ABSTRACT
We live in the age of nuclear peace. No one is more aware of this situation than Abe Kobo, and our nuclear peace has been the subject of his two latest books, the novel Hakobune Sakuramaru (1984), The Ark, and a volume of essays, Shini-isogu kujiratachi (1986), The Whales. The background of The Ark is the imminence of the holocaust of an atomic tragedy. There is no question, it is only a matter of when. In his own dramatic fashion Abe points out in his more pessimistic passages that we are already in it. Perhaps the bomb has been thrown but has not yet fallen. The Iran-Iraq war is considered in The Whales as a prelude to what is to come, what must come, if we do not better our ways – and fast. This is therefore a very serious contention, which is underlined in The Whales, in which he discusses the same themes as in The Ark and presents his thoughts concerning the present world. The two works can profitably be read together.
