Installment II

In 1926 Emperor Taisho died, bringing on the Showa era. A dark and terrible time in Japan was about to begin. The brief interlude with democracy and modernism was over, and fascism was spreading across the land.

Sports along with history were one of Aomame’s favorite things. While she did not read many novels, any book related to history she would devour. The thing that she liked about history was that history was basically only dates and places tied together. It was not that difficult for her to remember the names of the historical eras. No rote memorization of the period years were necessary, the era period would automatically well up from within as the various historical happenings fell into their relational place; before or after, left or right. Aomame received top marks in history throughout junior high and high school. She always thought it strange when people struggled to remember the era periods. Why couldn’t they do such a simple thing?

Aomame is her real name. Her father’s grandfather came from Fukushima province, where amongst the mountains in a small town or village, there were actually several people who had “Aomame” as their family name. However, Aomame has never gone there because before she was born her father had cut off all ties with his family. Same with her mother, so Aomame had never once met her grandparents. Aomame did not travel that much, but when she did, she would always look for her family’s name in the hotel room’s telephone book. However, no what town she visited, wherever it was, not one person was listed with the last name of “Aomame”. Whenever she did this, she felt alone, thrown into the vast ocean as a solitary drifter.