Tajiki Kohannery Boat Rhetorical Analysis

Fictional Interview with Tajiki Kobayashi on “The Cannery Boat”

Regarding Personal Insight and Historical Context

Elizabeth: Hello, Mr. Kobayashi! It is so nice to meet you, thank you for time.

Tajiki Kobayashi: Good afternoon, I am very glad to meet you. Thank you for your interest in my writing and proletariat writing. I am pleased to offer you any answers I am able to.

E: Good to hear. I do have more than a few questions that we will get to, in time. Let’s begin with getting to know you, first of all. What should people know about you before we discuss your writing and dive into the historical trends you involved yourself in?

K: Well, I was born on October 13th, 1903 in the city of Ōdate- North Western Japan. However,

How were you keeping busy?

K: Oh, I joined in the labor movement before starting my bank employment. I am very much interested in the economic inequalities, especially due to my own personal financial hardships.

E: Not to mention the world wide recession, of course.

K: Exactly. Those of us involved with the labor movement were trying to ensure things such as workers’ rights in health and safety, fair wages and the right of every employee to be treated well by their employer. I believe you call these groups unions today, correct?

E: Yes, we do. There are still debates on unions’ necessity, in fact. If I recall correctly, you became politically involved somewhere around this time as well.

K: Yes I helped with a candidate’s campaign for the general election in 1928. I reference my experiences with this in my first book since my graduation, Higashikutchankō, if you would like some further reading. I suppose this marked my quick return to public writing, being politically involved.

E: That would make sense, seeing as most if not all of your work includes either a political or social opinion as a take away message. What did you write after

After being treated inhumanly and working under unbearable conditions without good wages or benefits, nor representation of their behalf, the boat’s crew revolts against their manager and run their boat as they formed a union. Eventually, the Imperial Navy suppresses the new order on board, and the story ends. I wrote this to show the capitalist exploitation in Japan, as well my personal pessimistic view on Japanese as a whole. I added many aspects to the story to which I has issue with, for example in the beginning, I mentioned the pollution of the Hakodate harbor. After I published the story though, I was marked by the government by the Tokkō, and later lost my position at the bank. Eventually, I was arrested for aiding the Japanese Communist Party, and since has been my downfall. Though “The Cannery Boat” was only a short piece of work, I do believe it was my best and definitely my most important work in my personal history, as well as in the history of Japanese proletariat literature.

E: Wow, that’s a lot of meaning for such a short story; only about 80 pages in English.

K: Indeed it is. Long novels aren’t the best mechanism for social change.

E: I agree. Thank you so much for your time, Mr. Kobayashi. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation, it was quite refreshing and educational. Have a great rest of your day.

K: Thank you. I hope I aided in your education of Japanese