Hanako to Anne

Official Website
www1.nhk.or.jp/hanako

Broadcast
Mondays – Saturdays, 8.00 – 8.15 a.m. from 31 March – 27 September 2014

Station
NHK

Story
During the Pacific War, 50-year-old Muraoka Hanako is immersed in the translation of the novel “Anne of Green Gables”, written by Canadian author L. M. Montgomery while the air raid sirens wail in Tokyo. In the course of translating without any prospect of publication, Hanako identifies with the life of the young heroine called Anne. It is the apprehension of being out on her own at the age of 10; her first meeting with her lifelong friend and their happy days. Hanako vividly remembers all of this … … Hanako was born Ando Hana to a poor farming family in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture. She took babysitting duties in order to help out with the household expenses and supported her mother Fuji and the others. That was how she spent her childhood. Her eyes would sparkle at the picture books that her father Kippei got for presents and arrangements were made for her to attend elementary school so that she could read. Because Hanako quickly remembered characters and showed an interest in books, Kippei came up with an incredible plan to let her attend a Tokyo girls’ school. In 1903 (Meiji 36), at the urging of her father who only wanted her to have a higher education, Hanako transferred to a girls’ mission school in Tokyo when she was 10, and began life at a boarding house. She could not adjust to the atmosphere of the school which educated the daughters of nobility and the wealthy. The teachers spoke in English which she could not make any sense of. Even the discussions of her seniors and classmates were a culture shock. However, she resolved to study hard and make a success of life in order support her mother and siblings on behalf of her father who neglected the family. Then she had an encounter with Western literature, a first love, and a friendship that developed with a lifelong friend. The 10 years at the girls’ school became a precious youth for Hanako. After graduation, she was assigned to her hometown of Yamanashi Prefecture as a teacher where she taught students as she wrote. She used the publication of her book as an opportunity to return to Tokyo and start work at a publisher. The Taisho era passed and the Showa era came. Hanako who finally married after the anguish of a forbidden love, overcame the Great Kanto Earthquake and the war, and accomplished her dream of being a translator. “Anne of Green Gables” which she translates throughout the war without any regard for danger, achieves success as “Red-haired Anne” seven years after the end of hostilities.

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