Yasuoka, Shotaro

Shotaro Yasuoka was born in Kochi Prefecture, Japan, in 1920. The son of a veterinary corps-man in the Imperial Army, his early life involved frequent moves from one military post to the next. After the war, Yasuoka came down with spinal caries, and, with no chance for treatment without money, took on a series of odd jobs. It was while he was bedridden with this disease that he began his writing career. A leading figure in postwar Japanese literature, in 2001 Yasuoka received the Cultural Merit Award for his lifetime of literary activities.