Tokunaga Sunao

Tokunaga Sunao ( Japanese 徳 永 直 ; born January 20, 1899 , in Hanazono (today: Kumamoto ), Kumamoto Prefecture ; † February 15, 1958 in Tokyo ) was a Japanese writer.

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Born as the eldest son of a poor tenant, he worked in various positions even before finishing elementary school, for example as a printer or typesetter. During his apprenticeship he attended evening school for a while, but dropped out. Influenced by his colleagues at the Kumamoto tobacco sales, where he was then employed, he devoted himself to literature and the labor movement, and in 1920 he helped found the Kumamoto printing union. At the same time he was also involved in the Kumamoto local branch of the Shinjin-kai student association and met Hayashi Fusao . In 1922 he went to Tokyo with the support of Yamakawa Hitoshi and worked as a typesetter in the printing works of the Hakubunkan publishing house (the later Kyōdō printing works). From that time on he began to write. In 1925 he published Musansha no Koi ( 無産者 の 恋 , dt. "The love of the dispossessed") in a union magazine and wrote his next work Uma ( 馬 , dt. "The horse"), which was published in 1930. The following year, a strike by the Kyōdō printing company failed and Tokunaga was dismissed along with 1,700 colleagues.

In 1929 he published the novel Taiyō no nai Machi ( 太陽 の な い 街 , Eng. "The street without the sun", Berlin 1960), which was based on the experiences of that time, and took a separate place as one in 1929 in the magazine Senki author of proletarian literature from the working class . He then developed his activities as a writer, but was troubled by the increase in repression such as the murder of Kobayashi Takiji . In the magazine Chūō Kōron he published the essay Sōsaku Hōhōjō no Shintenkan ( 創作 方法 上 の 新 転 換 , Eng . "The new change in writing method") in 1933 , criticized people like Kurahara Korehito , who insisted on the political primacy of literature, and separated from the NARP authors' league . The following year he published his Tenkō novel Fuyugare ( 冬 枯 れ , dt. "Winter desert"). In 1937 he bowed to the pressures of the times, for example by personally announcing that his Taiyō no nai Machi will be taken out of print. But he didn't give in any further. On the one hand he published works like Senkentei ( 先遣隊 , " Vorabteilung ", 1939), but also works like Hataraku Ikka ( は た ら く 一家 , dt. "A working family", 1938 ) that were based on the lifestyle of ordinary, working people ) or Hachi Nensei ( 八年 制 , dt. "The eight-year system", 1939) and tried to calm his conscience as a writer. In particular, the Hikari o kakaguru Hitobito ( 光 を か か ぐ る 人 々 , Eng . "Those who bring the light", 1943) published during the war , which indirectly criticized war and militarism with a carefree description of the history of Japanese type printing from a humanistic point of view.

Even after the war he led an active life as a writer with works such as Tsuma yo nemure ( 妻 よ ね む れ , dt. "Sleep, my wife", 1946) or Nihonjin Satō ( 日本人 サ ト ウ ). He also campaigned in the New Japan Literary Society for the promotion of workers' writers and trained authors such as Ozawa Kiyoshi . In particular his Shizukanaru Yamayama ( 静 か な る 山 々 , dt. "Stille Berge", Berlin 1954), which describes the struggle of the workers and peasants from Suwa on the basis of the Toshiba strike , was translated into another language and found great recognition in the Soviet Union as Example of Japanese literature from the 1950s. He supported the publication of the magazine Jinmin Bungaku ( 人民 文学 , German "folk literature"). Although he attacked Miyamoto Yuriko in the magazine , he continued to provide basic support for the labor movement. Without having completed the novel Hitotsu no Rekishi ( 一 つ の 歴 史 , Eng. "A Piece of History") in the magazine Shin Nihon Bungaku , he died on February 15, 1958 in his house in Setagaya of complications from end-stage stomach cancer , he was 59 years old.

He lived longer than his wife and remarried at the age of 55. The critic Tsuda Takashi became his son-in-law.

Other major works

• Nōritsuiinkai ( 能 率 委員会 , dt. "The Performance Committee")
• Shitsugyō Toshi Tōkyō ( 失業 都市 東京 , dt. "Tokyo, the city of the unemployed")
• Shichōtai yo mae e ( 輜 重 隊 よ 前 へ , Eng . "Supply battalion , forward!")
• Reimeiki ( 黎明 期 , dt. "Twilight")
• Hikōki Kozō ( 飛行 機 小僧 , dt. "The airplane boy ")
• Saisho no Kioku ( 最初 の 記憶 , dt. "The first memory")
• Tanin no Naka ( 他人 の 中 , Eng . "Among others")
• Hitoridachi ( ひ と り だ ち , dt. "Independence")
• Aburateri ( あ ぶ ら 照 り , German "oil shine")

literature

• George Tyson Shea: Leftwing Literature in Japan . Hosei University Press, Tokyo 1964, pp. 276-285.

Web links

• The road without sun
• Silent mountains

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