild their lives. We ought to beoutraged. Naturally we ought to be.

For some reason, the Japanese are a peoplewho tend not to get angry easily. We are goodat enduring things, but not very talented whenit comes to letting our emotions pour out. Thataspect of the Japanese is perhaps a bit differentfrom what we see in the people of Barcelona.But this time, indeed, the citizens of Japan willbecome really angry.

But at the same time, we Japanese are the oneswho allowed such a distorted system to operate

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until now. Maybe we will have to take ourselvesto task for tacitly permitting such behavior. Thisstate of affairs is closely linked to our own senseof morals and our personal standards.

As you know, the Japanese people are the onlypeople in history to experience the blast of anatomic bomb. In August of 1945, atomic bombswere dropped on the cities of Hiroshima andNagasaki from United States bombers. Over twohundred thousand people lost their lives. Almostall the dead were unarmed civilians. But mypurpose today is not to debate the pros andcons of those acts.

What I want to talk about is not only the deathsof those two hundred thousand people who diedimmediately after the bombing, but also thedeaths over a period of time of the many whosurvived the bombings, those who suffered fromillnesses caused by exposure to radiation. Wehave learned from the sacrifices of those peoplehow destructive a nuclear weapon can be, andhow deep the scars are that radiation leavesbehind in this world, in the bodies of people.

The way taken by Japan in the postwar periodhas two primary roots: the pursuit of economicdevelopment and the renunciation of war. Japanfollowed two new guiding principles after WorldWar Two: never to take military action, nomatter what the situation, and to pursueeconomic prosperity—and also to wish forpeace.

There is a monument set up to pacify the spiritsof those who lost their lives to the atomic bombat Hiroshima. These are the words engravedthere:

“Please rest in peace. We will not repeat thismistake.”

What remarkable words they are! At the sametime that we are v ict ims, we are a lsoperpetrators. That is the nuance of those words.Faced with the overwhelming power of theatom, we are all, all of us, victims, and at the

same time, we are all perpetrators. In that weare threatened by the power of the atom, weare all victims. At the same time, in that we arethe ones who uncovered the power of the atom,and we have failed to stop the use of thatpower, we are all perpetrators as well.

Cenotaph, Hiroshima Peace Park

And now, today, sixty-six years after thedropping of the atomic bombs, the FukushimaDaiichi nuclear power plant has been spewingout radiation continuously for three months,polluting the ground, the ocean and theatmosphere around the plant. And no oneknows when and how this spewing of radiationwill be stopped. This is a historic experience forus Japanese: our second massive nucleardisaster. But this time no one dropped a bombon us. We set the stage, we committed thecrime with our own hands, we are destroyingour own lands, and we are destroying our ownlives.

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Fukushima Dai-ichi following themeltdown

How could something like this happen? Thatstrong rejection of nuclear technology that weembraced for so many years after thewar…where did it go? What was it that socompletely undermined and distorted thepeaceful and prosperous society that previouslywe had sought for so consistently?

The cause is simple: “efficiency.”

The nuclear reactor is a highly efficient systemfor generating electricity according to thearguments of the electric power company. Thatis to say, it is a system efficient for increasingprofits. The Japanese government started todoubt the stability of petroleum supplies,especially after the 1973 “oil shock,” andpushed the generation of electricity by nuclearpower as national policy. Electric companiespoured immense amounts of money intoadvertising, buying up the media and plantingthe illusion in the minds of the people thatnuclear power is safe in every respect.

And then, before we knew it, about thirtypercent of Japan’s electricity was beinggenerated by nuclear power plants. Before thepeople could grasp what was going on, thisnarrow archipelago frequented by earthquakes

was third in the world in the consumption ofelectricity from nuclear power.

And now we find ourselves with no way to goback. A fait accompli has been achieved. Andthose who harbor fears about nuclear powerreceive responses like, “Well then, it wouldn’tbother you if you if you don’t have enoughelectricity”—responses that sound rather likethreats. And a general resignation has spreadamong citizens, a feeling that there’s not muchyou can do about the dependency on nuclearpower since to go without air conditioningduring the hot and humid Japanese summerswould be torture. The label of “unrealisticdreamer” has been slapped on anyone whoexpresses reservations about nuclear power.

And so we have carried on to the present day.And now, the supposedly “highly efficient”nuclear reactor has opened the gates of hellbefore us. Such is the lamentable state we havefallen into. That is the reality.

The “reality” which the promoters of nuclearpower referred to when they called on us to“face reality” was, in fact, not reality at all. Itw a s n o t h i n g m o r e t h a n s k i n - d e e p“convenience.” When they made that“convenience” into a “reality” through a play ofwords, they were using a rhetorical sleight ofhand.

This state of affairs represents both the collapseof a myth, the belief in the power of technologythat has been a source of pride to the Japanesefor so many years, and the failure of our moralsand our ethical standards. We were the oneswho permitted such a sleight of hand. Of coursewe criticize the government and the electriccompany. That is natural and it is alsonecessary. But at the same time there issomething we must report about our actions.While we are the victims, we are also theperpetrators. We must fix our eyes on this fact.If we fail to do so, we will inevitably repeat thesame mistake again, somewhere else.

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“Please rest in peace. We will not repeat thismistake.”

Once more we must make sure that thosewords are engraved in our hearts.

Dr. Robert Oppenheimer was the central figurein the development of the atomic bomb duringthe Second World War. But when Oppenheimerlearned of the horrific results of those nuclearbombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he wasdeeply disturbed. Reportedly he turned toPresident Truman and said,

“Mr. President, I feel I have blood on my hands.”

President Truman took from his pocket a neatlyfolded white handkerchief, remarking, “Wellhere, would you like to wipe your hands?”

Needless to say, you cannot find a spotlesshandkerchief large enough to wipe away thatmuch blood anywhere in the world.

We Japanese should have continued to shout“no” to the atom.1 That is my personal opinion.We should have combined all our technologicalexpertise, massed all our wisdom and know-how, and invested all our social capital todevelop effective energy sources to replacenuclear power, pursuing that effort at thenational level. Even if the internationalcommunity had mocked us, saying, “There is noenergy source as efficient as nuclear power.These Japanese who do not use it are idiots,” weshould have maintained, without compromise,our aversion for things nuclear that was plantedin us by the experience of nuclear war. Thedevelopment of non-nuclear energy sourcesshould have been the primary direction forJapan in the post-war period.

Such a response should have been our way oftaking collective responsibility for the manyvictims who perished at Hiroshima andNagasaki. We needed a substantial moralfoundation of just that kind, just such an ethicalstandard, precisely that sort of a social

message. That could have been a tremendousopportunity for us truly to contribute, asJapanese, to the world. But as we rushed downthe path of economic development, we wereswayed by that simple standard of “efficiency.”We lost sight of that important alternativecourse that lay before us.

As I mentioned before, no matter how terribleand serious the situation is, we can overcomethe sufferings of natural calamities and continueon our way. And by overcoming calamities, webecome st ronger sp i r i tua l ly and ourunderstanding is deepened. We will manage,one way or another, to achieve that goal.

The work of repairing damaged roads andrebuilding houses is the dominion of theappropriate experts. But when it comes torebuilding damaged morals and ethicalstandards, the responsibility falls on all ourshoulders. We will begin the task because ofsuch natural feelings as mourning the dead,thinking of those who suffer from the disaster,and wishing that the pains and wounds withwhich they were afflicted will not have been invain. We mourn the loss of the dead and we feelcompassion for those who suffer this disaster.Naturally, not wanting the suffering and woundsto have been in vain, we should take up thetask at hand. That task will be unassuming andwill not draw attention. It will be a labor thatdemands patience and endurance. Just as in themorning on a sunny spring day the people ofthe village gather together, head out to the ricepaddies, till the earth and sow seeds, so wemust combine our efforts to carry out this duty.Each individual will carry on in his or her ownway, but the effort should be of one mind.

In this great collective effort, there should be aspace where those of us who specialize inwords, professional writers, can be positivelyinvolved. We should weave together with wordsnew morals and new ethical standards. Weshould plant vibrant new stories and make themsprout and flourish. Those stories will become

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our shared story. Like the songs that are sungwhen sowing the fields, our stories should haverhythms that encourage the people as theycarry out their work. Professional writers tookup that role in the past. We supported therebuilding of Japan after it was reduced toscorched earth by war. We must return to thatstarting point again.

As I mentioned earlier, we live in the fleetingand insubstantial world of “mujō.” This life intowhich we are born slips by, and soon, withoutexception, fades away. Faced with theoverwhelming power of nature, humans arehelpless. Awareness of the insubstantiality ofexperience is one of the core ideas of Japaneseculture. But at the same time, we also havewithin all of us a positive mind, a respect forthings that have passed away and a quietdetermination to go on living with vigor in thisfragile world filled with dangers.

I am honored that people of Catalonia haveappreciated my works, and bestowed thisoutstanding award. The place where I live is farfrom here and the language that I speak isdifferent. For those reasons, the culture is alsoquite different. And yet, at the very same time,we are all citizens of the world, shoulderingsimilar burdens, and embracing similar joys andsorrows. And that is why so many novels writtenby Japanese writers have been translated intoCatalan and are read by the people. It delightsme that I can share with all of you this commonnarrative. The writer’s work is the dreaming ofdreams. But we have even more importantwork: to share those dreams with everyone. Ifone does not possess that sense of sharing, onecannot be a novelist.

I know that the people of Catalonia haveovercome tremendous hardships in theirhistory. Although you suffered terrible trials attimes, you have carried on with tremendousvitality and preserved your rich culture. There ismuch that we can share between us.

If all of you in Catalonia, and all of us in Japan,

could become “unrealistic dreamers,” if wecould come together to create a “spiritualcommunity” that unfolds beyond the limits ofborders and cultures, what a wonderful thingthat would be. I believe that would be thestarting point for the rebirth of all of us whohave passed through assorted terrible disastersand terrors of unmitigated sadness over recentyears. We should not be afraid to dreamdreams. We should not allow the dogs ofmisfortune named “efficiency” and“convenience” to overtake us. We must be“unrealistic dreamers” who step forward with astrong stride. A person must die one day anddisappear from this earth. But humanity willremain. That humanity will continue on withoutend. We must first believe in the power ofhumanity.

Let me say in closing that I intend to donate thefunds from this prize to help the victims of theearthquake and of the nuclear power plantaccident. My deep thanks to the people ofCatalonia and everyone at Generalitat deCataluña for giving me such an opportunity.Finally, I would also like to express my deepcondolences for the victims of the recent Lorcaearthquake.

Barcelona, June 9, 2011.

Murakami Haruki, born in Kyoto in 1949, isamong the most successful and influentialauthors in the world today. He sells millions ofbooks in Japan. His fifth novel, Norwegian Wood,sold more than 3.5m copies in its first year andhis work has been translated into 40 languages,in which he sells almost as well. His translator,Jay Rubin, says reading Murakami changes yourbrain. His world-view has inspired SofiaCoppola, the author David Mitchell andAmerican bands such as the Flaming Lips. He isa recipient of the Franz Kafka prize, hashonorary degrees from Princeton and Liège. Formore about his life and work, see his pulsatingh o m e p a g e a t R a n d o m H o u s e

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(http://www.randomhouse.com/features/murakami/site.php) where the beat goes on.

Emanuel Pastreich serves as associate professorof humanities at the Humanitas College ofKyung Hee University, South Korea, and co-director of the Global Convergence Forum. Healso serves as the director of the Asia Institute.As an American fluent in Korean, Japanese andChinese , he promotes in ternat iona lcollaboration in technology and environmentalpolicy. He is an Asia-Pacific Journal associate.

Recommended citation: Murakami Haruki,Speaking as an Unrealistic Dreamer, The Asia-Pacific Journal Vol 9, Issue 29 No 7, July 18,

2011.

S e e a l s o R o g e r P u l v e r s(https: / /ap j j f .org/ -Roger-Pu lvers /3570) ,Murakami, the No-Nuclear Principles, NuclearPower and the Bomb

Notes

1 The phrase“Kaku ni tai suru” (核に対する) heresuggests both nuclear power and nuclearweapons. The standard term for “nuclear”employed in the case of nuclear power is“genshi.” Murakami intentionally employs theterm “kaku” more commonly associated withnuclear weapons here to suggest a link betweenthe two technologies. Tr.