On the first day of First Surgery's project, three prisoners were scheduled for operations. The aims of the vivisection experiment were described as follows: 1. Saline is to be injected into the blood stream. The quantitative limits of such a procedure before death occurs are to be ascertained. 2. Air is to be injected into the veins and the volume at which death occurs is to be ascertained. 3. The limit to which the bronchial tubes may be cut before death occurs is to be ascertained.

Set in a Japanese hospital during the last days of World War II, the story centers on the medical staff who offer to assist in a series of vivisections--experimental operations on live U.S. prisoners of war. The Sea and Poison won the Akutagawa Prize when it was published in Japan in 1958 and established Shusaku Endo in the forefront of modern Japanese literature. Today it remains as startling and, sadly, as relevant as ever.