A Novel Dealing with 'Conversion' in the Age of Nuclear War: Focusing on Shigeharu Nakano’s “Procrastination”(1963)

Nakano Shigeharu, who led socialist literature in modern Japan, considered “conversion” as his literary task throughout his life. In particular, the novel “Procrastination” (1963) presents intriguing points regarding Nakano Shigeharu’s perception of the issue of conversion during the post-war periods. First, the novel approaches the event of conversion from the perspective of a third party rather than that of the individuals involved. The novel adopts a structure where a character named Yasuda observes the “converters.” This narrative structure aims to engage the reader’s interest in the question of why conversion continues, rather than who converted and for what reasons. Within the novel, Yasuda has long remained silent regarding the conversions of Nogami and the Communist Party, indicating his complicity in the persistence of the conversion issue. Second, the novel addresses conversion not as a past event before the war but as an ongoing issue in the post-war period. The Communist Party demonstrates indifference to public trends even in the post-war era, and Nogami remains oblivious to the Cold War strategies of the United States that support his research activities. However, it cannot be said that the novel solely deals with conversions in the post-war period. The conversion of the Communist Party remains unchanged between pre and post-war, while Nogami’s conversion takes the form of a conversion from pre to post-war. Third, the novel’s characteristic is the backdrop of the nuclear war crisis that triggers Yasuda’s contemplation of the conversion issue. The nuclear war crisis instills a profound fear of human annihilation in Yasuda and prompts a determination not to remain silent about the problem of conversion any longer. In this regard, the nuclear war crisis becomes a decisive context in the novel. From the perspective of Japan’s intellectual history in the post-war era, this novel can be evaluated as a text that records the brief crisis of post-war in the early 1960s. The confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, known as the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, was considered a precursor to a new world war. As a result, Japanese people were engulfed in anxiety that the post-war period might come to an end. However, the threat of a nuclear war swiftly diminished the sense of reality along with the compromise between the United States and the Soviet Union. Consequently, the sense of crisis that the post-war period might come to an end was concealed in Japan as well. The early 1960s are often remembered as a period of one-sided progress towards prosperity and affluence. However, such a memory is constructed upon the forgetting of the events that plunged the post-war period into a crisis. It can be confirmed from this perspective that “Procrastination,” which deals with conversions in the nuclear war era, is a text that records forgotten history and holds unique historical significance.