Empire of the Sun

When Jim is in the camp at Lunghua, he cuts out and pastes part of a photograph, containing a couple, to his cubicle wall. As he says, “this unknown English couple […] had almost become his mother and father. Jim knew they were complete strangers, but he kept the pretence alive” (143). Early in the novel, Jim is separated from his parents. And despite his best efforts, he is not reunited with them until the war’s end. As such, Jim struggles during his years in the camp to, as he says, “keep alive the memory of his mother and father in order to sustain his confidence in the future” (175). While Jim is mature and independent for his age, he is still a child. He naturally misses the emotional intimacy and care provided by his parents. This is especially true given the dangerous, brutal, and chaotic world he inhabits after the attack on the International Settlement. He looks to maintain the memory of his parents and the possibility of seeing them again, to give his struggles in the present meaning and purpose.

However, as Jim’s identification of his parents with the strangers in the photograph shows, he starts to forget who his parents are. As he says in the camp, “[T]heir veiled figures still entered his dreams, but he had forgotten their faces” (139). The passing of time, combined with the radically different life he lives without them, distances Jim from his parents. Like with the photograph, Jim looks for surrogates to fill the void. He attaches himself to several figures in the novel to gain that parental substitute. Basie, for example, emerges as an early candidate here. In some regards, he helps and supports Jim and gives him useful advice on how to survive. Yet he has only a limited emotional investment in Jim. Basie is ultimately self-interested and is happy to dispose of Jim when it suits him. For example, he turns his attention to two young orphans and away from Jim on the way to the camp, despite Jim having helped and fed Basie when he was sick. A similar dynamic plays out with regard to Private Kimura. The Japanese private in the camp is happy to be friends with Jim and “often invited Jim to the bungalow he shared with three other guards and allowed him to wear his kendo armour” (133). He also has the authority to protect Jim. But as shown by “the whirlwind of blows” (133) with which Kimura strikes Jim after Jim dons the armor, his interest in Jim is temperamental and abusive.

In contrast, other potential surrogates are kinder to Jim. Mr. Maxted and Dr. Ransome have more of an emotional connection to Jim and are more genuinely concerned for his well-being. The problem is that they also lack authority. As Jim says, “He supported Mr. Maxted out of nostalgia for his childhood dream of growing up one day to be like him” (146). In the pre-war world, Jim looks up to Mr Maxted as an alternative father figure and a figure of respect. But in the world of the camp, he becomes someone weak who needs support from Jim, rather than the other way around. Although Dr. Ransome is not as weak as Mr. Maxted, his ability to protect Jim is still limited. Access to the basics of life—food, warmth, security, and water—is dependent on the favor of the Japanese guards, over which Ransome has little influence. As such, Ransome simply cannot command the respect of a true parent in peacetime, and Jim knows this. Like for Ballard, whose parents were with him in an internment camp, the conditions of the camp rob the adult prisoners of their usual authority over children and their means to control them. It also means that Jim remains effectively parentless until the novel’s end.