The Decay of the Angel - Yukio Mishima

13
AUGUST 10.
Beginning his shift at nine in the morning, Tōru as
always opened the newspaper once he was alone.
No ships were due until afternoon.
The paper was filled with stories of the industrial
wastes that had floated ashore at Tago. There were
some fifty paper mills at Tago, but Shimizu had only
one, and that a small one. The prevailing currents
were moreover eastward, and industrial wastes rarely
came into Shimizu Harbor.
It seemed that the Zengakuren had come in
considerable numbers for antipollution
demonstrations. They were much beyond the range of
even the thirty-power telescope. Things beyond the
range of the telescope were of no relevance to Tōru.
It was a cool summer.
The sort of summer day was rare when the Izu
Peninsula comes clearly forward and thunderclouds
boil in a clear sky. The peninsula was in mists, the
sunlight was dim. He had seen pictures taken recently
from a weather satellite. Suruga Bay seemed to be
always half hidden in smog.