Essay On The Crab Cannery Ship

Takiji Kobayashi’s The Crab Cannery Ship works to portray the inherent oppression of the working class within the capitalist system. It goes beyond this to present the hope and freedom within the communist system for the proletariat workers of Japan. As stated in the introduction by Komori Yoichi in describing the novel’s intent, there is no depiction of individual personality or psychology (7). There are few characters named, and these characters are either in positions of power, or workers who have died due to the conditions aboard the ship. This puts the focus on the group rather than the individual. I argue that this is done in an attempt to illustrate the difference between Capitalism and Communism with the individual characters in positions of

He posts messages to the workers stating, “Anyone neglecting his work in the slightest will be branded...Their wages will be cancelled as punishment, and on return to Hakodate they will be handed over to the police. Anyone showing the slightest defiance to the manager will be shot” (82). The only reason for the working class for Asakawa is to produce and produce in order for the private companies to make money. It is their reason for existence. They are not seen as human beings. When one of the boats goes missing halfway through the novella, Takiji writes, “The loss of five or six people ‘didn’t matter,’ but losing the boat was painful” (42). The workers are less than the commodities and it is just the way it is on the ship. The single quest for profit rules all for Asakawa. Kobayashi paints Asakawa as an evil overbearance on the ship that offers nothing to the state of the ship than to serve orders and intimidate the workers. Thus like Asakawa is the enemy of the workers, capitalism is the enemy of the working