junshoku (殉職): death in the line of duty.
Murakami uses this word to describe the deaths of two station attendants at Kasumgaseki station from unwitting sarin exposure. They had picked up and disposed of the leaking bags, and unwittingly saved a bunch of lives. It's not the same sort of professional heroism that we normally associate with "junshoku".
This usage seems very correct though. Even if they were unwise to do what they did, and didn't really anticipate the consequences of their action, they did their job. This juxtaposition of a word normally reserved for our mass-produced uniformed "heroes" with the dreary workaday life of the even-more-mass-produced working stiff, is wonderful. It's one of those things I really love about the country. A hero is a hero, death is death. No need to analyze the actor, no peering into his "soul" (no soul!) for his true intentions.
If the duty of shoving people into a train is potentially heroic, what duty isn't? You and I and everyone who helps keep the country safe, clean and well-lubricated are all heroes in that sense. We have duties to one another, and to the society (see my entry raving about the constitution), and they might one day cost us our lives. Thank god.
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