INOUE MITSUHARU

(1926–1992)

Inoue Mitsuharu was a novelist born in Fukuoka Prefecture. A self-taught writer, he was known as a compulsive liar, concocting stories about his Manchurian birth and how he was arrested for lobbying for the independence of Korea. His debut as a writer, Guadarukanaru senshishu (Anthology of Guadalcanal War Poetry, 1958), depicted youth during the war. His subsequent writings addressed such social issues as atomic bomb victims and war crimes committed by Japanese soldiers in the Pacific during World War II. Inoue passed away from liver cancer.