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by Nuandez.
The Book That Should Not Be Forgotten
This article is about a book that, I fear, is going to be forgotten. My purpose is to rescue it.
The Human Condition, by Junpei Gomikawa, was published in Japan in 1958 and became an immediate success, selling around 2.4 million copies in its first three years. Yet, as far as I can tell, it still has no English translation.
How did I discover it, then?
Through the movies
Masaki Kobayashi adapted the novel into a trilogy between 1959 and 1961, starring Tatsuya Nakadai. Almost ten hours long, The Human Condition follows a Japanese pacifist through the horrors of war, forced labour and military life.
I consider it one of the greatest war films ever made.
And yet, when people discuss the greatest movie trilogies, we hear about Star Wars, Indiana Jones, The Lord of the Rings, The Godfather or The Dollars Trilogy. The Human Condition is rarely mentioned.
Perhaps this is because our cultural memory of the Second World War is largely shaped by stories from the West: Schindler's List, The Pianist, Saving Private Ryan, Casablanca, and so many others.
But what about the other side?
What happened in Japan and across Asia? What did ordinary Japanese people experience? What did it mean to live inside a society at war?
These are the questions that make The Human Condition so powerful.
And that brings me back to the book.
Where is the English translation?
How can a novel that sold millions of copies in Japan, and inspired one of the great war-film trilogies, still be unavailable to English-speaking readers?
Will this book simply disappear outside Japan?
I hope not.
The Godfather The Lord of the Rings Siddhartha 1984
RainDrops - 23rd October, 2026 at 02:15
"Kobayashi's trilogy are all-time favourite films."