"Mr. Nobusuke Tagomi thought, There is no answer. No understanding. Even in the oracle. Yet I must go on living day to day anyhow.
I will go and find the small. Live unseen, at any rate. Until some later time when --"
The Man in the High Castle - Phillip K. Dick


In "The Man in the High Castle" Phillip K. Dick shows a present where the allies lost the war. This is not a very uncommon idea. Indeed, it had been developed by many writers, and even film makers. The short story "Catch that Zeppelin" by Fritz Leiber (Hugo and Nebula award) and the movie "The Fatherland", were excellent examples of this. But "The Man in the High Castle" is for sure one of the first main works where such an alternative history is described.
Moreover, it is the only one that I know about that focuses on the japanese side of a victorious axis.
Of course, Dick is far more interested in challenging the usual concept of reality, than in any other thing.
One of the main characters of the novel is a japanese guy, Nobosuke Tagomi san. In the "real" reality such an individual could had been anyone between the armies of salary-man that keep running this country. This Japan that someones think that has lost pretty much of its soul and it is the paradox itself, champions of post-modern world, and somehow lost in translation.
But under an imperial and hegemonic Japan, Tagomi san would have became the son of a very different country.
So, it could be interesting to know what the japaneses think about this character. Really Dick was able to understand what to be japanese means to be?
But has this question any sense at all?
In august 15, 1945, Japan surrendered, under the shadow of Hiroshima. The Empire was destroyed. A way of life ceased to exist. Nobody would ever know if Tagomi san would be a reasonable possibility walking on the San Francisco streets not like a businessman or a tourist, but like a conqueror.

"Through fog and above it. It rained a bit earlier. And there is Fuji, storm clouds above his brow. In many ways I am surprised to have made it this far. This view, though, makes everything worthwhile."

24 Views of Mount Fuji, by Hokusai - Roger Zelazny.


Traditional Japan, technological Japan, mixed in a dance of kaleidoscopic views. Running out Shibuya or Shinjuku, coming into islands of quietness and unchanging. Taking Delany's words, Japan, like an helix of semiprecious stones.
And one of the most brilliant stones is Mount Fuji. The sacred mountain. A symbol and a reality. The everlasting soul of the country trapped in its own volcanic hearth.
I was in his top one day seeing the sun arising over a sea of white clouds. And some day, I will take the route of Mari's pilgrimage around the 24 stations. 24 of the 46 views that Hokusai, in the XIX century, painted and make them last forever. The 24 views that inspired Roger Zelazny to write his Hugo award winner novella (1985), 160 years after, on the other side of the world.
Yes. I am surprised to have made it this far. But really really, it was worthwhile.

Image from wikipedia.


"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
William Gibson - Neuromancer.

Like a science fiction reader since my childhood it is impossible not to remember Neuromancer, and its view of the future in Tokyo, given that right now I am living in this city.
Although I had not been at Chiba so far, I had not see the sky above the port. But I hope to have the chance very soon, maybe with other fans that would like to know what really mister Gibson was speaking about.
Probably it was this strange gray, the light of the city reflected in the clouds in the night. A false dawn for a city that never sleeps.
So this is the japanese city where all was started. Neuromancer. The american cyberpunk.
And the cyberpunk was inspiration for japanese writers and creators... a new branch for the anime industry arise. Things like "Ghost in the Shell" were born.
A vision taking back again to America and where its presence is undeniable in Matrix, as a major example.
An so on, giving and taking. Laberynthic relations between ideas, experiences, writers and readers.
Of course, as Carl Sagan said, if we want to see the very beginning of every thing we need to see the origin of Universe. But in terms of the science fiction and cyberpunk literature and film making, I think that many thing were started in Chiba, looking over the Bay toward Tokyo.