TAKAMI JUN

(1907–1965)

   Takami Jun was the pen name of Takama Yoshio, a novelist and poet from Fukui Prefecture. He was born the illegitimate son of the governor of Fukui; Nagai Kafu was his half brother. Takami graduated from Tokyo University and became involved in the proletarian literature movement. He was imprisoned in 1932 on suspicion of violating the Peace Preservation Law of 1925, but was released six months later after confessing his disaffiliation with the Communist Party. He was a nominee for the first Akutagawa Ryunosuke Prize in 1935 and was acclaimed during the war for his story Ikanaru hoshi no shita ni (Under Any Star, 1939). Takami continued to write I-Novels and also wrote poetry, publishing the anthology Shi no fuchi yori (1964; tr. By the Abyss of Death, 1965).

   See also MARXISM; MILITARISM; THOUGHT POLICE; WAR LITERATURE.