Pandora's Box (Pandora no Hako) by Osamu Dazai is a post-World War II Japanese novel that is surprisingly optimistic and hopeful. The epistolary novel follows Kosuke, a young tuberculosis patient, in a sanatorium. In this “small world,” he gives eccentric patients and nurses nicknames and tries to find happiness despite physical limitations. Dazai uses Pandora's box to convey the profound m…