After Darkness Themes

In After Darkness, Christine Piper showcases the potential for nationalism to contribute to the dehumanization of a society’s minority groups. In the novel, which is based on real events during World War II, both the Japanese military power and the Australian military power enact this kind dehumanization and justify it with vague notions of nationalism and duty. Perhaps the most prominent example of dehumanization in the novel is the experience of Dr. Ibaraki and…

In After Darkness, Dr. Ibaraki’s self-isolating behavior and Stanley Suzuki’s suicide attempt demonstrate the potential for trauma to isolate a person and, furthermore, the need for community to help a person process trauma. When Major Kimura hires Ibaraki at the lab, he emphasizes the importance of discretion in protecting the mission of the country and in protecting his own honor. It is Ibaraki’s extreme discretion and, ultimately, hidden shame that causes…

Dr. Ibaraki’s experience in the internment camp in After Darkness demonstrates the fact that world powers, especially those at war, often use racism in an attempt to justify their own nationalist agendas. Australia interned its Japanese residents shortly after entering World War II. One of the first scenes in After Darkness shows the outright racism of many Australians towards Japanese people at the time, as Dr. Ibaraki encounters a white woman on a train…

Throughout After Darkness, Dr. Ibaraki’s guilt demonstrates that having unresolved regrets can control one’s life and, moreover, that one must make an effort to right their wrongs in order to wrest back this control. Ibaraki’s guilt has its first consequences when he is unable to perform the surgery showcase, paralyzed by the cruelty of testing on an infant. At that moment, he is already ashamed of what he has contributed to. Later on…