By Yukari Nagasaki

The Ｗitch of the Pacific Ocean (Shusen no Lorelei) is an entertaning novel released by Kodansha in December 2002. This story is fiction, but realistic. The novel became a movie and exceeded a billion yen at the box office during the 12 days after its release. The author, Harutoshi Fukui, received the forty-forth Ranpo Edogawa Award for his first novel "Twelve Y.O." in 1998. Next he received the eighteenth Japan Adventure Fiction Association Award with Doomed Aegis (Boukoku no Aegis) in 1999. He is the most popular mystery writer at the moment.

Let's first look at Shusen no Lorelei. The story begins in the summer of 1945 when the war is approaching its end. The central character, Yukito Origasa, is called to the submarine I507 in secret by Colonel Asakura, who is the head of the Japanese navy. They get an order to recover the submerged boat Nabal that is holding a secret weapon called Lorelei. Yukito is assigned to dive in the sea to search for the Nabal because he is a good diver. He reaches the Nabal while avoiding an American submarine. In the Nabal, he meets a girl who has the ability to read minds. In fact, the secret weapon Lorelei is a girl. She has undergone an experiment and she gained supernatural powers as a result.

The I507 crew protects Lorelei and they arrive at Wake Island as ordered. However, the submarine departed secretly and Yukito and his colleague were left on the island. They desperately try to return to the I507 because they hear of a plan that the I507 will be delivered to the Americans. Colonel Asakura announces a plan that will bring his desired end to the war. He is a radical and wants to reform Japan. He intends to ask America to drop a third atomic bomb on Tokyo in exchange for Lorelei. The I507 crew resists him and heads to Tinian Island to blow up the B-29 that carries the atomic bomb, but there is a wall of enemy submarines and warships surrounding the island. In a fierce battle, the crew fulfills their mission.

"The operation is finished. We can go home. Start the engines," said the Captain. But as the I507 began heading home, they were sunk by the Americans. Their attitude to never give up despite a difficult situation inspires awe and respect in their readers and teaches us the importance of life.

The highlight of this novel is the enormous submarine battle scene. Submarines surface, turn, and speed away. These are expressed in prose very true to nature. This novel is the most realistic of Harutoshi Fukui's to date.

However, this novel is more than just entertaining. It shows the cruelty of war, and makes an appeal not to go to war. For example, the novel has a character that is a cannibal, a character who has undergone an experiment, and a character who suffers from delusions of seeing the dead. All of these things have happened in real wartime. We must try to never start a war and always respect the preciousness of human life.