Castaways: Two Short Novels - Softcover

Masuji Ibuse was born in Kamo, Hiroshima Prefecture, in 1898. He majored in French at Waseda University and joined the School of Fine Arts to pursue a serious interest in painting. His first story, "Salamander," was published in 1923, when Ibuse was still a student, and by the early 1930s his eloquent use of dialect and his unique prose style had established him as one of the leading figures in the Japanese literary world. In the years since 1938 he has been awarded almost every literary prize in Japan, and on the publication of Black Rain (1966) Ibuse was presented with both the Cultural Medal and Japan's highest literary award, the Noma Prize.

"Hey, Goemon, Toraemo--a ship, a ship is coming!"

Goemon and Toraemon had arrived at the shore a while before to look for shellfish; now they ran toward Manjiro at top speed and, glancing off to sea, danced their own jig of joy. It was a ship for sure! And her course seemed to be set straight for the island! It was a foreign sailing ship, her three masts full-rigged with an array of sails. She came so close they could observe people in pipe-sleeved jackets walking the deck. But all of a sudden, she changed course toward the northwest for God knows what reason and made to pass them with utter indifference. The three startled men rushed to a little hill nearby, yelling at the top of their lungs that there were castaways on this island and begging the ship to return. They picked up a length of ship's timber that had washed ashore and, tying Toraemon's checked undershirt to one end, waved it high in the air.

The foreign ship seemed to get their meaning, for she came about and headed for the island. About two miles away, she dropped anchor and dispatched two longboats with a crew of six in each. As they rowed toward the island, the castaways waved their hands to beckon "Come on, faster, faster," and some men in the boats took off their caps in response and waved them all the way to the shore, as if inviting the stranded men into their boats. But as there wasn't a stretch of open beach where the longboats could land, the foreigners in the boats showed them by gestures that they should take off their clothes, tie them in a bundle on top of their heads, and swim over. The three men on the cliff hesitated, a little frightened by the strange sight of people unlike any they'd seen before, with red hair and blue eyes. Then Manjiro summoned up his courage, stepped down from the cliff, and did as the foreigners had instructed: taking his clothes off, he tied them to his head and jumped into the ocean. The foreigners rowed their boat nearer and, taking Manjiro by the hand, helped him climb aboard. Manjiro felt as if God himself had come to his help and his heart overflowed with gratitude. But when he fell on his knees and began worshiping the crew, the black-skinned sailors among them burst into booming laughter. Soon Goemon tied his bundle of clothes to his head and swam over to Manjiro's boat; he too was helped aboard. The last one to join them was Toraemon.

In their excitement, the three men had completely forgotten about old Denzo and Jusuke, who were left behind in the cave and knew nothing about the ship. Toraemon tried to explain the situation, but since his words weren't understood, he pointed to the cave and gesticulated that two men were still left there. At that point the negroes were given some kind of order and started rowing one of the longboats back to shore. Denzo had just been wrapping a cloth bandage around his brother's sore foot, when all of a sudden a pitch-black human stepped into the cave, uttered the weirdest-sounding gobbledygook, and tried to drag him out. Denzo was so startled he brushed the man's hands away and made to dash out of the cave, but then a white-skinned foreigner came up and tried to convey something to him with gestures. Denzo interpreted them to mean:

"Take it easy, take it easy. We're not going to hurt you. Your friends have already been saved by our ship. There's nothing to worry about. We're all brothers of the Four Seas."

The white-skinned foreigner smiled in a good-natured way. The dark-colored stranger also smiled, displaying an awesome row of white teeth. Denzo felt greatly relieved. Exchanging glances with Jusuke, he followed the men down to the shore. Jusuke was the last to leave, not walking but carried in a pair of strong black arms. And there they were: in one of the longboats, gently swaying on the waves, they saw their three friends, sitting upright and looking slightly bashful.

Denzo obeyed the gestures of the white foreigner and, taking his clothes off and trying them to his head, jumped into the ocean. The black foreigner caught Jfisuke in a bear hug, a rope was tossed over from the boat, and they were both safely towed aboard.

The white foreigner then asked them in sign language:

"Have you left any valuables in the cave? Don't hesitate to tell us. We'll send these black men to get them."

Denzo gesticulated back: "What valuables would castaways like us have? The most precious, most moving thing that ever happened to us here was being rescued by you...."

"Well, the pleasure is ours as much as yours. But surely you left something behind. Feel free to tell us."

"Some clothing, feathers, a turtle's shell, dried albatross meat, and other odds and ends of that kind, that's all we left back there."

The white foreigner gave a resolute nod and issued orders to the darker ones. Synchronizing the rhythm of their oars, they swiftly rowed the longboats toward the ship waiting in the offing. They went at least three times faster than a similar five-oared boat of Japanese make.

They reached their ship toward evening, when the setting sun was just a few minutes above the horizon.