Makoto Oda R.I.P.

Makoto Oda, an award-winning writer whose disgust with war led to the formation of Beheiren (citizens' league for peace in Vietnam), died of stomach cancer Monday at a Tokyo hospital, his family said.

He was 75.

Oda was diagnosed with terminal cancer in spring this year. He died at 2:05 a.m.

Born in Osaka in 1932, Oda survived the great Osaka air raid on Aug. 14, 1945, a day before Japan's surrender.

Oda's anger at what he called "meaningless deaths" is believed to have been his source of energy to continue his writing and anti-war activities.

After graduating from the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Letters, Oda studied at Harvard University on a Fulbright scholarship in 1958.

He later traveled through Europe and Asia, restricting himself to spend only 1 dollar a day.

Oda wrote about his experiences in the 1961 best-seller "Nandemo Miteyaro" (I'll go and see everything).

In 1965, Oda established Beheiren jointly with other anti-war activists, including philosopher and critic Shunsuke Tsurumi and writer Takeshi Kaiko, to protest the Vietnam War.

While continuing to write after Beheiren was disbanded, Oda spoke up on political issues from the standpoint of a citizen.

In 1976, he visited North Korea to meet with then leader Kim Il Sung.

The former Japan Socialist Party in 1987 asked Oda to run in the Tokyo gubernatorial election, but he declined.

Oda was living in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, when the Great Hanshin Earthquake devastated the Kobe area on Jan. 17, 1995, killing more than 6,000 people.

Having seen firsthand the slow government response in a time of disaster, Oda pressed for the passage of the disaster-relief law intended to help victims rebuild their lives.

Oda was also an inaugural member of the Article 9 Association, a group set up in June 2004 to protect war-renouncing Article 9 of Japan's Constitution. Other members include Nobel Prize laureate Kenzaburo Oe and critic Shuichi Kato.

In 1988, Oda won the Lotus Prize of the Afro-Asian Writers' Association, a literary award hailed as the best prize for writers in Asia and Africa, for his book "Hiroshima."

Resources:

TIME Magazine: The Courage of His Convictions

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