2,500 words, 12 minutes’ reading time.

Umezaki Haruo (1916-1965) is one of the more famous ‘postwar writers’, whose short stories and novels are set during and shortly after WW2. Born in Fukuoka, he studied literature at Tokyo Imperial University before being conscripted and serving (among other places and roles) as a cryptographer at a naval base in Kagoshima from where kamikaze vessels departed. His short story Sakurajima (1946) drew on his experiences there to depict critically the exploitation of poor, rural kamikaze soldiers by officers they detested, and the collective bewilderment on the base following Japan’s surrender. Such portrayals of the military were typical in the postwar period, befitting public anti-war sentiment, yet were masterful in managing to appease censors while conveying the extent of PTSD among soldiers and civilians. Umezaki died suddenly aged 50 of liver failure resulting from alcoholism. 

This story can be found on Aozora. It was first published in 1987, as part of a Kodansha collection of 58 modern short stories.