Masuji ibuse biography for kids
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Masuji Ibuse
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In May 2023, almost 80 years after its devastation by an atomic bomb, Hiroshima again became the focus of world attention as the host city for the 49th G7 Summit.
On the summit’s official website, Hiroshima is presented as the exemplar of Japan’s postwar success. It is described as an “international city of peace and culture” and “resolute postwar advancement”. There are photos of its serene landscapes, its local delicacies and sake, and its modern sports and street culture.
The bombing of Hiroshima at the conclusion of World War II is mentioned just once. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial, according to the site, “speaks to the horrors of nuclear weapons”.
Hiroshima has more than this to tell us. But its stories, its “several pasts”, have been constantly abridged – or “refashioned”, as Michel Foucault would say. They have been adapted to serve political agendas.
On August 6, 1945, after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, President Harry Truman released a statement that praised the scientific achievement:
Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base […]
It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who br
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Obituary: Masuji Ibuse
Masuji Ibuse, writer: born Hiroshima Prefecture 15 February 1898; died Tokyo 10 July 1993.
MASUJI IBUSE, the great Japanese author, was among the few literary men still active who were born in the 19th century. The place of his birth, Hiroshima Prefecture, was later to have a significant place in his
writings.
Ibuse wanted to be a painter. After leaving middle school, he applied to study under a famous artist, Hashimoto Kansetsu, but was rejected. So he enrolled in Waseda University where he studied French, then entered the leading Tokyo art academy, Nihon Bijutsu Gakko. At the same time, he began writing poetry. The painter's observant scrutiny of objects, nature and individuals helped to give his writing its sharp visual precision, while his early leaning towards poetry lent it a lyrical tone.
His first published work was the short story 'Koi' ('Carp') which appeared in 1928 in the Keio University literary magazine Mita Bungaku on the recommendation of an older writer, Sato Haruo. This encouraged him to continue writing fable-like stories like 'Sansho Uo' ('Salamander') in 1929. This creature is portrayed with gentle irony as being too big for its lair, and is almost a prophetic image of the novelist in later life, when he took on an amiable batra