Hayashi Fusao

Hayashi Fusao ( Japanese 林 房 雄 , actually: Gotō Toshio ( 後 藤 寿 夫 ); born May 30, 1903 in Ōita Prefecture ; † October 9, 1975 in Kamakura ) was a Japanese writer. After the Second World War he used the pseudonym Shirai Akira ( 白 井 明 ).

Life

Hayashi was a politically interested writer from early youth. During his studies at the University of Tokyo , he led a Marxist art seminar with Nakano Shigeharu . With the story Ringo , which appeared in the magazine Bungei Sensen in 1926 , he made a name for himself as a proletarian writer. He was arrested in 1932 for his activity in the Japanese Communist Party .

As a result, he dealt with the relationship between literature and politics in several writings. In 1933 he founded the journal Bungakukai with Kobayashi Hideo . In Rōman Shugisha no Techō ("Notes of a Romantic") he declared his departure from Marxism.

During the Second World War, Hayashi supported the policies of the Japanese government. He wrote about the Battle of Shanghai (1937) and reported in 1943 as a member of the Bungei Jūgo Undō ( 文 芸 銃 後 運動 , "literary home front movement") from Korea, Manchuria and the Japanese-occupied part of China.

After the Second World War, Hayashi was considered a "cultural war criminal". But he stuck to his nationalist point of view throughout his life. In the book Dai-Tōa Sensō Kōtei Ron ("The Affirmation of the Greater East Asian War", 1964) he presented his view that the "Greater East Asian War" - the official governmental name for the Second World War in Asia since 1941 - was essentially one Asian liberation war.

Works (selection)

• His ( 青年 ), 1932
• Bungaku no Tame ni ( 文学 の た め に ), 1932
• Sakka to shite ( 作家 と し て ), 1932
• Rōman Shugisha no Techō ( 浪漫主義 者 の 手 帖 ), 1935
• Musuko no Seishun ( 息 子 の 青春 ), novel
• Tsuma no Seishun ( 妻 の 青春 ), novel
• Yotsu no Moji , short story, 1949
• Dai-Tōa Sensō Kōtei Ron ( 大 東 亜 戦 争 肯定 論 ), 1964

Individual evidence

• Kamakura City, Kamakura´s Literary Figures - Biography
• Jeff E. Long: The Japanes Literati and the "China Incident": Hayashi Fusao Reporting the Battle of Shanghai (PDF; 429 kB)
• Jeff E. Long: Literature from the Dregs: Hayashi Fusao's "Four Characters" and His Acquiescence to Defeat
• Martin Kaneko: About Japanese History Deniers

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Hayashi is the family name, Fusao the first name.