Time really flies (metaphor)
Shigeo Matsuda, a former student of Ogata-San, who currently works as a teacher surely has no doubt that time flies quickly. Once he was a boy and attended a school where he was “taught terrible things”. Those lies “of the most damaging kind” led to the biggest catastrophe of the twentieth century. Then time passes and old ideas are replaced with the new ones. Twenty-some years are not a long period, but it is enough to brainwash pupils and persuade them that they are “divine and supreme” nation. But as Shigeo Matsuda says, “time really flies” and “things are changing still”. Once “divine and supreme” nation, it starts reconsidering old ways of living and thinking.
I always kept Keiko’s interests very much at heart (metaphor)
In a very odd and peculiar way, Sachiko really loves her daughter. The wrong thing is that even with thoughts about “Keiko’s interests”, Sachiko manages to make one mistake after another. She claims that her “daughter’s welfare is of the utmost importance” and makes promises that she knows she wouldn’t be able to keep. Then she asks Mariko not to be “so childish” and drowns her little kittens in a muddy stream.
I never had a heart to replace her (metaphor)
Etsuko used to play violin quite well. Like every mother, she had big plans for her girls. One of the numerous steps to success in life was music lessons. Later on, she noticed that a music teacher, Mrs. Waters, has a little understanding of music. However, Mrs. Waters was “such an affectionate woman” that Etsuko pitied her and allowed her daughters to continue wasting their time in useless music lessons.
Father is like a child these days (simile)
Etsuko finds her father-in-law’s behavior quite amusing. He muses over a possibility of learning how to play violin and even asks his daughter-in-low to teach him to cook an omelette. Ogata-San is so eager to learn something new that his daughter-in-law has to remind him that she “can’t teach you everything”.
Frank-San pisses like a pig (simile)
Frank-San or just Frank is an American man Sachiko is going to move to America with. He tells her all kinds of stories about their future life in the USA. Unlike Sachiko, who prefers to believe those stories and continues to repeat that “such things are possible out there”, Mariko doesn’t seem to be fond of him. She says that he is “a bad man” and “a pig in a sewer”. The reason of him receiving such an unpleasant nickname is that Frank has serious problems with alcohol.
He is like a little child (simile)
Sachiko says that Frank is “like a little child”. She believes that most of all he wants her to go with him to America. He does all the arrangements, they choose the day to leave and then he disappears with “all our money” and drinks them in “three days”. It might be that by calling him a child, Sachiko indicates his inability to be responsible.
