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The Mysterious Woman
Mamiya was a soldier in the Japanese Army before and during World War II. During the Battles of Khalkhin Gol, he went on a secret mission with Yamamoto, Hamano, and Honda where he watched Mongolian soldiers skin Yamamoto alive. After witnessing this horror, Mongolian soldiers threw Mamiya down a well. He almost died there, but Honda rescued him just in time. These experiences psychologically torture Mamiya for the rest of his life. He cannot find peace or hope in anything because the trauma of the war is always with him. Following Mr. Honda’s death, Mamiya visits Toru to deliver the item Mr. Honda has left Toru.
Tokutaro Mamiya Quotes in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
The The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle quotes below are all either spoken by Tokutaro Mamiya or refer to Tokutaro Mamiya. 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:
).
Book 1, Chapter 12
Quotes
As I sat and watched, the feeling overtook me that my very life was slowly dwindling into nothingness. There was no trace here of anything as insignificant as human undertakings. This same event had been occurring hundreds of millions—hundreds of billions—of times, from an age long before there had been anything resembling life on earth. Forgetting that I was there to stand guard, I watched the dawning of the day, entranced.
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Some things I know, some things I don’t know. But you’d probably be better off not knowing, Lieutenant. It may be presumptuous of someone like me to say such big-sounding things to a college graduate like you, but a person's destiny is something you look back at after it's past, not something you see in advance. I have a certain amount of experience where these things are concerned. You don’t.
Book 2, Chapter 4
Quotes
The light shines into the act of life for only the briefest moment—perhaps only a matter of seconds. Once it is gone and one has failed to grasp its offered revelation, there is no second chance. One may have to live the rest of one’s life in hopeless depths of loneliness and remorse. In that twilight world, one can no longer look forward to anything. All that such a person holds in his hands is the withered corpse of what should have been.
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Tokutaro Mamiya Quotes in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
The The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle quotes below are all either spoken by Tokutaro Mamiya or refer to Tokutaro Mamiya. 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:
).
Book 1, Chapter 12
Quotes
As I sat and watched, the feeling overtook me that my very life was slowly dwindling into nothingness. There was no trace here of anything as insignificant as human undertakings. This same event had been occurring hundreds of millions—hundreds of billions—of times, from an age long before there had been anything resembling life on earth. Forgetting that I was there to stand guard, I watched the dawning of the day, entranced.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Some things I know, some things I don’t know. But you’d probably be better off not knowing, Lieutenant. It may be presumptuous of someone like me to say such big-sounding things to a college graduate like you, but a person's destiny is something you look back at after it's past, not something you see in advance. I have a certain amount of experience where these things are concerned. You don’t.
Book 2, Chapter 4
Quotes
The light shines into the act of life for only the briefest moment—perhaps only a matter of seconds. Once it is gone and one has failed to grasp its offered revelation, there is no second chance. One may have to live the rest of one’s life in hopeless depths of loneliness and remorse. In that twilight world, one can no longer look forward to anything. All that such a person holds in his hands is the withered corpse of what should have been.
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