was a Japanese

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

peace activist A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peac ...

, academic and ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' Asian Hero.

Early life and career

Oda was born in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

in 1932 and graduated from the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

's Faculty of Letters program, majoring in classical Greek philosophy and literature. He won a

Fulbright Scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1958.

Writing

His travels through Europe and Asia on a budget of a

dollar Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, U ...

a day formed the basis of his 1961 bestseller ''Nandemo Mite yaro'' ("I'll go and see everything"). His first book ''Asatte no Shuki'' ("The Notebook of the Day After Tomorrow") was published in 1951. It was based on experiences during

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 ...

and the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

. His first full-length novel, "Amerika" ("America") was published in 1962. Oda won the Lotus Prize in 1981 of the Afro-Asian Writers' Association for his book ''Hiroshima''. This led to a 1990 English translation as well as translations in French, Arabic, Italian, Korean and Russian. It was written about the

atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the on ...

not only in Japan but on the

Hopi Indians The Hopi are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American ethnic group who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona, United States. As of the United States Census, 2010, 2010 census, there are 19,338 Hopi in the ...

and Americans who lived near the testing sites. He won the Kawabata Yasunari Prize for ''Aboji o Fumu'' ("Stomping Father"), published in 1998. Oda's novel ''The Breaking Jewel'' was published in English in 2003. It was about Japanese forces on a South Pacific island facing an American invasion at the end of World War II.

Activism

In 1965, he co-founded

Beheiren Beheiren (ベ平連, short for ベトナムに平和を！市民連合, ''Betonamu ni Heiwa o! Shimin Rengo'', "The Citizen's League for Peace in Vietnam") was a Japanese "New Left" activist group that existed from 1965 to 1974. As a loose coaliti ...

(Citizens' League for Peace in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

) with philosopher

Shunsuke Tsurumi was a Japanese philosopher, historian, and sociologist. Tsurumi Shunsuke was born in Tokyo in 1922. In 1937, his father sent him to study in the United States, where he enrolled at the Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. At the age of 1 ...

and writer

Takeshi Kaiko Takeshi ( in hiragana or in katakana) is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings *武, "warrior" *毅, "strong" *猛, "fierce" *健, "healthy" *剛, "sturdy" *彪, "spotted" *威, "intimidate" *壮, "robust" *丈, "length" *雄, "mascu ...

to protest against the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. He was an inaugural member of th
Article 9 Association
set up to protect

Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan is a clause in the national Constitution of Japan outlawing war as a means to settle international disputes involving the state. The Constitution came into effect on 3 May 1947, following World War II. In its text, the state formally renounces th ...

which renounces Japan's right to wage war. Oda was a prolific writer on political topics starting with ''Heiwa o tsukuru genri'' ("The Principles of Peace") in 1966. Oda was also instrumental in the formation of Japanese war memory in the late '60s and early '70s. He was the first of his generation of peace activists to begin to question the then-dominant narrative of Japan as a victim of war aggression, rather than as victimizer, during the Second World War. Oda died of stomach cancer in July 2007, aged 75. His memorial service was held on August 4, 2007 at the Aoyama Sogisho funeral hall in Tokyo and was attended by about 800 people, including well-known persons in the political, literary and activist fields in Japan. Afterward, an estimated 500 people held a peace march in Oda's memory, marching through the streets of downtown Tokyo and vowing to carry on Oda's anti-war activist efforts.

References

External links

* * *Covert, Brian, (14 March 2006), "Inside The Smoke: A Conversation with Makoto Oda, Author and Activist
(Part 1)
an
Part 2
San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center. {{DEFAULTSORT:Oda, Makoto 1932 births 2007 deaths Harvard University alumni Japanese writers Japanese pacifists Writers from Osaka Deaths from stomach cancer Japanese anti-war activists Deaths from cancer in Japan Fulbright alumni