SOURCE: "Japan Asks Why a Prophet Bothers," in The New York Times, November 6, 1994, Section 4, p. 5.

[In the following essay, Sterngold discusses Ōe's decision to reject Japan's Imperial Order of Culture—its highest cultural honor—and examines the Japanese public's reaction, which ranged from apathy to harsh opprobrium.]

Except for a brief period during the 1960's, Kenzaburo Oe has been the sort of intellectual, left-leaning author who was well known among brooding Japanese undergraduates and scholars, but was not particularly widely read. Still, when he became the surprise choice for the Nobel Prize in Literature last month, most Japanese, even if they could not name any of his books, took pride in this affirmation of the richness of their culture. And they left the matter at that.

But Mr. Oe has not let them off so lightly. This owlish, fidgety man, who loves to talk in excited bursts, toss...