Like many of the stories in Waters’s acclaimed collection The Laws of Evening , “Aftermath” focuses on the life of an individual dealing with post–World War II conditions in Japan. The protagonist, Makiko, is a young widow whose husband has been killed while fighting the Allied forces during the war, and the plot is driven…
Tag: Mary Yukari Waters
Aftermath by Mary Yukari Waters – Setting
Although Waters published “Aftermath” in 2001, the work is set in Japan right after the end of World War II. On August 14, 1945, following several military defeats and the United States’ dropping of an atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan’s emperor Hirohito surrendered unconditionally to the Allied powers, which…
Aftermath by Mary Yukari Waters – Literary Devices
Setting The short story takes place in Kyoto, Japan, shortly after the end of World War II. When the story opens, Toshi is playing dodge-ball in a city park called Imamiya, and other scenes in the story take place in Makiko and Toshi’s home and on the grounds of the Tanabata Day festival in the…
Aftermath by Mary Yukari Waters – Themes
Memory One of the major themes of the story is memory, particularly how memory influences the present and how individuals hold onto and let go of memories. The main character Makiko is preoccupied with retaining memories of the pre-war years, and she tries to recall specific events and feelings from the time her husband was…
Aftermath by Mary Yukari Waters – Characters
A Girl An unnamed girl is Noboru’s date for the Tanabata Day festival. Like him, she is a university student who embraces the changes wrought by the modernization of Japan. Makiko The protagonist of the story, Makiko is a young Japanese widow living in Kyoto, Japan after World War II. She struggles to raise her…
Aftermath by Mary Yukari Waters – Summary
“Aftermath” begins with the protagonist Makiko watching her seven-year-old son Toshi playing dodge-ball in Imamiya Park. As she watches Toshi play the “new American” game, Makiko thinks about how fast Toshi is growing and worries about how quickly Japan is becoming Americanized in the years after Japan’s defeat in World War II. She particularly worries…