Transcending Self and Other Through Akogare [Desire]: The English Language and the Internationalization of Higher Education in Japan

for their actions) and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Toshi and her husband are today perhaps best remembered for their work on the latter subject. After hearing news of the bomb in August 1945, they rushed to Maruki Iri’s native city to check on his family. Initially the sights they witnessed stunned and horrified them to the point of artistic inexpressiveness. Gradually, however, they came to feel a sense of responsibility to depict the carnage – and perhaps even a sense of responsibility for the carnage. The collaborative paintings produced and exhibited by the couple in the early 1950s bear witness to a gradual evolution of perspective from simple victimhood to ‘a polyphonic engagement with issues of suffering, aggression, and culpability’ (222). Inserting her own image as a perpetrator of violence against American POWs into scenes of the apocalyptic aftermath of the bomb, Toshi perhaps acknowledged the moral inadequacy of her wartime conduct and outlook. Beautifully produced by the University of Hawai`i Press, The art of persistence boasts dozens of reproductions of Toshi’s art (including 15 color plates), allowing the reader to follow along as the author describes and deconstructs each work. Eubanks is not an art historian, and Toshi’s contributions, merit, and technique await a fuller analysis from this perspective. However, by highlighting the richness of her oeuvre, both in terms of creative production and personal documentation, The art of persistence makes an excellent case for such a project.