Hong Kong/Tokyo
CNN
—
Nobel Prize-winning Japanese author Kenzaburo Oe, a writer renowned for a strong pacifist stance that has seeped into much of his work, has died of “old age”, his publisher confirmed on Monday.
The publisher, Kodansha, said the 88-year-old died ten days earlier on March 3.
The Nobel Prize website described Kenzaburo Oe as someone “who, with poetic force, creates an imaginary world, where life and myth condense to form a bewildering picture of man’s predicament today.” today”.
Born in 1935 in the western prefecture of Ehime, Oe made his debut as a writer in 1957 and won his Nobel Prize for Literature nearly four decades later.
He received the award in 1994, becoming the second from his country to claim the title after short story writer Kawabata Yasunari won in 1968.
Oe’s writing is heavily influenced by his childhood memory, having grown up around the time when Japan was defeated in World War II.
He wrote about the fate of atomic bombing of Hiroshima and had in recent years taken part in rallies against former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to overhaul Japan’s pacifist constitution.
“By exercising collective self-defense, Japan will directly participate in a war,” Oe said at a rally in 2014.
“I’m afraid the spirit of Japan is approaching its most dangerous stage in the past 100 years,” he added.
Abe, who was assassinated last year, has long argued that Japan needs a more assertive approach to defense, especially given China’s historic rise in recent decades.
Oe’s other inspiration was his brain-damaged son Hikari, who was unable to communicate for years as a child.
The writer, who married Yukari, the sister of the late director Juzo Itami, has made it his mission to give his eldest son a voice through his writing.
Young Oe studied French literature as a graduate student at the University of Tokyo. He began publishing stories while in college and won the career-launching Akutagawa Prize, which paved the way for his rise on the literary scene.
Following his Nobel Prize, he went on to receive the Order of Culture of Japan, given to the country’s best artists, writers and scientists for their outstanding contributions.
But Oe refused to accept it at the time as it had been awarded by the Emperor.
“I do not recognize any authority, any value superior to democracy,” he said.
He also advocated for Japan to give up nuclear power after the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011.
Reuters contributed to this report.