Takeshi Kaikō

Takeshi Kaikō (開高 健) was a Japanese novelist, short-story writer, essayist, literary critic, and television documentary writer born on December 30, 1930, in Osaka, Japan. He rose to prominence in the post-World War II era, winning the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1957 for The Naked King and the Mainichi Book Award in 1968 for Into a Black Sun, which drew from his experiences as a war correspondent in Vietnam where he was briefly imprisoned by the Viet Cong. Known for his satirical works like Japan's Threepenny Opera and Giants and Toys, as well as anti-war activism including co-founding Beheiren, he also wrote on food, drink, and fishing later in life before dying of esophageal cancer on December 9, 1989. Goodreads