The Elephant Vanishes: Stories

While waiting for a plane at the airport, the narrator asks his business friend Ozawa, an amateur boxer, if he has ever punched somebody. Ozawa finally admits that he did hit somebody in eighth grade, soon after he had started boxing. Though he wishes he could “wipe the story out of [his] mind entirely” (295), he tells the narrator about his fight and its far-reaching consequences.

The boy Ozawa hit was a classmate named Aoki. Aoki was a model student who was extremely popular, though Ozawa never liked him. When Ozawa earned the top score on one English test in eighth grade, however, Aoki became jealous and accused him of cheating. Ozawa confronted Aoki about this and finally punched him in the jaw. This led Aoki to hate and resent Ozawa throughout high school. Meanwhile, Ozawa began boxing at his uncle’s gym.

A few years later, during their final year of high school, a student named Matsumoto ended his life. A police investigation uncovered that Matsumoto had been bullied by his classmates, though the identities of the bullies was unknown. Ozawa was soon suspected of bullying Matsumoto, apparently because of his boxing background and because he had once hit Aoki; Ozawa believes that Aoki himself spread the rumor.