大岡昇平作品中的戰爭批判——論《聖荷西的聖母》——

Abstract

大岡昇平（1909-1988）是日本戰後文學的推手之一，一般歸類為第二次戰後派作家，其二戰時被徵召入伍，駐守菲律賓民都洛島的經驗，成為日後他戰爭小說創作的題材，如《俘虜記》（創元社，1948）《野火》（創元社，1952）《萊特戰記》（中央公論社，1971）等，皆廣為知悉與研究。然而戰爭短篇小說集《聖荷西的聖母》（作品社，1950）至今仍是乏人問津，故本論聚焦於此書，分析其主題與大岡昇平戰爭小說的批判性，以確立《聖荷西的聖母》的文學意義與價值。 首先考察《聖荷西的聖母》的成立與改稿的過程，從中可窺見復員後作家充滿強烈的表現欲望。各個短篇的改稿並非僅止於文句修飾，其中更呈現出大岡對文章表現精確度的追求，以及對於人物心理或人物描寫的執著。對大岡而言，戰爭小說的創作不是因為文人趣味、自我表現、自我滿足或自我慰藉，而是透過小說有意圖地向讀者傳達自己的思想，並字斟句酌地衡量是否準確表達。 另一方面，《聖荷西的聖母》可說是作者發問以及自我解答的場所，每篇的背後都藏有作者對過去戰爭經驗的各種疑問或問題意識，從每一篇都可看出作者尋找答案、嘗試說明與描述的痕跡。正因如此，每篇作品各異其趣，整體呈現多樣性格集合體的風貌，而這些發問正是作家最根本的問題意識，也是作家創作的本質所在。《聖荷西的聖母》還有一特殊之處，即雖被歸類於短篇小說集，其多樣化的小說性格異於長篇小說、系列小說或短篇連環小說，但每篇卻又圍繞著戰爭此大主題以及作家的戰爭經驗，因此也和一般大雜燴式的短篇集迥異。 和大岡其他戰爭小說相比，《俘虜記》以敘述俘虜收容所中俘虜們的生態，與其墮落的樣貌為主，偏紀錄風格；《野火》則是描述戰爭末期潰不成軍的日本軍，一位一等兵戰場徘徊，面臨極度孤獨與飢餓的狀態，屬虛構的作品；晚幾年出版的《萊特戰記》則是在龐大的戰史、作戰資料之上所完成的巨作。各個名作的性質迥然不同，而《聖荷西的聖母》更是卓犖不群，自成一格。 《聖荷西的聖母》中，大岡昇平戰爭批判的內容涵蓋各種層面，如自我批判、自我認識、從「生物學情感」的立場對日本軍部與天皇制的批判等，並非盲目地自我主張，一味地抨擊戰爭之非、國家之錯；同時，也能感受到作者的批判中深藏著某種複雜或一言難盡的心情。據此，《聖荷西的聖母》在大岡的戰爭小說中的重要性自是不言而喻。而復員後的大岡昇平，終其一生對戰爭議題的關心不減，對戰爭批判的態度也絲毫不變，這樣的作家實為稀少，值得給予高度關注。

The writer Shohei Ooka’s (1909-1988) belonged to a group of postwar writers, and he participated in World War II as a soldier. He was stationed in San Jose, on Mindoro island in the Philippines. Using his war experiences, he created many works on the topic of war. Among them, “Taken captive: A Japanese POW's Story” (1948), “Fires on the Plain” (1952), and “A Record of the Battle of Leyte” (1971) are among his best known. However, his short story, “Our Lady of San Jose” (1950) has, up to now, not been deeply examined. To that end, I have focused this paper on “Our Lady of San Jose,” studied common themes throughout Shohei Ooka’s war novels, and examined the meaning of his war criticism. I first considered the completion and drafts of “Our Lady of San Jose.” From there, Ooka’s desire to strongly express himself as a demobilized soldier is revealed. Ooka’s drafts were not simply to polish and improve upon his expression, they also held within them a determination for exacting his expression, as well as psychological and character descriptions. For Ooka, creating war novels was not just for fun, or for his own satisfaction, rather it was a medium for him to convey his way of thinking and what he wanted to say to the reader. Moreover, “Our Lady of San Jose” is a work in which the author is posing a question, and the 12 short stories within each contain the author’s questions and awareness of problems. These many questions give “Our Lady of San Jose” its diverse quality, as well as making it a collection of disparate pieces. These questions are the authors own, as well as the essence of the author’s creation. Moreover, while it belongs to the “short story collection” genre, “Our Lady of San Jose” actually occupies a unique position somewhere between a full length novel or a novel series and the so-called short story collection. Shohei Ooka’s war criticism as seen through “Our Lady of San Jose” contains many critical aspects, including introspective self-criticism, raw self-awareness, “biological emotional” criticism of the Emperor, etc. The complex mentality that exists there is difficult to express. It is rare for a writer to maintain this interest in war while also keeping his critical stance of war, and I believe he should be acknowledged for this.