The Writer's Craft, and The Baby's Sickness Summary

The Writer's Craft:

A man named Yasukichi is a teacher and translator of English texts for the Naval Engineering School. As the resident writer, he is sometimes given odd writing tasks, and on this day a Captain Fujita orders him to write the eulogy for recently deceased Lietenant Honda, who died of a stroke. Yasukichi wonders what to write, and Fujita tells him to make something up and make it sound good. However, Yasukichi is given a file on Honda by a young naval officer, which is little more than a naval schedule, telling him almost nothing personal about the man.

Yasukichi feels his life's work is not his job but his creation of literature. He writes short stories which are regularly accepted by a local literary magazine. He spends most...