IBUSE MASUJI

Ibuse Masuji, an author from Hiroshima, studied French literature at Waseda University in Tokyo but left before graduation after an altercation with a professor. He began his own writing career with such works as Sanshouo (1929; tr. The Salamander, 1956). By the late 1920s, top literary critics began to notice his work. Ibuse worked as a propaganda writer during World War II, but his best-known work, Kuroi Ame (1965; tr. Black Rain, 1968), for which he was awarded the Noma Prize and the Order of Cultural Merit, reflects a deep empathy for atomic bomb victims.

See also DAZAI OSAMU.