Haitani Kenjiro
Among various authors, Haitani Kenjiro is one of my favorite author. He was good at writing story which kids are the main characters and stories are told from their point of view. The book I read was “Tombogaeri de higakurete”. It is a Japanese paperback (Bunko-style book), consists of nine short stories. To tell the truth, this was not a good one I read, but I liked one of the stories called “Umi-ni-arunoha Ashita dake (Tomorrow - the only thing at the sea(?))”. This story tells about three kids watching ocean from different places and it is only a few pages long.
One of the children is watching ocean from his highrise apartment where another apartment building is being built and the view will be blocked. Another child is with his grandfather who’s the captain of old ferry ship. He said he wants to be the captain of grandfather’s ship, but his father is coming back from a training of faster ferry. The last child is a son of lighthouse guard. He also wants to be a lighthouse guard, but the lighthouse will be automated soon. Their fathers and grandfathers haven’t told them about somewhat sad reality. However, I was moved with children’s pure feeling without knowing these reality.
A Rabbit’s Eyes seems like the only book published in English. A Rabbit’s Eyes (amazon.com)
(Completed reading on 01/05/2008)