Description
In the final days of World War II, a Japanese hospital becomes the stage for a moral crisis as medical staff confront orders to carry out experimental vivisections on captured U.S. prisoners of war. As the procedures unfold, the novel examines what happens when professional duty, national pressure, and personal conscience collide—forcing characters to question the limits of science and the cost of obedience. With its stark, unsparing focus on suffering and complicity, the book explores themes of ethics in medicine, the fragility of human dignity, and the haunting aftermath of wartime choices. Written in Shusaku Endo’s distinctive, psychologically incisive style, the story is both historically grounded and chillingly contemporary, earning its lasting reputation as a work that refuses easy answers.
Available Editions
paperback
Owen Limited, Peter
Published Jan 1, 2016
168 pages
ISBN: 9780720616859
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Details
First Published
1958
Language
eng
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for The Sea and Poison by Shusaku Endo.