ABSTRACT
The island of Kyushu is noted for several highly active volcanoes which rarely fall dormant and, if this should chance to occur, can reliably be predicted to erupt again before long with renewed fury. There seems to be a tradition that the ‘sons of Kyushu’ share this feature of their natural background, as seen in the well-known verse, sometimes quoted by Nakano, where the early Fukuoka loyalist Hirano Kuniomi compares the fulminations of Sakurajima with his own restless ardour:
It might similarly have been predicted of Nakano, especially in view of his past record, that even during the middle months of 1942, when he was more subdued than for any comparable period of his career, the pressures making for new eruptions were simmering not far below the surface. Meanwhile he had to resort to vicarious outlets for his pent-up energies by contemplating and discussing the heroic episodes of past eras, at the same time hoping that seeds planted in his listeners’ minds would prepare them for new efforts when the occasion arose. His lectures on the Kemmu Restoration were well enough executed to be thought worth publishing ten years later-though, as he wrote at the time, he was not lecturing as a specialist but for the purpose of commenting on current events and his own experiences.
