Mitsuharu Inoue


Mitsuharu Inoue was a Japanese writer of novels, short stories, poetry and essays, who has been associated with Japanese postwar literature and the Atomic bomb literature genre.

Biography

Inoue was born in 1926 as the son of a pottery manufacturer. While Inoue asserted that he was born in Lüshun, China, other sources name Kurume in Fukuoka Prefecture as the actual place of birth. After his mother had left the family, he and his sister were raised by their grandmother. As a youth, he worked in a steel factory in Amagasaki and a coal mine in Nagasaki, before graduating from the Army Radio Weapon Technology Training Center. In 1946, he joined the Japanese Communist Party, but after facing criticism for his short story Kakarezaru isshō and his critical attitude towards Stalinism, he and the JCP broke ties in 1953.
Inoue's writings deal extensively with social and political issues, such as the living conditions of mining workers, Koreans in Japan and the Burakumin, the Korean War, and the effect of the Atomic [bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|atomic bomb]. His most acknowledged works include Kyokō no kurēn and Chi no mure. In the Kenzaburō Ōe edited anthology The Crazy Iris and Other Stories of the Atomic Aftermath, Inoue was attested to "capture the tension of post-war Japan in a unique and distinguished style". In 1970, he established and edited the quarterly literary magazine Henkyō. In addition, he constituted literary schools for aspiring writers. Translations of his works appeared in English, German, Russian, Czech and Serbian language anthologies, in particular his short story The [House of Hands] about a group of survivors of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
Inoue died of cancer in 1992. His last years living with his illness were documented in Kazuo Hara's film A Dedicated Life, which revealed that many details about his life were his own inventions. In his memory, a museum was established and a monument erected in Sakito, Nagasaki.
His eldest daughter is the novelist and translator Areno Inoue.

Selected works

  • 1950: Kakarezaru isshō
  • 1953: Nagagutsu jima
  • 1960: The House of Hands
  • 1960: Kyokō no kurēn
  • 1963: Chi no mure
  • 1963–64: Kōhai no natsu
  • 1965: Takoku no shi
  • 1966: Kuroi shinrin
  • 1966: Akai temari
  • 1973: Kokoro yasashiki hangyakusha
  • 1976: Maruyama Ransuiro no yujotachi
  • 1982: ''Ashita''

Translations

*

Film adaptations