The Generation that Embraced the Sun: Postwar Ambition and Contradiction as Reflected by Shintaro Ishihara, 1950s-1970s

The Generation that Embraced the Sun: Postwar Ambition and Contradiction as Reflected by Shintaro Ishihara, 1950s-1970s

Shintaro Ishihara emerged in the mid-1950s, as postwar Japan was emerging from the ruins of the war and searching for new values. 1956, when he won the Akutagawa Prize for "Season of the Sun," he was catapulted into the limelight as a symbol of the "Sun Tribe," the first generation that had never known defeat. The image of young people who affirmed their bodies and impulses was shocking to the generation of the midwar and postwar eras, which valued morality and order, but at the same time it foreshadowed the young energy that would drive the country's rapid economic growth.

In the 1960s, Ishihara went beyond being a writer and ventured into the fields of film, politics, and ideology. The "Ishihara Brothers" brand he built with his brother Yujiro was a glamorous symbol of postwar culture, but behind it lay a strong belief in "power and the individual. His often provocative brush strokes, such as "The Young People" and "The Execution Chamber," depicted the psychology of young people who deviated from social norms and brought a new breath of activism to modern Japanese literature.

In the 1970s, as the student movement came to an end and an increasing number of the generation shifted their focus from ideals to reality, Ishihara's tone shifted to "intelligence in action. He became increasingly outspoken on issues such as the state, energy, and urban planning, and the germ of the ideas that would lead to "Japan Yo" and "Japan That Can Say No" was already beginning to emerge. He saw politics as "an extension of literature" and took the stance of changing society through words.

Later, as a politician, he became the Governor of Tokyo (1999-2012), where he introduced policies that harmonized the city and the environment, such as diesel emission controls and the establishment of the Tokyo Marathon. This series of activities was a lengthy response to the "growth and responsibility" proposition that postwar Japan had been facing. Shintaro Ishihara's path reflects the transformation of Japan itself, from the "sun tribe" of the 1950s to the urban renewal of the 2000s.