Sue Sumii (1902-97) is remembered for the multipart novel "The River with No Bridge" (1961-73), which sold more than 4 million copies and made its author famous all over Japan. It is a brave and passionate account of the lives of Japan's proscribed class, the burakumin. Their history is one of enduring the intolerance and bigotry of the citizenry at large -- a history that continues to this day.
Though the so-called Edict of Emancipation, which stipulated equal treatment for the burakumin, was promulgated in 1871, it has never been widely observed. Only several years ago, a number of major local companies were revealed as having subscribed to a directory that listed both the new and old names of "outcast" settlements. In this way the companies could avoid accidentally hiring burakumin descendants.
Indeed, as one of the characters in the novel says, upon remembering the days of the edict: "You needn't think you can start rejoicing yet: It won't make a scrap of difference for at least 100 years." And, it turns out, not even then -- not even now.