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- Writer Hidemitsu Tanaka, 1913
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Hidemitsu Tanaka (田中 英光 Tanaka Hidemitsu, 10 January 1913 = 3 November 1949) was a novelist of the Buraiha genre in Showa period Japan. His name was also pronounced "Tanaka Eiko" on occasion.
Tanaka was born in the uptown Akasaka district of Tokyo, and was a graduate of Waseda University. While still a student, he was influenced by his newspaper journalist brother towards a literary career, and towards membership in the Japan Communist Party. However, he was discouraged by the corruption of the senior leadership of the party, and left before graduation. Shortly after graduation, he met Dazai Osamu, who became his mentor.
Tanaka was also a member of the Japanese Olympic team to the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, where he participated as a rower. This experience led to two novels: Orinposu no Kajitsu (1940), or The Fruit of Olympus and Tantei Soshu (1944), or The Boat Rower.
In 1935, he was hired by the Yokohama Rubber Company and was sent to Keijo, or today's Seoul, Korea, then under Japanese rule, where he lived until 1944.
After World War II, Tanaka rejoined the Japan Communist Party, but was so critical of its leadership that he was later expelled. He was greatly shocked by the suicide of his mentor Dazai Osamu. In his later years, he suffered from alcoholism, drug abuse and mental instability. He committed suicide at the grave of Dazai Osamu in 1949. His grave is at the Aoyama Cemetery in central Tokyo.