Hiroyuki Agawa
Agawa Hiroyuki | |
---|---|
Native name | |
Born | December 24, 1920 |
Died | August 3, 2015 | (aged 94)
Language | Japanese |
Nationality | Japanese |
Hiroyuki Agawa (
Literary career
[edit]Agawa was born in Hiroshima, Japan. As a high school student Agawa was influenced by the Japanese author Naoya Shiga. He entered the Tokyo Imperial University to study Japanese literature. Upon graduation in 1942, Agawa was conscripted to serve in the Imperial Japanese Navy, where he worked as an intelligence officer breaking Chinese military codes until the end of the war. He returned to Hiroshima, where his parents had experienced the atomic bomb, in March 1946.
After World War II Agawa wrote his first short story Nennen Saisai (Years upon Years, 1946), which was a classic I Novel, or autobiographical novel, recounting the reunion with his parents. It follows the style of Naoya Shiga, who is said to have praised the work. August 6 as Agawa notes in a postscript, combines the stories of friends and acquaintances who experienced the bombing into the testimony of one family. Occupation censorship at the time was strict, but the story passed because, the author later observed, "it made no reference to the problems of after-effect and continued no overt criticism of the U.S." Agawa came to popular and critical attention with his Citadel in Spring (
Agawa's four major biographical novels are Yamamoto Isoroku (
Agawa was awarded the Order of Culture (Bunka Kunsho) in 1999.
He is the father of Sawako Agawa, popular author and TV personality, and Naoyuki Agawa, professor of law at Keio University.
Bibliography
[edit]Year | Japanese Title | English Title | Genre/Comments |
---|---|---|---|
1946 | Nennen Saisai |
From Age to Age in ISBN 978-0-23113-804-8 |
I Novel; Agawa's first literary work; translation by Eric P. Cunningham |
1952 | Haru no shiro |
Citadel in Spring ISBN 978-0-87011-960-6 ISBN 978-4-7700-1460-3 |
Autobiographical novel; describes the atomic bombing of Hiroshima; translation by Lawrence Rogers, 1990. |
1953 | Ma no isan |
Devil's heritage | Documentary novel; following the aftermath of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima, translation by John M. Maki, 1957. |
1955 | Kumo no bohyō |
Burial in the Clouds ISBN 978-0-8048-3759-0 |
Documentary war novel; based on the diary of Iwao Yoshii,[2] a former Kamikaze pilot. Trans. by Teruyo Shimizu, 2006. Movie adaptation by Shochiku in 1957. |
1957 | Yoru no namioto |
Short stories | |
1959 | カリフォルニヤ California |
I Novel | |
1960 | Saka no ooi machi |
Short stories | |
1961 | Aoba no kageri |
Short stories | |
1966 | Gentō |
I Novel | |
1967 | Gunkan polka |
Short stories | |
1968 | Mizu no ue no kaiwa |
Short stories | |
1969 | Yamamoto Isoroku |
The Reluctant Admiral: Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy ISBN 978-0-87011-355-0 ISBN 978-4-7700-2539-5 |
Biography; translation by John Bester, with some abridgment approved by Agawa, 1979 |
1973 | Kurai hatō |
War novel (partly autobiographical) | |
1975 | Gunkan Nagato no shōgai |
Documentary novel | |
1978 | Yonai Mitsumasa |
Biography | |
1982 | テムズの Thames no mizu |
Short stories | |
1986 | Inoue Seibi |
Biography | |
1994 | Shiga Naoya |
Biography | |
2004 | Naki haha ya |
I Novel |
Prizes
[edit]- 1952 Yomiuri Prize - Citadel in Spring, (Haru no shiro,「
春 の城 」) - 1966 Shincho Literary Prize - The Reluctant Admiral (Yamamoto Isoroku,「
山本 五十六 」) - 1987 Nippon Grand Literary Prize - Inoue Seibi (「
井上 成美 」) - 1994 Noma Literary Prize - Shiga Naoya (「
志賀 直哉 」) - 2002 Yomiuri Prize - Shokumi-Buburoku (「
食味 風 々録 」) - 2007 Kikuchi Kan Prize
Notes
[edit]- ^
作家 の阿川 弘之 氏 が死去 文化 勲章 受章 者 、正論 執筆 メンバー (in Japanese). sankei. 5 August 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2015. - ^ Agawa, "「
楯 立 つらしも」考 ", Yuki no shingun, p.269 ISBN 978-4-06-273088-4 ISBN 9784062083287
Sources
[edit]- J'Lit | Authors : Hiroyuki Agawa | Books from Japan
- Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2002
- Burial in the Clouds, Tuttle Pub. info
- Atomic Bomb Literature: A Bibliography Archived 2019-12-02 at the Wayback Machine
- JSTOR, Citadel in Spring review