Shizuko Gō was a Japanese novelist. She was best known for her 1972 novel ''

Requiem A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...

,'' which won the Akutagawa Prize.

Biography

Gō was born Michiko Yamaguchi in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

, Japan on April 20, 1929. She graduated from Tsurumi Kōtō Joshi Gakkō. 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 ...

she worked in a factory instead of going to college, like many other people her age at the time. After the war she contracted

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

, and was sent to a temple in the countryside to heal by her family. After two years. Gō had recovered enough to find a job and return to her normal life. She began writing in 1949. However, her tuberculosis recurred regularly until she eventually had to have a lung removed in 1955. She married Ikuzō Ōshima soon after the surgery, and stopped writing to raise her family. Gō began writing again in 1968, after the

Japanese Self Defense Force The Japan Self-Defense Forces ( ja, 自衛隊, Jieitai; abbreviated JSDF), also informally known as the Japanese Armed Forces, are the unified ''de facto''Since Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution outlaws the formation of armed forces, th ...

announced its new budget. She wrote her best-known novel, ''Requiem'' , after the announcement. It is a semi-autobiographical work that takes place during World War II, and follows a young woman who works in a factory and contracts tuberculosis. The story was originally published in '' Bungakukai'' in 1972, and won the Akutagawa Prize. She wrote several other novels after that success that also had

anti-war An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to pa ...

themes. She even went to the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

in 1984 to conduct research for her 1986 story , which was about a Japanese family in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

during World War II. Gō became more politically active in the anti-war and

peace movement 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 ...

s, especially in 1982 when she wrote a piece in the '' Asahi Shinbun'' against the United States and Japan's military exercises near

Mount Fuji , or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest p ...

. She also wrote about Japan's inconsistent and corrupt education system in some of her fiction and nonfiction works. Gō died of old age in Yokohama on September 30, 2014.

Selected works

* ''Requiem'' (1972) * , 1975 * , 1976

References

1929 births 2014 deaths 20th-century Japanese novelists Writers from Yokohama Akutagawa Prize winners Japanese activists {{DEFAULTSORT:Gō, Shizuko