TOKUNAGA SUNAO

(1899–1958)

   Tokunaga Sunao was a novelist from Kumamoto Prefecture. He was introduced to literature and the labor movement at a young age while working in a tobacco bureau. In 1922, at the age of 13, he moved to Tokyo and worked as a typesetter. While there he started to write novels and released Musansha no koi (Proletarian Love, 1925) and Uma (Horses, 1925). After being discharged from his job during a labor strike, he wrote and serialized his most revered proletarian novel, Taiyo no nai machi (The Street without Sunlight, 1929). Although he briefly left the union, he kept writing even in the face of opposition from the government. Shizuka naru yamayama (Quiet Mountains, ca. 1956), one of his notable works, is based on a labor dispute within Toshiba and has been translated into many languages. Tokunaga died of stomach cancer at the age of 59.

   See also MARXISM.