As part of the Spotlight Series for Graywolf Press, the following is a review of Black Glasses Like Clark Kent, A GI’s Secret from Postwar Japan by Terese Svoboda.
War stories. Most people want to hear stories of death defying heroic deeds and patriotic sacrifice. But many true war stories do not offer escapism or a heroic figure to save the day. War and its aftermath is full of atrocities and human cruelty.
We usually only hear of the triumphs and glory. We turn a blind eye to the ugliness and shut it out. But in order to see things as they truly are, we must look straight into mirror. We may not like what we see, but to improve ourselves as human beings we have to acknowledge our wrong doings and make others aware of what is right and what is wrong.
Black Glasses Like Clark Kent is not just about a person’s experiences during the occupation of Japan immediately after WWII. There are two stories intertwined here.
Terese Svoboda’s uncle was a military policeman (MP) who served at the Eighth Army stockade outside Tokyo. Coming from all-american midwestern roots, he is “my uncle, Clark Kent, the bespectacled man with a secret.” But more like Drew Carey, he wears the black thick official military issue “basic corrective glasses”.
Late in his life, her uncle enters a deep depression as news of Abu Gharaib torture and prison abuse brings back memories of Japan. Family secrets are revealed to his niece as the uncle transcribes his recollections onto taped recordings he mails to her.
What memories were triggered from the sordid images of an Iraqi prison? What makes this kryptonite so powerful?
Over the course of the book, Terese shares her uncle’s taped recollections. Excerpts from the tapes are intercut between the pages as Terese attempts to fill in gaps and give her uncle’s story a backbone to support the situation he was in and the events that unfolded.
Terese travels to Japan for research and to further source and back up her uncle’s story. Untold secrets come out in the open and we catch glimpses of what was hidden behind walls of shame, guilt, and horror. She builds her research into a suspenseful rush to discover the skeletons in the closet before the closet door closes and the keys held only in the minds of a diminishing few.
Once in Japan conducting interviews with eye-witnesses of the time of U.S. occupation, Terese slowly cashes out small prizes of war-time recollections. A small history is weaved from the threads and snippets of memories sometimes vivid and almost forgotten. The small payouts keep her going while waiting for the wheels of fortune to spit out the ever-elusive jackpot of answers.
Here are some quotes from the book:
-page 6 – “My dad calls around then and mentions that his brother has fallen into a deep depression.”
-page 7 – “He has a secret.”
-page 70 – “The returning vets of the Greatest Generation kept quiet about the horror they witnessed, they internalized it.”
- page 98 – “Fordham, where I have a two-year contract as the writer-residence, has awarded me a research grant. I am in Tokyo to search for the Japanese elderly who might have worked in the stockade’s kitchen, or as children might have played around its walls.”
I enjoyed the book. No spoilers here, you’ll have to find out the secrets of the uncle and what occurred in the stockade yourself. As you read the story, you get a real sense of desperation as each word means that time is slipping by and you must come to terms along with the author that the whole truth may never be known.
I’ve done some family research myself and I certainly sympathized with Terese about the frustrations over missing records and the lack of time available to root out a new thread of information in a mountain of minutiae.
As she gets further into her research , we see the author’s growing obsession with her uncle’s story. The uncle’s taped recollections serve as an undercurrent. The author’s technique of interspersing tape excerpts throughout the book serve to heighten the sense of guilt that drive her to seek answers to the many questions the tapes bring up.
Terese Svoboda’s story into finding out what happened at the stockade also parallels her uncle’s story by following a pattern similar to the human reaction to grief. She too experiences stages such as shock, denial, bargaining, and acceptance. At the end of the book, she accepts that she will never put all the puzzle pieces together. We may have not have all the hows, whens, and whys but what we have may be the most important and thats enough.
“But I won’t stand for my uncle’s ghost teasing me, hovering over my shoulder where I’m hunched over some huge piles of documents at the National Archives. I declare the job finished.”
In her uncle’s case, I’m glad he shared his life experiences. It was a reminder of our humanity. Its a personal book. There are certainly parallels with today’s vets and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. But I wished that her uncle could have looked in the mirror and realized that the power of change comes from recognition and not to despair. Like his niece at the end, we must learn and break free from frustration and guilt. Although we can’t change the past, we can certainly learn from it.
Wow, I admit from the title I would never have thought this book covered the subject that it does. But I guess it makes sense as Superman came into being during a war, didn’t he? Great review- thanks for participating in the series!