South of the Border, West of the Sun

Hajime grows up in a small family; it could be called the minimal familial unit, as he was an only child. Being the only child in a society where two children is the norm makes him feel inferior. The most unendurable is the prejudice against only children by others. Many think that not having siblings means one must be spoiled by their parents, sickly, and extremely selfish.[1] These accusations irritate him, but deep inside he fears they are true. He tries to remain unseen and ignore these weaknesses, but someone always happens to point his lack of siblings out. Friendless and aloof, his childhood is dominated by solitude and isolation. Hajime's peace does not remain unharmed even during his university years, where the polarizing environment of campus politics turns the world even more hostile towards him. He opposes the economical bubble of post-war Japanese capitalism. However, later on, with the help of his father-in-law's capital, he opens a jazz club, and according to his benefactor's wishes, Hajime invests his earnings into the stock market and real estate, and quickly becomes rich. Although he becomes an accomplished man by all metrics, having amassed wealth and established a family, he feels something is lacking. He remains unfulfilled and believes the cause might be something he had lost during his boyhood.

Shimamoto appears while Hajime feels inferior as the only child in his family. The two are 12 years old when they meet, and she is like a ray of sunshine to open Hajime‘s heart. Shimamoto is a very pretty girl but polio has left her lame, even though Hajime still thinks she is very pretty and different from others. The solitary Hajime encounters with Shimamoto, who is also an only child, and finds that there were many common points between each other. However they soon become good friends who share their secrets with each other. They spend long afternoons in her living room listening to Liszt and Nat King Cole on her father's prized new stereo, and talking with a pre-adolescent openness that becomes erotic only in retrospect. They are in a delicately poised relationship and have a period of pure and amused time. Shimamoto saves Hajime and gives a great support to his unbearably isolated world. For Hajime, Shimamoto’s existence is not just the end of the loneliness, more importantly he find the resonance of the mind from her. Shimamoto fills the missing sense of his life, she is the indispensable existence. They separate when entering junior high-school and move to different areas. Dramatically, they meet each other at 36 years old again. Hajime is catapulted into the past unreservedly but Shimamoto suddenly leaves him without a word after they spend a night together. Shimamoto is a beautiful, intense and mysterious woman; we don’t know any background of her later life. We know that she has had a baby who died in infancy. She is single, not working, but has a very decent quality of life.

Yukiko is married to Hajime at the age of 30, but Hajime rarely mentions her in their 6 years of married life, until he meets Shimamoto again at his age of 36. Yukiko remains a vague and inchoate personality throughout the novel. Only at the end of story does Yukiko finally have a direct conversation with Hajime, accusing him of being egocentric and self-absorbed while ignoring the needs of others as he neglects their marital relationship. Until now she has been performing the role of a traditional Japanese wife expected to endure and listen, but finally holds a mirror to Hajime's self-preoccupation. She is the person who can express genuine love and devotion, in contrast to the callous self-absorption and destructiveness of Hajime's desire. Her husband's betrayal makes her desperate, though she returns to love and opens her heart to accept her husband in all his frailties.[2]

"South of the Border" is a song about Mexico. But what is west of the sun? In the novel, Shimamoto compares her ennui to "hysteria siberiana",[6][7] explaining through a story:[8]

Try to imagine this, you’re a farmer, living all alone on the Siberian tundra. Day after day you plow your fields. As far as the eye can see, nothing. To the north, the horizon, to the east, the horizon, to the south, to the west, more of the same. Every morning, when the sun rises in the east, you go out to work in your fields. When it’s directly overhead, you take a break for lunch. When it sinks in the west, you go home to sleep. In the winter they stay home and do indoor work. When spring comes, they head out to the fields again. Anyway, that cycle continues, year after year, and then one day, something inside you dies. Maybe nothing or maybe something in the west of the sun. At any rate, it’s different from south of the border.

Hajime, born in 1951, belongs to the first generation of Japanese born after World War II.[9] At that time the aftermath of war is almost nonexistent. Japan has just recovered from the rubble and entering the high-speed development period, but lacking of laborers and material resources. Therefore, the State encourages people to have children to build their homes. Most families had at least two or three children and middle-class families who have only one child such as Hajime are rare. Hajime is forlorn being the only child without any siblings, and therefore develops a relationship with books and music in his childhood. This situation and people’s prejudice affect him personally establishing a little solitary and obsessive view of the world.