Kensaku Shimaki (島木 健作 ,Shimaki Kensaku, 7 September 1903 - 17 August 1945) was the pen-name of a Japanese author in Shōwa period Japan. His real name was Asakura Kikuo (朝倉 菊雄 ).
Shimaki Kensaku was born in Sapporo, Hokkaidō in 1903. His father died when he was two years old, and he was raised by his mother. He was forced to drop out of elementary school in order to work to support his mother, and managed to continue his education by obtaining od...
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Kensaku Shimaki (島木 健作 ,Shimaki Kensaku, 7 September 1903 - 17 August 1945) was the pen-name of a Japanese author in Shōwa period Japan. His real name was Asakura Kikuo (朝倉 菊雄 ).
Shimaki Kensaku was born in Sapporo, Hokkaidō in 1903. His father died when he was two years old, and he was raised by his mother. He was forced to drop out of elementary school in order to work to support his mother, and managed to continue his education by obtaining odd jobs at a local middle school and library.
Shimaki entered Tohoku Imperial University in Sendai in 1925, but due to extreme poverty was barely able to support himself, and he contracted tuberculosis. It was during this time that he was attracted to the radical labor movement. He left the university and joined a leftist agrarian movement in Shikoku. In 1927, this flirtation with socialism turned more radical when he signed on as active member of the Japan Communist Party.
When the communist movement was outlawed and forced underground,...
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