Haruki Murakami (born January 12th, 1949) is a Japanese novelist.
In 1979, he made his debut, and “Norwegian Wood,” released in 1987, became a bestseller with over 10 million copies sold.
Murakami is popular outside of Japan, and some describe Murakami as one of the most influential writers in contemporary America.
In 2006, he became the first Asian writer to win the Franz Kafka Prize and has since been considered the leading candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature among Japanese writers.
He received The Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society in 2009 and gave a speech denouncing the Israel government making the citizen to attack on Palestine at the award ceremony.
In his speech, he said he will be always on the side of the socially vulnerable or in this case, the politically vulnerable.
Here is the complete translation of Haruki Murakami’s speech at the award ceremony of 24th Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society that took place on February 15th, 2009.
Haruki Murakami’s speech criticizing the government using force to make people follow
At the Jerusalem Prize award ceremony on Feb. 15, 2009.
I am here in Jerusalem today as a novelist.
A novelist is a person who sews so many “lies” together into works.
Of course, novelists are not the only ones who lie.
As you know, even politicians lie.
Whether you’re a diplomat, a soldier, a car salesman, or a carpenter, they all lie according to their position and occasion.
However, there is a crucial difference between the lies of a novelist and others.
No one criticizes a novelist because of their lies by saying that they are immoral.
The bigger and more clever the lies a novelist makes, the more praise he receives from critics and the public.
Why?
Here’s my answer.
When a novelist tells a clever lie, what he actually does is he moves the truth to a new stage.
There, the truth receives the spotlight from different angles and becomes fiction.
Through that fiction, novelis reveal the truth.
In most cases, it is almost impossible to grasp the truth in its original form exactly.
That’s why I put the truth into the world of fiction first.
Then, by analyzing the truth in the world of fiction, I try to lure the truth out of hidden places and get the little piece of the whole truth.
To do that, we must first clarify where the truth lies.
This is a very important step for telling a good lie.
However, I will not tell a lie today.
I will be as honest as I can.
There are only a few days that I do not lie in a year, and today is one of them.
So, today, I will tell you the truth.
Several people warned me that I should not be coming to Jeulsalem and receiving this prize.
Some people even advised me that my fans would boycott my books if I came to Jerusalem because there was a significant clash in the Gaza district.
According to the UN report, more than a thousand people died in blocked Gaza.
Since I received an invitation, I asked myself, “Is it appropriate to visit Jerusalem and receive the prize during this time?” or “Am I making an impression that I am supporting one side of the battle at this height of the clash?”
I might unknowingly be supporting the nation’s policy that chose to use overwhelming military power.
Of course, I am not willing to do that.
I do not support any war or nation.
Furthermore, I don’t want to see anybody boycotting my books.
After careful consideration, I finally decided to come to this place.
I have decided to come because so many people told me I should not be coming to this place.
Like many other novelists, I have a tendency to do something many people oppose doing.
By listening to advice people give me, such as “You should not go there,” “You should not do such a thing,” or strong warnings, I want to go there and do things people oppose very much.
This is my character as a novelist.
The novelists are peculiar races.
They can’t believe anything unless they feel, see, or touch by themselves.
This is the reason why I am here today.
I chose to be here rather than absent.
I chose to see by myself rather than not seeing.
I chose to speak rather than keep silent.
It doesn’t mean I brought political messages here.
Deciding good and evil is one of the vital work of the novelists.
However, the means of delivering their messages are left to each novelist.
In my case, I often transform the message into the fiction beyond the reality.
That’s why I told you that I do not intend to say to you the political message here today.
Instead, please forgive me that I will tell you a very personal message.
There is a thing that I always remind myself when I write fiction.
I do not put it on the wall, but something I engraved in my heart, and it goes like this.
“If there is a high and thick wall and an egg that hits the wall and breaks, I will always be on the side of an egg.”
Even if the wall is correct or an egg is so wrong, my position is always on the side of the egg.
Something may have to decide what is right and what is wrong.
I will leave it to the time and the history.
I don’t see any value in novelists’ work if they write novels on the side of the wall.
What does this metaphor mean?
In some instances, it is obvious.
Bombs, tanks, missiles, and white phosphorus bullets are the high and thick walls.
Eggs are a metaphor for nonarmed citizens who were shot, burnt and crashed.
This is one case of the metaphor implies.
But this is not all.
There is a deep meaning to it.
Let us think in this way.
More or less, we all are eggs.
Every single person is just one irreplaceable soul covered by a thin shell.
This is “a real” for me and “a real” for all of you.
Although there are differences in degree, we all are facing a high and thick wall.
The wall has a name called “the system.”
The system protects us, but sometimes, the system itself gains will and starts killing us and making us kill others.
Coldly, efficiently, and systematically.
I have only one reason to write.
That is pulling out the dignity of the individual soul into the surface and putting the light on it.
The objective of the story in the novel is to blow the whistle.
We must keep putting the light on the system to prevent the system from degrading our souls.
I believe that a novelist’s job is nothing more than revealing the characteristics of each person’s soul by writing.
That’s why I have written stories of life and death, love, or the stories that make many people cry, scared, and laugh.
This is a reason why I write fiction day by day with absolute seriousness.
My father died at 90 years old last year.
He retired from school teacher and worked as a part-time monk.
When he was a student, he was called up to the army and sent to the battlefield in China.
I was born after the world war II.
I saw my father giving long praying every morning in front of a Buddhist altar before his breakfast.
Once, I asked my father why does he do that.
My father taught me he is praying for those people who lost their lives in the war.
He said no matter the enemy or ally, he is praying for all of the people who lost their lives in the war.
While I was looking at my father’s back when he sat straight in front of a Buddhist altar, I felt a shadow of death around my father.
When I lost my father, I lost his memories that I had never known.
But the shadow of the death in my father still clearly exists here in my memory.
This little but important thing is what I inherited from my father.
There is only one thing I want to tell you today.
We are all individual, independent human beings regardless of race and religion.
We are all eggs facing the tall, thick wall called the “system.”
No matter how anyone looks at it, there is no hope that we will win.
The wall is so high and so strong and so cold.
However, if we have even the slightest hope of winning, I believe the winning comes from the warmth people feel when we bring all the souls that we believe are irreplaceable.
Let us think a little.
We all have living souls as an entity.
The system does not have a soul at all.
So, we should not let the system use us or give our will up to the system because the system did not create us.
We created the system.
That’s all that I decided to tell you today.
Finally, I appreciate the honor of receiving this Jerusalem prize from the bottom of my heart.
I also appreciate many people in the world who read my books.
And thank you very much for allowing me to talk in front of you.
