A story of social criticism with an ecological message, Hoshi’s “He-y, Come on Ou-t!,” begins with a mysterious hole that has been created after a landslide in a typhoon. The local villagers are trying to repair a nearby shrine, but the hole must first be filled in before rebuilding can start. A young man leans over and yells “He-y, come on ou-t!” into the hole, thinking that it may be a fox hole. When no one answers or exits the hole, he throws in a pebble, which never seems to reach the bottom.
Eventually the story of the bottomless hole attracts the attention of scientists and the media. The scientists can find no bottom and no cause for the hole, and the villagers decide to have it filled in. A man asks for the hole and offers to build them a shrine elsewhere, which the mayor and townspeople agree to do. The man who gained control of the hole begins a campaign, collecting dangerous nuclear waste and other unwanted objects, which he disposes of into the hole.
EXCERPT FROM NIGHT
By: Elie Wiesel
“The beloved objects that we had carried with us from place to place were left behind in the wagon and, with them, finally, our illusions. Every few yards, there stood an SS man, his machine gun trained on us. Hand in hand we followed the throng.”
