(December 24, 1920 – August 3, 2015) was a Japanese

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. He was known for his fiction centered on World War II, as well as his biographies and essays.

Literary career

Agawa was born in

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

, Japan. As a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

student Agawa was influenced by the Japanese author

Naoya Shiga was a Japanese writer active during the Taishō and Shōwa periods of Japan, whose work was distinguished by its lucid, straightforward style and strong autobiographical overtones. Early life Shiga was born in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, ...

. He entered the Tokyo Imperial University to study

Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japanes ...

. Upon graduation in 1942, Agawa was conscripted to serve in the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

, where he worked as an intelligence officer breaking Chinese military codes until the end of the war. He returned to Hiroshima, where his parents had experienced the atomic bomb, in March 1946. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Agawa wrote his first short story ''Nennen Saisai'' (Years upon Years, 1946), which was a classic I Novel, or autobiographical novel, recounting the reunion with his parents. It follows the style of

, who is said to have praised the work. ''August 6'' as Agawa notes in a postscript, combines the stories of friends and acquaintances who experienced the bombing into the testimony of one family. Occupation censorship at the time was strict, but the story passed because, the author later observed, "it made no reference to the problems of after-effect and continued no overt criticism of the U.S." Agawa came to popular and critical attention with his ''Citadel in Spring'' (, 1952), which was awarded the Yomiuri Prize. (He later revisited the same theme of his experiences as a student soldier in ''Kurai hato'' (Dark waves, 1974)). ''Ma no isan'' (Devil's Heritage, 1953), a documentary novel, is an account of the bombing of Hiroshima through the eyes of a young Tokyo reporter, handling, among other topics, the death of his Hiroshima nephew and survivors' reactions to the Atomic bomb Casualty Commission, the U.S. agency that conducted research on atomic victims. Agawa's four major biographical novels are ''

Yamamoto Isoroku was a Marshal Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II until he was killed. Yamamoto held several important posts in the IJN, and undertook many of its changes and reor ...

'' (山本五十六, 1965), ''

Yonai Mitsumasa was a Japanese general and politician. He served as admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, Minister of the Navy, and Prime Minister of Japan in 1940. Early life and career Yonai was born on 2 March 1880, in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, the fir ...

'' (米内光政, 1978), '' Inoue Seibi'' (井上成美, 1986), and '' Shiga Naoya'' (志賀直哉, 1994). His other major works include ''Kumo no bohyo'' (Grave markers in the clouds, 1955), and ''Gunkan Nagato no shogai'' (The life of the warship Nagato, 1975). Agawa was awarded the Order of Culture (Bunka Kunsho) in 1999. He is the father of

Sawako Agawa is a Japanese author and television personality. Early life Sawako Agawa was born in Tokyo on 1 November 1953. Her father is the novelist Hiroyuki Agawa; and her elder brother Naoyuki Agawa is also a writer. Naoyuki is a former diplomat who, ...

, popular author and TV personality, and

Naoyuki Agawa is a Japanese lawyer, diplomat, academic and author. He has been a professor of law at Keio University since 1999; Early life Naoyuki was born in Tokyo in 1951. He is the son of the novelist and historian Hiroyuki Agawa. His younger sister is t ...

, professor of law at

Keio University , mottoeng = The pen is mightier than the sword , type = Private research coeducational higher education institution , established = 1858 , founder = Yukichi Fukuzawa , endowmen ...

Bibliography

Prizes

* 1952 Yomiuri Prize - ''Citadel in Spring'', (Haru no shiro,) * 1966 Shincho Literary Prize - ''The Reluctant Admiral'' (Yamamoto Isoroku,) * 1987 Nippon Grand Literary Prize - ''Inoue Seibi'' (「井上成美」) * 1994 Noma Literary Prize - ''Shiga Naoya'' (「志賀直哉」) * 2002 Yomiuri Prize - ''Shokumi-Buburoku'' (「食味風々録」) * 2007　 Kikuchi Kan Prize

Notes

Sources

J'Lit , Authors : Hiroyuki Agawa , Books from Japan
* ''Contemporary Authors Online'', Gale, 2002
''Burial in the Clouds'', Tuttle Pub. info

JSTOR, ''Citadel in Spring'' review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agawa, Hiroyuki 1920 births Imperial Japanese Navy officers 20th-century Japanese novelists 21st-century Japanese novelists 2015 deaths Yomiuri Prize winners Recipients of the Order of Culture Writers from Hiroshima University of Tokyo alumni War writers Imperial Japanese Navy personnel of World War II