The Watanabe Name

Interesting premise, a curious mystery and decades. It is always good to read stories based in other locations and among other cultures that I tend to read. While the story is involving, it is the context of attitude, behavior, expectations and family that makes this book so interesting.

The trappings of Japanese life look so stark and regulated, it is easy to overlook natural awful human behaviors: lying, deception, abuse, greed, ambition look just as nasty under a spiffy uniform or gorgeous kimono. The dynamic between brothers, father and son, commander and servicemen is the aspect of this book that gives richness to the story.

Paints a clear, if challenging, picture of those people, those times and those paths chosen.

*** I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley. ***

This is a book that starts extremely sluggishly but picks up and goes full-throttle until the end, keeping you reading for more to figure out what happens next. I was really slogging through the first bit and was super close to DNF'ing it until a major event finally occurred. The rest of the novel makes up for the slow start.

The Watanabe Name is a thriller/historical fiction about a traditional Japanese family that has some notoriety due to the war. When the patriarch is found dead, the story really unfolds into a thrilling telling around the family itself and who might have wanted him gone.

Those who are familiar with the atrocities around the Japanese occupation will understand references in the book, especially to some heinous, problematic aspects of the occupation.

‘To someone like Kenji, who valued his family name and honour above all else, the true answer to the question could never be revealed no matter what the circumstances.’

I’m not sure if this is the first book by Sakura Nobeyama, or perhaps her first to be translated into English – either way, this is an excellent crime-mystery novel that delivers so much more than what appears on the surface.

It is the winter of 2002 and Kenji Watanabe is enjoying a quiet moment of reflection; 80-years old and extremely rich, he is relaxing in his family’s log cabin near Nagano. And then the phone rings. What then unfolds is a story that transports us back to 1967, when Kenji’s father was murdered and the culprit never found, and then even further back to the 1940s and Japan’s involvement in World War Two and the conflict with China in Manchuria. The phone call comes from Captain Miyabe of the police, who claims that he has new information about the murder and wants to discuss it with Kenji. For some reason, as yet unexplained, Kenji has no wish for any details to be made known – and thus we are sent back to 1967 to look at the events leading up to his father’s murder.

The plot reveals itself slowly, and Nobeyama structures the book in such a way that as we go further back in time everything starts to make more sense. Whilst the mystery is explained, the book in some ways concerns itself more with more complex ideas, which add depth and conviction to the characters and the story. It is a book about Japan and its people, a culture where honour and tradition and family are prized above the needs of the individual. Kenji’s father was a general in the war, and Kenji enlisted as soon as he was able and took the oath of allegiance (the Imperial Precepts) as a soldier: ‘Duty is heavier than a mountain, death is lighter than a feather.’ In the 1967 section of the novel, Kenji struggles with his family and their place in society. His two sons want to be free spirits – this is the era of the late 1960s and the student protests around the world, of course – but Kenji’s father is determined that they should knuckle down, be sensible and study law or business. There are complex levels of family honour and tradition, of respecting and valuing your elders, and of inheritance and money. What the section set in the 1940s does is bring into the debate the wider national aspects of this, of how a country has to face up to its past, acknowledge its war crimes, and atone for them. The Watanabe family story is a mini-version of the wider national guilt.

The main characters are well developed, and the novel leaves it up to the reader to judge the events and the consequences of the actions that are variously exposed over the course of the book. For those who have read a lot of Japanese literature this will reward you with its motifs and characters that are drawn from a number of traditions: the dogmatic police detective who won’t let it go; the family dynamics and generational conflicts over honour and tradition; a culture that expects conformity and the individual who has to find their place. I hope this gets a wide audience because it is a well-written, intricately structured book that, as it develops, adds extra layers of significance and cultural understanding. It is also an extremely satisfying whodunnit. I look forward to reading more by this author. Definitely a strongly recommended 4 stars.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

A wonderfully written and moving novel. I enjoyed the read. Thanks to the publisher for granting me access to this title.

This was a refreshingly original story of g nerations of the successful Watanabe family. I Japan family honour is everything. We know here has been a murder in the family many years ago which was never solved. A phone call could change that but would old secrets be uncovered? A good read.

This book was a real treat. I thought it was a typical "rich- patriarch-is- murdered- by-bitter-child"plot but there are many layers to the Watanabe family and their story is heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. It definitely satisfied my love of family drama. The Watanabe Family is steeped in military and high society which means there are certain expectations of them. They wear the facade of perfect for everyone but there are secrets jn their closet that both tear them apart as a family and hold them together. World War 2 is the historical background for this story but was very essential to the character development of everyone. I think you'll walk away feeling pity for everyone. I loved it!