“What else, through my misguided loyalty, had I failed to see?” 'After Darkness shows that loyalty
is not always a virtue.’ Discuss.
Misguided loyalty can sometimes be the key which leads to immoral and unorthodox doings. Piper
introduces misguided loyalty into Ibaraki's life as he begins his work in Unit 731. Through misguided
loyalty, Ibaraki fails to see the importance of loyalty being a virtue and this leaves obstructive
repercussions on him. These include the separation of his wife, Kayoko, in Tokyo and the deceitful
acts of Yamada at Loveday. It took these repercussions for Ibaraki to finally see the truth and open
up about his past in his later years.
The commencement of Ibaraki's work in Unit 731 always embedded one thought into his mind, the
idea of discretion, as he discussed with Major Kimura at the job interview. Ibaraki had "clung on to
the idea of discretion" just to serve the country well when he hid the darkest secrets from his wife,
his family and the general public for over sixty years. All the unethical experiments that were ran in
Unit 731 left a part in Ibaraki in which he would never let go of, that his work in biological weaponry
put him at shame and even kept the wooden tag from the infant that was utilised as an experiment.
"There's something the people of Japan should know." It was only after more than six decades that
Ibaraki finally decided to open his eyes about his misguided loyalty towards committing several war
crimes which saw the loss of many innocent lives.
Ibaraki's work in Unit 731 did not only reveal misguided loyalty to himself, but this also affected his
wife, Kayoko, in a negative manner. The work he did was always kept to himself and the trauma he
witnessed was visible to Kayoko, however he would always tell her "leave me alone." The divide
between his work and his relationship with Kayoko guided him to miss out on family time with
Kayoko and the miscarriage then separated the two. This made Ibaraki understand that misguided
loyalty can break even the strongest of bonds, and this marriage hardship with his wife was another
driving factor into exposing Unit 731.
At Loveday, Ibaraki plays a crucial role as a doctor who is in the middle of making a choice, believing
that Yamada was guilty of the attack on Stan, or standing up for Yamada seeing as they were close
friends. Ibaraki first neglects the truth by believing Yamada was innocent. "Yamada Denkichi is a
very good friend. He would never do something like that." Again, Ibaraki is seen to be blindsided by
misguided loyalty. Ibaraki then finally seeks out the truth. "I now felt ashamed I had so strenuously
defended Yamada." Ibaraki finally identifies his wrongdoings and it appears more vivid to him that
"loyalty is not always a virtue".
At the end of the day, misguided loyalty can even be the key difference between a beautiful lie and
a painful truth. All the misguided loyalty that Ibaraki had suffered in his life, such as Unit 731, his
marriage to Kayoko and his tainted friendship with Yamada, finally tells him that loyalty is not
always a virtue.
Feedback:
It’s good, but you haven’t analysed in a detail manner.
You have to apply literary techniques like pathetic fallacy, metaphor, simile etc.
I did explain to you all these while we were doing this text.
Also talk about some of the themes as well.
That way your essay will look in detail.