Processing Generational Trauma

After reading Murakami’s essay “Abandoning a Cat” you can observe how Murakami carries many aspects of his relationship with his father into his writing. In the essay Murakami discusses his father, his entanglement with war, and the strains of their relationship. Murakami seems to explore his father’s experiences and their relationship in his novels, as many scenes described in the essay are extremely similar to scenes from his novels. 

In “Abandoning a Cat” Murakami recounts the only story his father told him about his wartime experiences, where his unit executed a chinese soldier. This anecdote seemed very similar to the scene described in The Wind Up Bird Chronicle when the Lieutenant had to execute the Chinese soldiers who tried to escape, as well as the zoo massacre scene. In both instances Murakami describes how the soldiers knew they were going to die and did not resist their executions, and the “torment and anguish” felt by the people forced to kill. It seems that war and violence had a profound effect on Murakami’s father as he describes how his father’s experiences caused him to be violent towards his students and drink excessively. Murakami references Japanese Militarism frequently, and war and violence are common themes in his novels. From his accounts in “Abandoning a Cat” it seems that he uses his novels as a way of exploring these topics and their effect on people’s lives, as well as processing generational trauma passed down to him from his father.

In the essay Murakami also discusses his relationship with his father stating “when I became a full-time writer our relationship got so convoluted that in the end we cut off nearly all contact. We didn’t see each other for more than twenty years, and spoke only when it was absolutely necessary.” (Murakami 9). Even from the language of the essay you can feel the distance in their relationship. When Murakami talks about their relationship he uses words like “think”, “assume”, and “guess” when describing his father’s feelings, showing how little he connected with his father. This reminded me a lot of the descriptions of fathers in Kafka On The Shore and 1Q84. In both of those novels Tengo and Kafka have strained and distant relationships with their fathers, and both specifically mention at times believing that their father was not their actual biological father. When Murakami describes his final encounter with his father in the hospital it seemed extremely similar to the situation between Tengo and his father at the end of his life, which takes up a good portion of 1Q84. It seems to me that Murakami is using these depictions of fathers to reflect on and process his own relationship with his father and find closure.

Ken