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Ibaraki and Kayoko’s House
The laboratory in which Dr. Ibaraki works in Tokyo symbolizes the potential for science to be used for unethical purpose. Throughout his time working in the laboratory, Ibaraki’s superiors remind him that they are doing work that is important for the advancement of Japan and that the work of a great doctor is to “tend their country,” unlike a typical doctor who treats illness in individuals. Ibaraki has sworn his discretion to his superiors out of duty to his lab and his country. However, when Ibaraki realizes what the laboratory is truly doing (testing biological weapons on human subjects) in the name of patriotism, he is appalled by its inhumanity. Throughout his time treating patients in Broome and in the Loveday internment camp, however, Ibaraki realizes that caring for individual patients is honorable and effective in itself. Though the higher-ups at the lab believe that they are doing honorable work, their attempt to justify its inhumane actions in the name of nationalism ultimately fails, as history looks back on the lab in horror.
The Laboratory Quotes in After Darkness
The After Darkness quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Laboratory. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 14: Tokyo, 1936
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“The true purpose of the facility is concealed from the local community through the disguise of a lumber mill. We’ve even started calling our test subjects maruta. It started as a joke, but ‘logs’ has turned out to be a convenient euphemism, so we have persisted with the term.”
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“A great doctor, just like a great military commander, knows that sometimes a few lives have to be sacrificed to save thousands of others. When this war is over, great doctors will be remembered.”
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I stared at Mrs. Sasaki’s face. Her drawn-on eyebrows. The cheeks that had grown heavy with age. The ugliness of this woman who’d come into my house and presumed to know me. She had no idea of the things I had to do each day, the secrets I had to keep. Neither did Kayoko. She didn’t understand the sacrifices I had made to serve our nation—to help ordinary people such as her.
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Chapter 19: Tokyo, 1989
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I’d clung to the ideal of discretion, when it was courage—and forgiveness—I’d needed all along. My silence had been weak.
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The Laboratory Symbol Timeline in After Darkness
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Laboratory appears in After Darkness. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5: Tokyo, 1934
...offers Dr. Ibaraki the research position. Dr. Ibaraki begins his work at the Epidemic Prevention Laboratory. On his first day, a professor named Shimada shows him around the facility. Dr. Ibaraki...
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Chapter 8: Loveday, 1942
...stop his mother (who turns into Kayoko) from going down a long hallway into the laboratory where he used to work. Mr. Yamada wakes Dr. Ibaraki and tells him that an...
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Chapter 9: Tokyo, 1935
After almost a year working at the laboratory, Dr. Ibaraki receives a promotion and a raise. With that extra money and help from...
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In early spring, Professor Shimada is rarely present in the lab to supervise Dr. Ibaraki and his colleagues. When he is around, he is agitated. One...
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Chapter 14: Tokyo, 1936
One day during Dr. Ibaraki’s second year at the laboratory, Shimada asks Ibaraki and his fellow senior colleagues to stay late to accept a shipment....
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...head of Dr. Ibaraki’s organization and a friend of Major Kimura, comes to visit the laboratory. Major Kimura announces that Ishii will give a lecture at the end of the week...
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Two months after Lieutenant Colonel Ishii Shiro’s visit to the lab, the laboratory receives another shipment. Because the shipment is larger than the previous one, the...
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...and Ibaraki believes that she knows about the true nature of his work at the lab. He is relieved that she seems not to hate him for it. However, she then...
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...place. Many people attend, including high-ranking military officials. Major Kimura gives an introduction, explaining the lab’s goal to use the bubonic plague as a biological weapon. They put the first specimen...
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...man of honor, he should never say anything to anybody about the work of the lab. Finally, Kimura tells him that Japan will rule over Greater East Asia in a few...
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Chapter 17: SS City of Canterbury and Kamakura Maru, 1942
...Ibaraki recalls a memory. In the days leading up to his failed dissection at the lab, Ibaraki innocently reads one of the files in Shimada’s office, a detailed account of the...
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Chapter 18: Tokyo, 1942
...still needs more time to heal. Ibaraki begins to tell her the truth about the laboratory, but she interrupts him, saying she understands that he had commitments. Ibaraki vows to wait...
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...these air raids. Ibaraki fights off memories of the bodies he worked with in the lab.
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