What's Under Kajii's Sakura Tree

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"There lie cadavers buried under the cherry blossoms! This is a truth that you must accept. For how else could the flowers of the cherry tree be so magnificent in their bloom? I spent the past several days feeling terribly ill at ease, as I was unable to accept such a beauty. But now, at last, the truth has finally sunk in. There lie cadavers buried under the cherry blossoms. You must accept this." These are a few lines from Kajii Motojiro's written piece, translated by Bonnie Huie. Motojiro is someone I can call the Edgar Allan Poe of Japan. All his works seem a bit dark and depressing. His work, Under The Cherry Blossom, depicts him pondering about the beauty of the sakura tree. Why its so vibrant and beautiful specially the the color that highlights it. He wrote that maybe, just maybe, bodies were burried under every sakura tree. And we all know how anything that decomposes is such a treat for plants and trees alike. What more during that time of his life, aside from the fact that they have yet to recover from bloody conflicts, their country was slowly changing -- being forced to adapt to a more modernized Japan. This is supposed to be a work of fiction. But who knows? There maybe some truth to it.