16 Facts About Kiyoteru Hanada

Kiyoteru Hanada was a prominent Japanese literary critic and essayist.

Kiyoteru Hanada was born in the Higashi Koen district of Fukuoka, Japan on March 29,1909, and grew up as an only child.

Kiyoteru Hanada studied at Kyoto Imperial University from 1929 to 1931.

Kiyoteru Hanada moved to Tokyo and became a journalist for the Gunji Kogyo Shimbun, a pro-government military-industrial economic newspaper, and received financial backing from his idol Nakano.

However, during World War II, Kiyoteru Hanada published numerous essays that were highly critical of the government and the growth of Japanese militarism in the literary magazine Bunka Soshiki, which he founded in 1939.

Kiyoteru Hanada's aim was to criticize Japanese nativist logic from within, taking advantage of his position within rightist circles to make use of the more liberal discursive space allotted to rightists within the wartime militarist state.

Kiyoteru Hanada became a devout Marxist and strongly believed that art should serve politics, and in particular, the cause of socialist revolution.

Kiyoteru Hanada was the founder of the Yoru no Kai, which included the likes of artist Taro Okamoto, Kobo Abe, and critic Ichiro Hariu.

Kiyoteru Hanada was an executive adviser to publisher Shinzenbisha, which published Abe's first novel, For the Signpost at the End of the Road, on his recommendation.

In 1954, Communist loyalists managed to have Kiyoteru Hanada fired as editor-in-chief of the JCP-linked literary journal New Japan Literature when he rejected a manuscript submitted by senior party official Kenji Miyamoto.

In 1960 Kiyoteru Hanada supported the massive Anpo protests against the US-Japan Security Treaty, but was disappointed by the passive role taken by the JCP.

In 1961, Kiyoteru Hanada joined a number of other writers and critics in issuing statements condemning the cultural policies of the Communist Party and what they saw as the party's inadequate participation in the Anpo protests.

Kiyoteru Hanada was very interested in the growth of Japanese radio drama and television, and played a role in the development of integrated audio-visual art.

Kiyoteru Hanada developed a personal philosophy which he called "Mineralism", which combined materialism with a sense of values.

Kiyoteru Hanada died of a cerebral hemorrhage on September 23,1974.

Kiyoteru Hanada's grave is located in Matsudo city, Chiba prefecture.