Wasaburo's Winds in The Fervor: Symbolism and Meaning

What Are Wasaburo's Winds?

Wasaburo's Winds are the high-altitude air currents—the jet stream—that meteorologist Wasaburo Oishi dedicates his career to proving exist. In his May 1927 journal entry, Oishi explains that he has taken a sabbatical from the Central Meteorological Observatory to study these winds on a remote island off the coast of Shikotan, Japan. His superiors have called this his last chance, and other scientists have ignored his published papers. He writes that he knows his discovery will prove important one day and that his work on the jet stream will be his greatest contribution to mankind.

The name itself is significant: Oishi calls the phenomenon Wasaburo's Winds, claiming ownership of a natural force. This naming reflects both his scientific ambition and his personal stake in the research. The winds are not just weather patterns to him; they are his legacy, his proof of worth. The name also carries irony, since the winds ultimately escape his control entirely.

Scientific Ambition and Personal Cost

In the early journal entries, the winds symbolize Oishi's desperate need for validation. His supervisor has suggested he find another research topic, and his wife Yuriko eventually issues an ultimatum: give up the high-altitude wind research and pursue more practical work. In his July 1927 entry, Oishi records his lowest point, writing that Yuriko is furious and believes his work is getting him nowhere. He reluctantly agrees to abandon his research when they return to the mainland.

Yet the winds also represent the tension between scientific curiosity and personal responsibility. Oishi's pursuit of the winds leads him to the island, where he encounters the spider infestation and the madness at the hospital. His scientific curiosity draws him to investigate the patients, and his training leads him to identify the spiders as the likely cause. The winds and the spiders become entangled: the winds carry the spiders' eggs across the Pacific, and the spiders provide both the poison and the cure.

The Winds and Folklore

The winds also connect to the novel's exploration of the tension between folklore and scientific rationalism. On the island, Oishi meets an old man who tells him the island is home to three kami: Fujin, the god of wind; Raijin, the god of lightning and storms; and Raitaro, the god of thunder. When the old man asks if Oishi believes in the gods, Oishi replies that all Japanese believe in the gods at least a little and calls himself an old friend of Fujin. This moment shows Oishi straddling two worlds: the modern scientist and the traditional Japanese believer.

The housekeeper later tells Oishi that the spiders are the children of Fujin, the wind god, and that most islanders consider them lucky. This folkloric framing gives the winds a supernatural dimension. The winds are not just meteorological phenomena; they are the breath of a god, carrying both blessing and destruction. The spiders—which the old man identifies as the work of the demon jorogumo—are connected to the wind god, blurring the line between natural and supernatural causation.

The Winds as Weapon

The most significant shift in the symbol's meaning comes in Chapter 28, when Meiko Briggs reads her father's journals and discovers the full implications of his research. She learns that his research on Shikotan had led to a startling discovery about Wasaburo's Winds: the jet stream could carry objects from Japan to the United States. Oishi's journal records his realization that some of his balloons made it close to the coast of the United States, and he speculates that something smaller and lighter—a kite or balloon—could make the journey.

Meiko understands immediately what this means: the Japanese military used her father's research to launch balloon bombs that carried spider eggs to the American mainland. The washi remnants she saw in the army truck, the gritty substance that was actually spider eggs—all of it traces back to her father's discovery. She thinks, It was her father's fault, even as she acknowledges that he had no inkling of what his research would one day enable.

This is the central irony of the symbol: the winds that Oishi studied as pure science became the delivery system for biological warfare. The winds represent the unintended consequences of scientific discovery, the way that knowledge can be weaponized by forces beyond the researcher's control. This connects directly to the theme of the weaponization of scientific discovery.

Responsibility and Inheritance

Meiko's reaction to her father's journals introduces the theme of inherited responsibility. She reflects that in the Japanese tradition, his family was responsible, and she feels personally accountable for the outbreak. This connects to the novel's broader exploration of the complicity of ordinary citizens in systemic injustice. The winds are not just a natural phenomenon; they are a chain of causation that links Oishi's ambition to the suffering at Camp Minidoka and the violence in Bly, Oregon.

The winds also connect to the theme of the erasure and silencing of Japanese American voices. Meiko carries the burden of her father's legacy even as her community is silenced and interned. The winds symbolize how the consequences of scientific discovery can fall on those who had no part in the research.

The Winds and the Fervor

Finally, the winds are connected to the novel's central metaphor of the fervor as a contagious disease of fear and hatred. The winds physically carry the spider eggs that spread the madness, making them the vector for the literal contagion. But the winds also carry the metaphorical contagion of fear. Meiko reflects at the end of the novel that the fervor—a disease of fear—will return. The winds symbolize the way that fear and hatred can be transported across vast distances, just as the jet stream carries the balloons from Japan to the United States.

Study Questions

1. How does the meaning of Wasaburo's Winds change from Oishi's early journal entries to Meiko's reading of the journals in Chapter 28?

In the early entries, the winds represent Oishi's scientific ambition and his desperate need for validation. He calls them Wasaburo's Winds, claiming ownership of the discovery, and believes they will be his greatest contribution to mankind. By Chapter 28, the winds have become a weapon: Meiko realizes that her father's research enabled the Japanese military to launch balloon bombs carrying spider eggs to the United States. The winds shift from a symbol of personal achievement to a symbol of unintended global consequences and inherited guilt.

2. How does the folkloric framing of the winds (Fujin, the wind god) complicate the novel's treatment of science and rationalism?

The old man tells Oishi that the island is home to Fujin, the god of wind, and the housekeeper calls the spiders children of Fujin. Oishi, as a scientist, initially approaches the winds through measurement and observation, but he also admits to believing in the gods a little. The folkloric framing suggests that the winds have a supernatural dimension that science cannot fully explain. The spiders are both a natural species (identified by the Meiji University entomologist) and the work of the demon jorogumo. This duality reflects the novel's broader tension between folklore and scientific rationalism, suggesting that both frameworks are needed to understand the events.

3. What does Meiko's reaction to her father's journals reveal about the theme of responsibility in the novel?

Meiko immediately concludes that her father is responsible for the outbreak, and that in the Japanese tradition, his family was responsible. She feels personally accountable even though her father had no intention of enabling the balloon bombs. This reflects the novel's exploration of how individuals become complicit in systemic injustice. The winds symbolize the chain of causation that connects Oishi's research to the suffering at Camp Minidoka and the violence in Bly. Meiko's guilt also connects to the theme of the erasure and silencing of Japanese American voices: she carries the burden of her father's legacy even as her community is silenced and interned.

4. How do the winds connect to the novel's metaphor of the fervor as a contagious disease?

The winds physically carry the spider eggs that spread the madness, making them the vector for the literal contagion. But the winds also carry the metaphorical contagion of fear and hatred. The fervor spreads through the camps and towns like a disease, and Meiko reflects that it will return. The winds symbolize the way that fear and hatred can be transported across vast distances, just as the jet stream carries the balloons from Japan to the United States. The connection between the literal and metaphorical contagion is central to the novel's argument that fear is a weapon that can be deployed as effectively as any bomb.