Italian writer recalls ‘hell’ in WWII camp in Japan where father cut off finger (Pt. 1)

Deprived of food and unable to bear the intense hunger, detainees at a foreign internment camp in Nagoya during the closing days of the Pacific War picked up ants on the road and ate them. When they complained about their poor treatment, Japan’s Special Higher Police repeatedly threatened to slit their throats.

The “hell” of that camp left deep scars on a young Italian girl interned there. That girl was Dacia Maraini, who went on to become a renowned writer. She has published novels and plays on feminist and anti-fascist themes, and she has even been considered for the Nobel Prize in literature. Now 87, she says the seven years she spent in Japan from the age of 2 became part of her identity.

When the famed writer came to Japan in June this year, she recalled her childhood experiences in the country including her internment and evacuation, and her interactions with a young Japanese man later caught up in false accusations during the war. This is the first part of a series of articles in which she imparts a message for today’s generation.

Japanophile father begins study abroad in Hokkaido

Dacia was born in 1936 as the first daughter of Italian national Fosco Maraini. Fosco, who was deeply interested in Japanese culture, studied anthropology at the University of Florence and later received a grant from an organization affiliated with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to study at Hokkaido Imperial University (now Hokkaido University) in 1938. There, he researched Ainu beliefs and rituals. Dacia was just 2 years old at the time.

In 1941, Fosco was appointed to teach Italian at Kyoto Imperial University (now Kyoto University), and the family accordingly moved from Sapporo to Kyoto. However, the Pacific War that broke out in December that year cast a dark shadow over the Marainis. When Italy unconditionally surrendered to the Allies in 1943, their lives drastically changed.

Up until then, Italy had been allied with Germany and Japan under the Tripartite Pact. However, when Germany invaded northern Italy and established a new fascist government, the family’s home country was divided. Japan supported the new fascist government, but the Maraini family, who were anti-fascist, refused to pledge their loyalty. They were subsequently branded “enemy aliens,” and in the autumn of 1943, they were taken to an internment camp for foreigners in Nagoya.

Cutting off a little finger in protest

In the Omoteyama district of Nagoya’s Tempaku Ward stands a hill from which a quiet residential neighborhood overlooks the city. A company dormitory now occupies the site that was once the internment camp where the Marainis were held.

A total of 16 Italians including the Maraini family were detained at the camp, and they were strictly monitored by the Special Higher Police. What caused them the most suffering in this life without freedom was hunger. The Special Higher Police were siphoning off the inmates’ food. Faced with this extreme situation, Fosco and the others went on a hunger strike, but the situation did not improve. In a desperate protest, Fosco used an ax to chop off the little finger on his left hand and threw it at a Special Higher Police officer.

Dacia was 7 at the time. The hunger, the verbal abuse from the police forces, and her father’s desperate actions were etched into her memory. Looking back on those times, she says, “I wasn’t crying or despairing, but rather, I was defying adversity and standing against the difficulties with courage. I learned from my parents that not losing hope gives us the strength to live.”

(Japanese original by Kohei Shinkai, Nagoya News Department)

Profile: Dacia Maraini

Dacia Maraini was born in Florence, Italy, in 1936, and made her literary debut in 1962 with her novel “La vacanza” (The Vacation). She won the Formentor Prize in 1963 for “L’eta del malessere” (The Age of Malaise) and the Premio Campiello literary prize in 1990 for “La lunga vita di Marianna Ucria” (The Silent Duchess). With her works having been translated overseas, she is an international writer. In November last year, she published her autobiography “Vita mia” (My Life), which recounts her childhood internment in Japan. It has not yet been translated into Japanese.

Profile: Fosco Maraini (1912 – 2004)

Fosco Maraini, a cultural anthropologist and photographer, was born in Florence, Italy. He came to Japan in 1938 and engaged in research on the Ainu people at Hokkaido Imperial University (now Hokkaido University). Following Italy’s surrender in World War II, while he was teaching Italian at Kyoto Imperial University (now Kyoto University), he was sent to Nagoya where he was interned as an enemy alien with his family. After the war, Fosco returned to Italy. He came back to Japan in 1953, traveling the country and producing documentary films. He taught Japanese literature at the University of Florence and served as a visiting professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto.

(This is part 1 of a series. Click/tap here for part 2.)