History
Described as a work of "journalistic literature," Underground was originally published as a series of separate interviews Murakami conducted with 60 victims of the attacks and descriptions of how the attacks were carried out, along with his essay, "Blind Nightmare: Where Are We Japanese Going?" In 2000, an English translation was published which included interviews with 8 members of Aum.
Underground was originally published in Japan without the interviews of Aum members – they were published in the magazine Bungei Shunju before being collected in a separate volume, The Place That Was Promised. The English translation combines both books into a single volume, but has been abridged. Underground was translated by Alfred Birnbaum and The Place That Was Promised by Philip Gabriel.
Read more about this topic: Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack And The Japanese Psyche
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“I cannot be much pleased without an appearance of truth; at least of possibility—I wish the history to be natural though the sentiments are refined; and the characters to be probable, though their behaviour is excelling.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)
“All history becomes subjective; in other words there is properly no history, only biography.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)