moved to Setagaya in Tokyo. His politics supported the Japanese government in World War II, and he was sent on a government-sponsored visit to Korea, where he met author Kim Saryan, and to Manchukuo, where he toured several Japanese settlements. In 1942, he joined the government-sponsored Japanese Cultural Protection Association, but came into conflict with Kunio Kishida, who was attempting to incorporate the Association into the Taisei Yokusankai political party. He also travelled to Nara to view various temples and antiquities in 1942. In 1944, due to the danger of air raids in Tokyo during World War II, he relocated to the resort town of Atami. In 1946, Hirotsu was diagnosed with bladder cancer at the Atami National Hospital. While recuperating in Atami, he occasionally met with fellow Atami resident Shiga Naoya in 1948. Hirotsu became a member of the Japan Art Academy in 1949 together with Kōji Uno. In 1950, his house in Atami burned down, and he was forced to relocate to a different location, but still within Atami. On occasion, he also maintained apartments in Tokyo. In the post-war period, Hirotsu wrote a number of biographical and autobiographical works, Ano Jidai (“Those Times”), and Nengetsu no Ashiato (“The Footsteps of Time”, 1961–1963), which won the 1963 Noma Literary Prize; however, he devoted 10 years from 1953-1963 writing an obsessively detailed defense of the alleged saboteurs in the controversial Matsukawa incident. This work was published under Izumi e no michi (“The Road to Spring”, 1953–1954) and Matsukawa Saiban (“The Matsukawa Trial”, 1954–1958). Hirotsu led a citizen's support group for the defendants, who, after twelve years in the courts, were eventually found innocent. Hirotsu died of a heart attack at the Atami National Hospital in Atami in 1968 at the age of 76. His grave is at the Yanaka Cemetery, Tokyo. His daughter Momoko Hirotsu (1918-1988) was also a novelist. Translations Hirotsu, Kazuo. Der Geist der Prosa - Literarischer Widerstand im Japan der Kriegszeit. Translated into German by Asa-Bettina Wuthenow. Munich: Iudicium (2014). 254 pages. Notes See also Japanese literature List of Japanese authors References Keene, Donald. Appreciations of Japanese Culture. Kodansha (2003). ] Hashimoto, Michio. Hirotsu Kazuo saiko. Nishida SHoten (1991). (Japanese) Wuthenow, Asa-Bettina (2014): Widerstand im „Geist der Prosa“ - Der Schriftsteller Hirotsu Kazuo zur Zeit des Fünfzehnjährigen Krieges (1931-1945). Heidelberg, 547 S., unter: http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/17574/ External links Japanese Literature and Theater Synopsis of some works at JLPP