He attended college during the chaos of World War II, though Endō had to interrupt his studies when he was conscripted to work in a munitions factory. Endō returned to Japan before the worst atrocities of the Sino-Japanese War, but that may have been cold comfort to the 10-year-old boy whose move was prompted by his parents’ divorce.Īt 11 he and his mother converted to Catholicism and joined what was, in Japan, a miniscule religious minority. Born in Tokyo in 1923, he spent his early childhood in Japanese-occupied Manchuria, where his father worked for the Japanese government. Throughout his life and in his writings he grappled with what to do when the expectations of faith do not match its lived reality.Ĭomparative Literature seminars from now until the Apocalypse will debate just how much authorial autobiography to wring from works of fiction, but being uncomfortable and out of place was a phenomenon that seemed to permeate Endō’s life. But Endō’s discomfort is more profound than something that looks great on the hanger that never fits exactly right. It’s such a relatable sensation that just to read it makes me squirm in my chair a bit, realizing that my collar is uneven and the pants that bunched around my legs when I sat down need to be straightened out. One of the most vivid descriptions author Shūsaku Endō uses to describe his faith was to call his Catholicism an ill-fitting suit.
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