BOOKS & CULTURE // No Man Is An Island
The Twilight World
Werner Herzog
The Penguin Press, New York, 2022
Translation by Michael Hofmann
EXCERPT //
Lubang Island, the Philippines — As the rest of the troops withdraw from the island during World War II, a Japanese soldier is tasked by his superiors with holding down the territory with as many guerrilla tactics and as much bravery as he can muster. Based on the true story of Hiroo Onoda, Herzog details how Onoda slips into the jungle with single-minded purpose, never staying in one spot long enough to be spotted. He holds on so tightly to his duty that when the war ends, he cannot be convinced that it’s actually so, and he spends 30 years continuing his fight, a ghostly presence that the villagers sense from time to time when their rice is stolen, a water buffalo is slaughtered, or gun shots pierce the air—or a human body. In Herzog’s telling, Onoda tries to keep meticulous track of the days, to keep his moldering uniform mended, to keep order and duty at the forefront and his gun in working order, but also slips into reveries and ruminations. “It feels to me that there is something about these weapons that takes them out of human control. Do they have a life of their own, as soon as they’re devised? And doesn’t war seem to have a life of its own, too? Does war dream of war?” Onoda asks. “Is it possible I am dreaming this war? Could it be that I’m wounded in some hospital and will finally come out of a coma years later, and someone will tell me it was all a dream? Is the jungle, the rain—everything here—a dream? Is Lubang nothing but a fantasy that exists only on old mariners’ charts along with sea monsters and humans with the heads of dragons and dogs?” //
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