Kenzaburo Oe (1935-2023)
Japanese writer KENZABURO OE, 88, died March 3, 2023 in Tokyo. Oe won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1994. Some of his work had genre elements, and he edited anthology Fire from Dream the Ashes: Short Stories About Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1985), which also includes speculative material.
Oe was born January 31, 1935 in Shikoku, Japan, and attended Tokyo University. He began publishing stories in college, and won the Akutagawa Prize in 1958. He was most famous for his work about the atomic bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and for writings about his disabled son Hikari. In addition to writing, he was an anti-war and pro-democracy activist, turning down the prestigious Order of Culture award from the Emperor of Japan and explaining, “I do not recognise any authority, any value, higher than democracy.”
He is survived by wife Yukari (married 1960) and their three children.
