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Mishima Yukio
三島由紀夫
Yukio Mishima
(1925 – 1970)
Yukio Mishima was the pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka, a Japanese writer and right-wing activist. Mishima was a prolific and celebrated postwar writer, but he is most known for his political positions and the bizarre circumstances surrounding his death.
Early Life
Mishima’s childhood was dominated by an overprotective mother and grandmother, and an abusive father. In 1944, he received a draft notice from the Japanese military; but the symptoms of a lingering cold and a few lies led the doctors to believe that he had tuberculosis. Mishima was declared unfit for military service. While on one hand, he was relieved, he reportedly experienced regret over missing out on the chance for a glorious battlefield death.
He began publishing novels while still in his 20s. His second novel, Confessions of a Mask, garnered wide acclaim, and allowed Mishima to embark on a fulltime writing career at the age of 24. As a writer, Mishima covered a wide range of formats. In addition to novels, he wrote novellas, plays, and literary essays.
Political Beliefs and Suicide
Mishima believed that postwar Japan had been emasculated by the Allied Occupation, and the conditions imposed on Japan by America following the war. He also objected to the country’s new identity as a pacifist, capitalist nation. Mishima became involved in the Tatenokai—a right-wing group comprised of young men who espoused dedication to the prewar ideals of bushido / 武士道.
On November 25, 1970, Mishima and four members of the Tatenokai visited the Tokyo headquarters of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces. Once inside the camp, they took the camp commandant prisoner. Mishima then read a political manifesto which he hoped would inspire the soldiers to stage a right-wing revolt. His efforts to inspire a rebellion were unsuccessful (the SDF soldiers reportedly booed him). Upon hearing the soldiers’ reactions, Mishima, along with several of his companions, committed ritual suicide (seppuku / 切腹) in the office of the camp commandant.
After his death, several of Mishima’s acquaintances speculated that the author had known from the outset that his attempted right-wing coup had no chance of success. According to this view, the takeover of the SDF office was merely a pretext which allowed Mishima to commit ritual seppuku in the old samurai tradition.