Dawa Sonam 

    Dealing with traumatic experiences 

The short-story “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo” by Haruki Murakami focuses on post Earthquake Japanese society dealing with the traumatic experience. The story takes place in Tokyo, Japan in the year 1995 and about a month after “Kobe-Earthquake” had just occurred. Katagiri, the main character, is suddenly visited by a giant frog one day and tells Katagiri he needs help in order to defeat the Worm who’s about to cause another earthquake. We can identify several Freduian concepts in this short-story through the use of the Freduian lens. In the short-story “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo”, Murakami critiques the traumatized Japanese society trying to cope with an earthquake through Katagiri’s point of view and shows how Japanese citizens would have suffered and gone through similar psychological changes similar to Katagiri and we can see the several Freudian concepts presented in the story such as wish fulfillment, id, ego, and superego.

Through the Freudian lens, Katagiri, the giant frog, and the worm can be seen as a direct representation of the id, ego and super-ego which is presented in “Civilization and Its Discontents: the id, ego, and super-ego” by Freud. Katagiri is the ego, the Frog is the super-ego, and the Worm is id. According to Freud, “the most striking feature of this illness, of whose causation and mechanism we know much too little, is the way in which the super-ego—‘conscience’, you may call it, quietly—treats the ego” (Freud). Since the Frog is seen as the super-ego, the Frog solely exists within Katagiri’s subconscious mind to help Katagiri realize his worth in society and live a better life. On the other hand the id, which Freud explains as, “we call it a chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations” (Freud). This means that the Worm is the darkness and the negative thoughts in Katagiri’s unconscious mind which is slowly taking over. Therefore, the Frog wants to “save Tokyo” from the Worm which in this context is talking about saving Katagiri from falling even deeper into despair. According to Freud, the “ego is that portion of the id which was modified by the proximity and influence of the external world…” (Freud). Murakami in this sense is ego since he is already “influenced” by id into thinking that he isn’t good enough for the battle against the Worm. In the short-story, Katagiri states “I don’t have the kind of muscle it will take to fight Worm in the darkness” (Murakami). This clearly indicates that Katagiri isn’t confident in himself and already feels like they’ll lose the Battle against the Worm. 

Murkami uses the characters in the short-story to portray how the Japanese society needed to recover from this distressing event. Murakami uses the Frog as a hope by showing us that Japanese people have lost a lot of properties and even lost their loved ones to the earthquake but they shouldn’t keep grieving and focus more on moving forward by accepting their past. Murakami gives his thoughts on how the Japanese society should keep working on their goals as they’ve been doing and keep focusing on building a better future for them and the next generation since most people didn’t know how to properly cope with this traumatic experience. Murakami uses Katagiri to symbolize the feelings and emotions of what the Japanese society is going through. According to the Journal of Nippon Medical School, “Aeromedical Transport Operations Using Helicopters during the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake in Japan” by Motomura et al, it states “More than 6,000 people died in the Great Hanshin (Kobe) Earthquake in 1995, and it was later reported that there were around 500 preventable trauma deaths” (Motomura et al). This statistic really shows us how many people suffered from deaths related to trauma and it’s also very sad since many people don’t know how to cope with these traumatic experiences. Murakami is trying to inform the readers on the Japanese society’s condition during that time and also teach us how we shouldn’t let the past take control of our life and break out of the shell and learn to love and appreciate the people and things you have in life. 

The Frog’s requests Katagiri to fight alongside him also tells us about Katagiri’s insecurities and his wish. The Frog tells Katagiri “You are nothing much to look at, and you are far from eloquent, so you tend to be looked down upon on by those around you. I, however, can see what a sensible and courageous man you are” (Murakami). This quote shows us Katagiri’s personality and how he’s been an outcast in his society. The reason why Frog chooses Katagiri for help in this battle against the Worm is to help Katagiri come to an understanding of his own worth and this ties into his wish-fulfillment. According to Freud, wish-fulfillment is the desire of the unconscious mind (Freud 2222). The Frog which emerged due to Katagiri’s repressed wishes successfully helps Katagiri be confident in himself and acknowledges his hard work and dedication. We can conclude that the Frog’s purpose in this story was to give Katagiri his satisfaction and reward for all of the hard work he did that went unnoticed. Saving Tokyo could be seen as saving Katagiri himself from endless self-hatred which can lead to his downfall. Through the Freudian lens this situation shows us Katagiri’s wish fulfillment since he was always helping others but was never recognized in society and Katagiri wanted to feel accepted in his society. 

The Japanese society after the Kobe earthquake were forced to deal with a lot of problems at once. For example, Japan was in a financial crisis which led to many people losing their jobs, a lot of properties were also destroyed, and most importantly more than 6,400 people were killed by the earthquake. As mentioned before, there were also cases people committing suicide due to the stress from this traumatic event. According to Tohoku University of Japan, “Psychological trauma after the Great East Japan Earthquake” by Matsumoto, Kazunori et al, states, “Incidents occurring in such major disasters are known to lead to psychological trauma, and the occurrence of post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) increases after major disasters”  (Matsumoto et al). Murakami writes this story to indicate the Japanese society’s condition to help bring awareness to others who might have experienced something similar and to demonstrate how people should build the community together and not give up during hard times and always move forward. 

Murakami’s short-story helps us understand the importance of moving forward in life and not to hold on to past memories. We are always holding onto the past, hoping to either change the past or trying to go back to the past but lingering around past memories will only hurt you in the future. Murakami stresses the significance of unity during stressful times because we need someone to lean on to not fall apart and vice versa. We can see Murakami’s emotions and feelings through his writing and it shows how he felt about the Japanese society’s need to overcome and grow from this experience. 

Work cited 

Motomura, T., Hirabayashi, A., Matsumoto, H., Yamauchi, N., Nakamura, M., Machida, H., . . . Koido, Y. (2018, May 02). Aeromedical Transport Operations Using Helicopters during the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake in Japan. Retrieved November 27, 2020, from https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jnms/85/2/85_2018_85-19/_article

Matsumoto, K., Sakuma A., Ueda I., Nagao A., Takahashi Y. (2016, May 16). Psychological trauma after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Retrieved November 27, 2020, from https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/doi/full/10.1111/pcn.12403

Murakami, J., & Furi, P. (n.d.). Super-Frog Saves Tokyo by Haruki Murakami – GQ June 2002. Retrieved November 27, 2020, from https://www.gq.com/story/haruki-murakami-super-frog-saves-tokyo-full-story

Freud, Sigmond. “FIVE LECTURES ON PSYCHO-ANALYSIS”. Semantic Scholar https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b446/cfb00094a2e62f82e8c8e430581891ca4e47.pdf?_ga=2.153662776.1893964575.1597526595-1709737971.1597526595. PDF Download

         Freud, Sigmond. “Civilizations and its Discontents: the id, ego, and super-ego”. 

        The Id.pdf ,  The Ego.pdf  , SUPER_EGO_Lecture XXXI The Dissection of the Psychical   Personality – first excerpt.pdf