Between the A-Bombing and Responsibilities for World War II: Changes in the Themes of Ishiguro’s Early Novels

In this chapter, Masako Matsuda explores the issues of war and responsibility by examining Ishiguro’s early works, including his unfinished novel Flight from Nagasaki, his early story ‘A Strange and Sometimes Sadness’, as well as A Pale View of Hills, An Artist of the Floating World, and The Remains of the Day. Matsuda shows not only that the bombing of Nagasaki and a disturbing sense of responsibility are two crucial themes of these works but also that these themes derive from Ishiguro’s family background: his mother was a victim of the bombing of Nagasaki, and his grandfather was an influential Japanese businessman in pre-war Shanghai. Matsuda’s contention is that these two aspects of the past of Ishiguro’s family led to the development of the themes of victimisation and an exaggerated sense of responsibility in Ishiguro’s previously mentioned early stories and novels.