Hiroyuki Agawa

(December 24, 1920 – August 3, 2015) was a Japanese author. 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, Japan. As a high school student Agawa was influenced by the Japanese author Naoya Shiga. He entered the Tokyo Imperial University to study Japanese literature. Upon graduation in 1942, Agawa was conscripted to serve in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 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 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 Naoya Shiga, 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 (Template:Category handler, 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 (山本五十六, 1965), Yonai Mitsumasa (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, popular author and TV personality, and Naoyuki Agawa, professor of law at Keio University.

Bibliography

Year	Japanese Title	English Title	Genre/Comments
1946	Template:Category handler Nennen Saisai	From Age to Age in Template:ISBN	I Novel; Agawa's first literary work; translation by Eric P. Cunningham
1952	Template:Category handler Haru no shiro	Citadel in Spring Template:ISBN Template:ISBN	Autobiographical novel; describes the atomic bombing of Hiroshima; translation by Lawrence Rogers, 1990.
1953	Template:Category handler Ma no isan	Devil's heritage	Documentary novel; following the aftermath of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima, translation by John M. Maki, 1957.
1955	Template:Category handler Kumo no bohyō	Burial in the Clouds Template:ISBN	Documentary war novel; based on the diary of Iwao Yoshii, a former Kamikaze pilot. Trans. by Teruyo Shimizu, 2006. Movie adaptation by Shochiku in 1957.
1957	Template:Category handler Yoru no namioto		Short stories
1959	Template:Category handler California		I Novel
1960	Template:Category handler Saka no ooi machi		Short stories
1961	Template:Category handler Aoba no kageri		Short stories
1966	Template:Category handler Gentō		I Novel
1967	Template:Category handler Gunkan polka		Short stories
1968	Template:Category handler Mizu no ue no kaiwa		Short stories
1969	Template:Category handler Yamamoto Isoroku	The Reluctant Admiral: Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy Template:ISBN Template:ISBN	Biography; translation by John Bester, with some abridgment approved by Agawa, 1979
1973	Template:Category handler Kurai hatō		War novel (partly autobiographical)
1975	Template:Category handler Gunkan Nagato no shōgai		Documentary novel
1978	Template:Category handler Yonai Mitsumasa		Biography
1982	Template:Category handler Thames no mizu		Short stories
1986	Template:Category handler Inoue Seibi		Biography
1994	Template:Category handler Shiga Naoya		Biography
2004	Template:Category handler Naki haha ya		I Novel

Prizes

• 1952 Yomiuri Prize - Citadel in Spring, (Haru no shiro,Template:Category handler)
• 1966 Shincho Literary Prize - The Reluctant Admiral (Yamamoto Isoroku,Template:Category handler)
• 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

Sources

• J'Lit | Authors : Hiroyuki Agawa | Books from Japan
• Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2002
• Burial in the Clouds, Tuttle Pub. info
• Atomic Bomb Literature: A Bibliography Template:Webarchive
• JSTOR, Citadel in Spring review