Photo courtesy of Y. Watanabe and Y. Kazuko.

The Reunion

By Ji Hyun Lim

At times, art mirrors reality so closely, it's disturbing. It brings us closer to the truth of human suffering. Yoshiji Watanabe's Reunion attempts to mesh drama with life experiences to create a "real" theatrical experience. The play leaves audiences with an aftertaste that makes them question the nature and consequences of human cruelty and the human need for closure in relationships.

Reunion, written in 1991, explores the pain and complexity of war's aftermath. The protagonist, Shinzo, is the 79-year-old president of Fujita Machinery who comes face-to-face with his past. His first wife, Haru, abandoned in Manchuria during WWII, decides to sojourn to Japan to confront the demons of her past. However, Shinzo has since created a new life, family and home in Japan. His life is disrupted, and he is torn between bringing Haru back to Japan and burying the ghosts of his second wife's suicide. What complicates his life even more is his current family's rejection of Haru. His struggle to fuse his past life with his present one is the conflict of this play.

Watanabe, the writer, director and actor who plays Tomoyoshi, Shinzo's son, intertwines his experiences of being the son of a WWII executioner and a mother who was physically and emotionally abused to the point of suicide. Watanabe takes an introspective journey to figure out his father's cruel nature as he goes on an outward journey to talk to elderly women of Manchuria in 1991. He learns, after having met his father's victims' families, that the Japanese troops prevented people from escaping northeast China by purposefully blowing up bridges and roads to Japan. Many were left to starve to death or wander among their destitute villages.

Yoshiji Watanabe and Yokoi Kazuko mesh drama with life experiences to create a "real" theatrical experience. Photo courtesy of Y. Watanabe and Y. Kazuko.

According to Watanabe, the ghosts from his father's past haunted his family's household. To break away from what he considered negative karma, he had to reverse the luck. Through art, he found restitution -- or spiritual payback -- by educating the public of the travesties of the war. Watanabe sought to liberate himself from the shadows of his father. He did not want to continue his "unlucky" bloodline and chose not to have children. He and his wife Yokoi Kazuko, who plays Haru, were able to experience another kind of childbirth by bringing Reunion to the stage.

Watanabe and Kazuko, both actors for 30 years, met at the same theater group 25 years ago. Watanabe has never formally been trained in drama, receiving his education at Aichi Prefecture University in Economics. The couple contends that Watanabe's personal turmoil in a dysfunctional family and vision to express the darker side of his childhood makes his performance compelling.

Said Kazuko: "During Reunion's nine-year history, I have observed my husband at rehearsals and performances. The intensity he brings to the role and his ability to communicate the character's ineffable sadness have never ceased to astonish me."

In the nine-year run of the play across Japan, Kazuko has received feedback from younger and older audiences. She points out that a teenage boy said he became aware of the misery and emotional damage of many people. The boy felt the victims deserved an apology; and the performer, gratitude for bringing war crimes to the forefront. Similarly, a 40-year-old woman appreciated the intense performance, which made her realize that war has consequences and it comes with a price.

Reunion hopes to stir similar responses in North American audiences this September. The play will be performed in Japanese with English subtitles on a screen on top of the stage. According to Watanabe, the positive reception in China in 1995 is indicative that drama transcends language barriers. Reunion plans to play in six major cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Toronto.

Although Watanabe does not profess to have created Reunion as a political statement, he hopes it will get more Japanese Americans to speak out about the injustices perpetrated against war victims. Because September marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Peace between U.S. and Japan, he hopes Reunion will reveal the emotional turmoil of the 2.5 million Japanese who were left in Manchuria. Watanabe's personal struggle to define his father's past misgivings have healed, but there are still scars forever reminding him that the past can not be ignored.

Said Kazuko: "Our many supporters and audiences have taught us, without actually saying in words, that by embracing our departed parents and exposing them, their souls and our souls can live together. Through this rebirth, our lives have been given meaning."