Kōji Uno (宇野 浩二, Uno Kōji; July 26, 1891 - September 21, 1961) was a noted Japanese novelist and short story writer.…Kōji Uno (宇野 浩二, Uno Kōji; July 26, 1891 - September 21, 1961) was a noted Japanese novelist and short story writer. Uno was born in Fukuoka to parents of Samurai origin. His grandfather was a police captain and his father a teacher. After his father's death when Uno was four, his family lost all their savings speculating in the stock market. When Uno was eight, he was sent to live with his grandmother and an uncle in Sōemonchō as his mother became a waitress. There he lived, beside the Dōtonbori entertainment district, among geisha, prostitutes, wig-makers, and gamblers, as he attended Rikugun elementary school from 1899 to 1901. He attended Tennōji middle school, where he learned to read English and acquired a taste for Nikolai Gogol's fiction. In 1910 he moved to Tokyo to study English literature at Waseda University, where he read Symbolist poetry and Russian modernists including Leonid Andreyev, Mikhail Artsybashev, Konstantin Balmont, Aleksandr Kuprin, Fyodor Sologub, and Boris Konstantinovich Zaytsev. At age 28, Uno published his first major work, "In the Storehouse", whose colloquial and ironic style was criticized as "flippant" and "popular". After seven years (1927–1933) of mental illness and silence, his publications became more conventional and Uno participated in the literary life of the day. During World War II, he wrote essays on literary life in the Taishō period (1912–1926). He received the Yomiuri Prize in 1950 for his 1948 novel Omoigawa (思ひ川, River of Thought), and highly praised for his 1951 critical biography of author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. In 1953 he campaigned for the release of twenty Communist factory workers accused of sabotaging a Japan National Railways freight train, publishing two novels on their behalf, and touring China in 1956 on a personal invitation from Zhou Enlai. Uno died of pulmonary tuberculosis.
Seiichi Itō (伊藤 整一, Itō Seiichi; July 26, 1890 – April 7, 1945) was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy and the…Seiichi Itō (伊藤 整一, Itō Seiichi; July 26, 1890 – April 7, 1945) was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy and the flag officer of the task force centered around the battleship Yamato on his final mission towards the end of World War II.
Tatsuo Kawai (河相 達夫, Kawai Tatsuo; 26 July 1889 – 31 October 1965) was a Japanese diplomat and author. He was a leading…Tatsuo Kawai (河相 達夫, Kawai Tatsuo; 26 July 1889 – 31 October 1965) was a Japanese diplomat and author. He was a leading proponent of expansionism in Japan before World War II but later became a pacifist and was Japan's first Minister to Australia.
Kaoru Osanai (小山内 薫, Osanai Kaoru; July 26, 1881 – December 25, 1928), was a Japanese theater director, playwright, and…Kaoru Osanai (小山内 薫, Osanai Kaoru; July 26, 1881 – December 25, 1928), was a Japanese theater director, playwright, and actor central in the development of modern Japanese theater.
Shunroku Hata (畑 俊六, Hata Shunroku; July 26, 1879 – May 10, 1962) was a field marshal (gensui) in the Imperial Japanese…Shunroku Hata (畑 俊六, Hata Shunroku; July 26, 1879 – May 10, 1962) was a field marshal (gensui) in the Imperial Japanese Army who served as Minister of the Army from 1939 to 1940. He was the last surviving Japanese military officer with a marshal's rank. In the aftermath of World War II Hata was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1948, but was paroled in 1955.
Shitagau Noguchi (野口 遵, Noguchi Shitagau; July 26, 1873-January 15, 1944) was a Japanese entrepreneur who founded the…Shitagau Noguchi (野口 遵, Noguchi Shitagau; July 26, 1873-January 15, 1944) was a Japanese entrepreneur who founded the Nichitsu zaibatsu. Known as the father of electrochemical engineering in Japan, he invested heavily in the development of Korea and Manchukou in cooperation with the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. His company was dissolved under the American occupation after World War II, and its successor companies include the Chisso Corporation, and portions of Asahi Kasei, Sekisui Chemical Company, and Shin-Etsu Chemical.