ISHIKAWA TATSUZO

Ishikawa Tatsuzo was born in Akita Prefecture and studied literature at Waseda University, but never graduated, leaving instead for Brazil where he worked on a farm. Ishikawa won the inaugural Akutagawa Ryunosuke Prize for Sobo (1935; tr. The Emigrants, 1985), a novel based on his experiences in Brazil. He continued to be an active writer during and after World War II, although he was heavily censored and arrested for his work Ikite iru heitai (1938; tr. Soldiers Alive, 2005), an account of atrocities committed in China. In 1969, he won the Kikuchi Kan Prize for his literary contributions.

See also JAPAN P.E.N. CLUB; WAR LITERATURE.