母子像

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Sixteen-year-old Taro Izumi, a survivor of the Battle of Saipan, is arrested for setting fire to American military supplies but refuses to explain himself. His homeroom priest, Father Johannes, gradually reveals a darker past: Taro's mother, who worked at an officers' club, once tried to kill him before vanishing. Juzo Hisao traces with cool precision the psychology of a boy who worshipped his mother, obeyed her every command, and cannot let go of her even now. This taut short story won first prize in the 1955 New York Herald Tribune International Short Story Competition and stands as one of the author's finest works.

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