Freedom and control
The abstract imagery of freedom and control are on full display in this novel. Doc struggles to accept his fate, because he was conscripted into the Japanese army against his will. His lack of control is nothing compared to the women he helps, often women who have been brutally raped by multiple people and left for dead. The issue of freedom and control means absolute torture for the myriad women he helps. He feels there are abstract reasons he is not free to influence his children, one son and one daughter.
Horror and rape
These characters are confronted with horror, both from the ravages of war, and from the evil actions of the Japanese army against their own people. This imagery is shown as a kind of martyrdom; Doc is a martyr of rape because he sees a unique aspect of warfare—the tendency of soldiers to rape women. This is a horror to him, and it haunts him. His journey is one of involuntarily witnessing the suffering of woman after woman.
Post-trauma and social decay
This novel shows through abstract imagery what the effects of PTSD are on Japan at the macro level. Trauma is something that is rampant during these war times, and the soldiers who are traumatized become more likely to traumatize others, even their own people at times. The social decay is shown to be a major cost of warfare, although it is rarely considered because it is abstract. The novel makes this abstract construct more concrete by showing Doc's very tangible experience of social corruption; he sees human evil rising as a byproduct of warfare and trauma.
