Shiki: Volume 2
Page 36
"But, they say suspended animation happens a lot, don't they."
Toshio gave a bitter smile. "I haven't seen too many in a state of apparent death but there are patients who look a lot like a corpse but who aren't really dead. If their heart rate is too weak, an amateur can't feel a pulse, their breath is so shallow it can look like they're not breathing at all. But, her heart had completely stopped. Anyone who's heart is stopped that long, even if they were alive, would be dead. --Well, I don't think people in suspended animation have postmortem lividity or rigor mortis either, but."
"Did you know that some are buried alive?"
Toshio laughed all the more. "I wouldn't put out a death certificate if there was even the slightest chance she was still living. I'd have performed decisive medical treatment. Even if the family tried to stop me. And, without a death certificate from me, they can't bury her."
"Then, there's no absolutely possibility at all of Shimizu-san coming back to life, right?"
Toshio burst out laughing. "If she came back to life from that state, she'd be a zombie or a vampire!" His huge laugh was one that Toshio could feel becoming stiff. (What did I just say?) He looked back at Natsuno with a smile still. "When purple spots and rigor mortis appear, it means she'd already become a plain old corpse. Things that aren't alive start to rot like that. No matter what kind of famous doctor you have on hand, once decay's started, I don't think they'd be bringing 'em back to life."
"Is that so," Natsuno murmured lost in thought. Soon he lifted his face and bowed his head. "I understand. Pardon me, asking something strange."
"By the way, you---" In spite of Toshio speaking to him, Natsuno turned away. He crossed the parking lot as if running away. "What was it, again, that had you coming to ask me that?"
Natsuno gave no answer to Toshio's question. Glancing over his shoulder he gave a faint salutation, then hurried off of the grounds.
---A zombie or a vampire!
Toshio reflected on his own words.
The patient's state, the cause of death. He thought and shook his head. (Ridiculous. He laughed bitterly at himself but as expected midway his laughter became strained and tapered off. (Impossible. Those things, they don't exist.)
--When kids are bad, an Oni comes.
Up from their graces, they came. Capturing children, taking them to a hole in the ground and devouring them.
When he was a really little kid told that by the elderly, he remembered saying two people wouldn't fit in one grave back at them. There were no Oni that rose from the grave. (One dead, two outbreaks, one vanished.)
(Nodes.... Marks like insect bites.) Toshio went around to the back entrance, returning to the waiting room through the staff entrance. (Bites, anemia---death.)
One dead, two outbreaks, one vanished.
Closing the open waiting room door, Toshio showed his face in the break room.
"Nagata-san." When he called out, the nurses stopped rolling gauze and looked back. Kiyomi stood up nimbly. "Sorry but could you remake the coverage list?"
"The work schedule?"
Toshio nodded. "I know we're short on help but I've just got a bad feeling. ---We're going to be hospitalizing the wife of the Yasumoris."
Natsuno half-ran. His shadow grew long at his feet as the sun sank down into the western mountains.
(A zombie or a vampire.) The shadow looked ominous. (A corpse that can live---the dead revived.)
With that, it wasn't impossible.
Because this village still buries its dead.
Notes
Chapter 1 Notes:
Cultural Notes
Chapter 1 - 2
But right now without a name to put to the disease, the government won't move. What those guys call an epidemic isn't something spreading around to the people; for them it's a word for an existing contagious disease written into the protocol or manuals.
Epidemics and Japanese Health Laws
Epidemic, densenbyou, literally translates to contagious disease. However not all contagious diseases are legally classified as densenbyou (epidemics) in Japanese. Lay people may use the word translated as "epidemic" to refer to a massively destructive and spreading malady. Medical professionals however would only refer to an "epidemic" as those outlined by the government in the Epidemic Disease Prevention Act, as the word implies specific legal duties on their part. The Epidemic Disease Prevention Act was repealed in 1999 and replaced by the reformed Infectious Disease Control Law. A doctor in the 1990s could accurately declare a contagious disease was not an epidemic (legally), which linguistically would be saying that it was not a contagious disease.
Epidemic Disease Prevention Act
Legal Epidemic Diseases: (cholera, dysentery, typhoid fever, paratyphoid A, smallpox, typhus, scarlet fever, diphtheria, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, bubonic plague, Japanese encephalitis). These were reported to the health and town officials, and the patient is to be quarantined for treatment at a cost paid by the government.
Specified epidemic diseases: (polio, Lassa fever). These were diseases designated for treatment identical to the above 11 in the original law.
Required reporting diseases: (influenza, rabies, anthrax, epidemic diarrhea, pertussis (whooping cough), lock jaw, malaria, scub/Bush typhus, filaria, yellow fever, recurrent fever). These were diseases that physicians were required to report within 24 hours to health officials, and treatment could take place either at home or in an ordinary hospital ward.
The Venereal Disease Prevention Law: (syphilis, gonorrhea, chancroid, lymphogranuloma urethritis). These are to be reported to health officials who passed the numbers to national officials.
The Tuberculosis Control Law: A physician must report diagnosis of tuberculosis within two days and their treatment bill will be paid by the government.
Leprosy Prevention Law: A doctor who diagnoses leprosy must report it within 7 days and the potentially effected patients will be put in a sanatorium at the government's cost. This law was also repealed in 1996, designating leprosy as a Legal Epidemic Disease.
The Parasitic Disease Prevention Law was not a part of the Epidemic Disease Prevention Act but is a law stating that the government may spend funds investigating by means of physical examinations or feces exams for signs of parasitic diseases (Roundworm, hookworm, liver flukes, blood flukes (Schistosoma japonicum)) and also in providing treatment for them. This law was repealed in November of 1994.
Without counting parasites as a disease (The Parasitic Disease Prevention Law is actually separate from the Epidemic Disease Prevention Law) that leaves 32 diseases that the government required and took action (read: spent money) on. As the government also does spend money on parasite control Ozaki also mentions that, highlighting the limited expectations had for government intervention on any health matter.
Chapter 1 - 5
Ozaki cites three large incidents that warranted the administration's actions, contrasting to Sotoba where he does not believe they will have the same impetus to help the isolated victims.
Mount Unzen - Volcanos located in Nagasaki which were active from 1990-1995. There was a major eruption in 1991, though due to attention and evacuation orders, the direct on-site casualties were fewer than 50, and primarily made up of scientists and film crews aware of the danger. The emperor and family had come to the site to eat cheap survivor meals such as instantcurry and there was much support provided for victims through various agencies coordinating with the government and independently.
Okushiri Island - An island in Hokkaido ravaged by an earthquake in 1993, which triggered a tsunami, landslides, and other structural damage. Considerable government funds were spent on rebuilding including building houses on higher grounds, wave defense walls, a tsunami shelter, and memorials to the 200 or so fatal victims.
Matsumoto - Several terrorist attacks with sarin gas in Matsumoto in June of 1994 are referred to as the Matsumoto Incident. The religious cult Aum Shinrikyou was eventually found guilty of the attacks.
Motives including testing it for a future attack that took place in Tokyo later in 1995 and trying to kill the judges overseeing court charges of fraud against the cult to delay the verdict. In response to the attacks the government formed risk and medical management procedures for chemical terrorism and instituted analytical instruments in hospitals and police task forces specifically for incidents of biochemical warfare.
Chapter 3 Notes:
Cultural and Translation Notes
Chapter 3 - 1
49th day anniversaries - According to Buddhist faith, after the dead die they meet with 7 different judges, one every 7 days, who determine their next life cycle as they try to reach Nirvana. On the final 49th day, it is said that their next fate is determined, making it particularly important, spiritually. On each 7th day, but particularly the 7th and 49th, family members pray and hope for the deceased to receive the "best" possible judgments.
The September Equinoctial Week is also mentioned as coming up, so I'll refer you back to the notes in Chapter 1.3-1 Higan or other shore was said in Buddhist lore to be set in the far west. At the Vernal (spring) and Autumn Equinox, the sun sets due west, and at these times they were said to be able to cross over from the other shore, and festivities or rituals are held throughout the week, honoring the dead's burial plots and family Buddhist family altars, leaving food and drink offerings to the dead and reading Buddhist sutras at grave sites. As these celebrations are a week long each time, they have those equinoxes at the center of the assigned weeks; March 21st and September 23rd.
Chapter 3 - 5
Kawaii/Kawaisou, Oshii/Ito-oshii
When Sunako talks about precious and piteous, the words she uses in Japanese are kawaii 可愛い for cute and kawaisou 可哀想 for pitiable, often used or said when saying "the poor thing" or expressing sympathy. The word kawaii is made up of the kanji for acceptable and love; the word kawaisou is made up of the same acceptable, pity, and thought. This translated imperfectly but passably in English.
She also supposes the word itooshi 愛おしい used to refer to someone beloved, usually in a romantic sense, may be made up of the word 'love' 愛 (read as either (w)ai in kawaii or ito in itooshii) from cute/precious and oshii 惜しい, for pity, lack or regret. There was no way I could think of to translate this without noting the Japanese roots.
Chapter 4 Notes:
Cultural and Translation Notes
Chapter 4 - 1
MODS - Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome, previously known as MOF for Multiple Organ Failure. MODS was the only one not defined explicitly in the chapter. Commonly the result of sepsis which leads to reduces in blood flow to the relevant organ systems. In typical MODS, this is because of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC, mentioned in chapter) syndrome, or abnormal blood clotting which leads to organ systems breaking down due to not getting enough blood to function.
Chapter 4 - 2
Gripping your thumb in your fist when a hearse or funeral procession passes by is a childhood superstition, similar to the one avoiding stepping on cracks to keep your mother from breaking her back in English. The thumb in Japanese is called the oya-yubi; oya is Japanese for parent(s) so it could be read as the parent finger. The idea is that you're hiding them from death.
Japanese tradition calls salt a purifier. Salt is placed in piles in front of restaurants supposedly to ward off evil as well as to usher in patrons. These can be seen out front of many businesses. Sample image from Wikimedia Commons. Accepted a tradition as it is, if Chigusa had never had one before, it would be potentially offensive to suddenly put one out because so many patrons were coming in after funerals.
At funerals small packets of salt may be offered to throw in front of your house before returning to ward off evil spirits from following you inside.
Chapter 6 Notes:
Chapter 6 - 2
Sakaimatsu - The nickname for the Matsuo family who live in Monzen at the border of Kami-Sotoba. Sakai (境) means border, Matsu (松) is short for Matsuo (松尾), a last name common enough there are likely multiple families with the last name in any given area.
Chapter 7 Notes:
Cultural/Translation Notes
Chapter 7 - 2
The temperature was still a far throw from being called cool but the skies seemed higher...
In the summer in Japan, there is the high atmospheric pressure from the Pacific Ocean and in fall there's the one from the continent. There's less moisture in the one from the continent than the one born of the ocean, so the sky's blue seems deeper and the sky seems clearer. When there isn't as much water vapor and the rising currents are weak, the summer's cumulonimbus clouds give way to more cirrus clouds, which are wispy, feather like, cirrocumulus which are grainy and made from ice crystals, and the thicker, chunky massed altocumulus clouds. These are clouds situated higher than the typical summer cumulonimbus clouds, further differentiating the seasonal look of the sky.
Class duty - In Japan, chores for tending to the classroom maintenance and cleaning or helping the teacher with things like delivering attendance sheets or making print-outs are handled on a rotation basis, usually weekly.
Chapter 8 Notes:
Cultural Notes
Chapter 8 - 4
Kagura - A Shinto festival of spiritual dance. The goddess Ame-no-Uzume danced around naked to make an uproar with the other gods to lure the sun goddess Ameterasu out of a cave she had cloistered herself into after a fight with her brother. Specific ritualized dances were performed by miko, or shrine priestesses, said to be descendants of Ame-no-Uzume. Many folk variations formed in different regions. In some, people believe or pretend they're possessed by the gods who come to join in the festivities and dancing. It frequently takes on many elements of street performances including storytelling, costumes, acrobats, etc.
Chapter 9 Notes:
Cultural Notes
Chapter 10 - 7
Onigiri - A popular Japanese food item made of white rice clumped into a ball or triangular shape around a fish or other savory or sweet fillings, wrapped with a strip of seaweed. Image from Wikimedia Commons.