Like Dust in the Wind : A Critical Introduction to Takagi Kyōzō's Manchurian Literature

What would it mean for the politically-dominant parties in a colonial or semi-colonial context to produce a minor literature? Is it even possible? This article seeks to address these questions in the context of Japanese-language literature in Manchuria and Manchukuo by introducing and analyzing the Manchuria-period writing of Takagi Kyōzō (1903-1987), focusing on his short story Fūjin (Dust in the wind), and by bringing to light the literary and political complexities associated with his self-perceived "minority." The article provides essential background to both Takagi as an individual and the Japanese-language Manchurian literary community in general, including a variety of earlier approaches to Japanese-language Manchurian literature. After establishing Takagi's literary upbringing by Fukushi Kōjirō (1889-1946) and the regionalism (chihōshugi) and "dialect poetry" (hōgenshi) movements of the 1920s and 30s, the article uses close reading of his literary and autobiographical work to argue that—despite his position of privilege on the continent as an ethnic Japanese national—Takagi both lacked agency as a historical subject and was well aware of his resulting complicated status in Manchuria. He demonstrated this understanding through the deployment of plant, animal, and other natural images, often literally de-humanizing his Japanese protagonists by reforming them into aspects of the continental landscape. The article concludes by gesturing toward resonances between Takagi's writing and the place of his Japanese contemporaries in Manchuria, as well as his representation of non-Japanese subjects in his writing.