==JAPAN: KM== [Environment]

The first story "Snow White"(the present version)
There was a beautiful girl named Snow White. Her name came from her fair skin. She was so beautiful that all the boys who had seen her even once loved her very much without exception. But that doesn't necessarily hold true of all the girls. One of her classmate named Queen was a typical girl who was jealous of Snow White's popularity.
"Why is Snow White popular among boys? I don't think she is fairer than I." Queenie was talking to her mysterious mirror. If Queenie asked something to the mirror, it replied based on the World Truth.
One day, Queenie asked the mirror at last, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of us all?"
It replied, "Your classmate, Snow White, is the fairest."
The answer offended her and she even came up with an evil idea.
Snow White had noticed that she was envied and detested by most of the girls in her class. And she had also sensed that Queenie had a sharp look in her eyes recently, and the sight of it terrified her very much. So Snow White came to look after herself carefully.
One day, Snow White heard someone rapping on the door.
"Who is it?" Snow White asked. "It's Queen. Please let me in."
Snow White had a horrible hunch, but she opened the door anyway, because Queenie was her classmate.
"What happened?" Snow White asked. Queenie answered smiling, "I made a special curry, but there's too much. So won't you help me eat it, Snow White?" Snow White looked in the pot. The curry was thick and dark as if it was excretion. And at the same time, so strong a smell struck her that Snow White felt nauseated.
"You don't want to eat it?" said Queenie, looking at Snow White with sharp eyes like a snake's. "Or do you think it's poisoned?"
Snow White still hesitated, but this time she could no longer decline because Queenie was her classmate! So Snow White said "thank you" and stretched out her hand and took the spoon. Snow White didn't notice that Queenie was looking at her with a hideous expression on her face.
Snow White took the first bite timidly, and no sooner had she taken a second bite than she fell down. Queenie cackled.
"Wh--- what did you use for the curry roux?" Snow White asked in pain. "Nuclear wastes. And I used dioxin and other polluted things for spice." "What?---" Snow White asked feebly in disbelief.
"You must know that every beautiful thing keeps its beauty by clearing waste away from itself. Surely it applies to the Earth. We use electricity by operating the nuclear power plant and it discharges waste in some other places. And we throw away garbage and when it burns, it produces dioxin. You yourself must know the reality of this!"
Queenie stopped talking and found Snow White was dead.
Queenie asked her mirror again.
"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of us all?"
"You, oh Queen, are the fairest," it replied.
Queenie felt relieved. But soon she also thought, "My beauty is a sin."
Guilt and depression plagued her, so Queenie also took poison and died.

The second story "Telephone"
The telephone rang. Silence was broken. I picked up the receiver, but --- no one answered. No sound.
NO. Please listen to it! A very low sound. The wind blew. Sometimes it began to rain. Sometimes it shone. (I surely heard the sun shining!)
AND, suddenly, gunfire. A stranger toppled. A child was weeping. Many families lost their houses. A few men got their wealth but lost their conscience. A student killed his teacher because the teacher didn't faint at the sight of his boastful knife. A boy set fire to his own house because he was bored with everything.
AND, the band began to play the Requiem. I poured the polluted water into my own glass. I set the gun at my mouth. The Human Race began to hunt each other. A child began to cry loud,
" WE CAN'T HAVE A DREAM.
WE CAN'T IMAGINE HOW IT WILL BE TOMORROW."
AND,--- the telephone stopped. Only silence was left. BUT, the "Telephone message" was apparent. If we don't keep an eye on the world and keep it as it was, we can't expect much of tomorrow. And if the day comes when we can't have a dream, it means "the end". So, I don't want to try to explain that world to my sons. I pray that the telephone doesn't ring any more.

COMMENT
The essay consists of two stories. The first story is very figurative and imaginative. The story which Snow White and Queenie enter suggests the beauty by clearing waste away from itself. Surely at the present day, a lot of such beauties exist. I think that it is clever to point the social problems through the story. In the second story, the writer uses a telephone well. The sound from the telephone becomes the message to the human. This way strengthens the importance of what he wants to say. I admire his worry about the future of the human race and his skill of expressioning of his opinion.

Masahiro Naito