Tokunaga Sunao

Born Mar. 11, 1899, in Kumamoto Prefecture; died Feb. 15,1958. Japanese writer.

Tokunaga first published his works in 1909. His novel A Sunless Street (1929; Russian translation, 1932) depicts the struggle of Japanese workers for their rights. The novel Tokyo—City of the Unemployed (1930; Russian translation, 1934) and the collection of short stories The Working-class Family (1938) are also devoted to the life and struggle of the Japanese proletariat. Tokunaga helped found Shin Nihon Bungakukai (New Japan Literary Society) in 1945. He was the author of the novels Sleep Peacefully, Wife (1946), which relates the difficult life of a Japanese woman, and The Silent Mountains (1952; Russian translation, 1952), which deals with the struggle of various strata of Japanese society against monopoly and militarism.