HINO ASHIHEI

Hino Ashihei was a soldier in the Japanese army in China who wrote and published war novels about the daily life of soldiers. These include Mugi to Heitai (1938; tr. Wheat and Soldiers, 1958) and Fun’nyotan (Tales of Excrement and Urine, 1937), for which he received the Akutagawa Ryunosuke Prize, delivered to him in Manchuria by Kobayashi Hideo. He took his own life at age 53.

See also SUICIDE.