Takiya Kobayashi is an outstanding revolutionary writer in Japan and an excellent literary worker of the party. He left behind many highly accomplished revolutionary literary works, standing firm and unyielding in front of the enemy, ultimately sacrificing his life for the cause of the proletariat.
He was born in 1903 and died in 1933 at the age of only twenty-nine.
He was born in a poor village in Akita Prefecture, northern Honshu, Japan. His father was a poor tenant farmer. In 1907, when he was four years old, his family could no longer survive in their hometown, so they moved to the port city of Otaru in Hokkaido, relying on his uncle who ran a bakery. His childhood was spent in extreme poverty.
Regarding his childhood and youth in Otaru, he depicted these experiences in many works. The lives of impoverished laborers cultivated in the author a keen eye for observing reality, allowing him to understand the harsh living conditions that laboring people had to endure to survive. Later, in his short story “Rongji and the Beggar,” he described:
Rongji still retains a terrifying memory.
For some unknown reason, suddenly a landslide occurred, people on the cliff wielding pickaxes, those transporting soil by cart… these people suddenly disappeared, as if they had been sucked into the soil, even though it was unavoidable. The bodies dug out from the soil were left outside for two or three days, then a large pit was dug in the back mountain, and those dark purple bodies were all thrown in, with no grave markers erected…
Sometimes on moonless nights, you can hear shouts:
“They’ve escaped, they’ve escaped.”
“The head” rides a horse, holding a wooden club, shouting everywhere. Needless to say, if the escapees are caught midway, they will surely be beaten to death.
This was the early “land reclamation and colonization” effort carried out by Japanese bourgeoisie and feudal landlords in Hokkaido, and it was the environment in which the author grew up.
Takiya Kobayashi entered Otaru Commercial High School in 1921. At that time, the Soviet Union—the first socialist state in the world—had emerged, breaking through imperialist encirclement and vigorously building socialism. Meanwhile, Japan was suffering from an economic crisis, with increasing contradictions between workers and capitalists. The conditions for the founding of the Japanese Communist Party—the proletarian party—were nearing maturity. During this period, a magazine called “Sower” appeared in the literary movement, promoting the political line of the Third International and revolutionary literary theory. Kobayashi began to receive revolutionary education.
In 1924, Kobayashi graduated from the Commercial High School and found a position at the Otaru branch of the Hokkaido Takushoku Bank. Working as a bank clerk was a relatively stable life, a comfortable position for an ordinary petty bourgeois intellectual. However, due to his growing proximity to revolution, he could not remain in this bourgeoisie position. In the same year he graduated, he and some comrades founded a literary magazine called “Light” (taking the name from Baudelaire’s novel “Light”). Over the next three or four years, he published more than a dozen short stories, filled with deep humanitarian sympathy for oppressed and enslaved people.
As he became closer to literature and writers, he gradually embarked on a clearer revolutionary path. He actively studied Marxism-Leninism and participated in the revolutionary literary movement, working as a secret distributor of revolutionary literary publications. He organized the Otaru branch of the Japan Proletarian Writers’ League and maintained close contacts with revolutionary activists in trade unions, participating in practical revolutionary struggles. Under these circumstances, the author steadily moved toward standing with the working people.
On March 15, 1928, Japan’s reactionary government—the Tanaka Cabinet—launched the first large-scale crackdown on the Communist Party, arresting thousands of revolutionaries. In Otaru, arrests continued for two months, with over five hundred detained. Many comrades who maintained close relations with the author were also arrested. This prompted the author to pick up his pen and denounce the enemy. In August of that year, he wrote the famous “March 15, 1928.” This novella not only deeply exposed the bloody suppression of domestic revolutionary movements by Japan’s military fascist regime before launching the invasion of China but also depicted the perilous journeys of Communist Party members, trade union workers, and revolutionary intellectuals in this brutal struggle, showcasing their heroic qualities. Once published, it was immediately welcomed by the broad masses of workers because it effectively used artistic weapons to deliver a fatal blow to the enemy.
Following this novella, in 1929, he published another novella, “Kani-gōsen” (“Crab Ship”), depicting the heroic struggles of Japanese fisheries workers. However, its meaning went far beyond that; the author aimed to reveal the nature of Japanese imperialist aggression and its brutal exploitation through their specific struggles, reflecting the development of the Japanese working class from spontaneous to conscious struggle. After its publication, it received widespread praise and had a profound influence, becoming one of the most valuable achievements of the Japanese proletarian literature movement.
In 1929, Japanese revolutionary writers reorganized their group into the “All Japan Proletarian Art League” and established the “All Japan Proletarian Art Organization Agreement,” under which various specialized organizations such as the Writers’ League and the Artists’ League were formed. Kobayashi was elected as a central committee member of the Writers’ League, continuing his creative work while taking on the leadership of the revolutionary literary movement.
In the same year, Japan’s ruling class launched the second large-scale crackdown on revolutionaries. During this intense class struggle, the author published “Not a Landlord” (meaning “Urban Landlord”), depicting the brutal exploitation and oppression of farmers by Hokkaido landlords and capitalists. It vividly reflected the suffering lives of tenant farmers and emphasized the necessity of unity between farmers and workers in the fight against the exploiting classes. Artistically, he also attempted further popularization of literature.
Following “Not a Landlord,” he published two more novellas: “Factory Branch” and “Organizer.” The former describes the real situation of how the Party’s grassroots organizations in factories guide the masses to fight, and also exposes the despicable tactics of capitalists trying to shift the economic crisis onto workers; the latter depicts the process of the revolutionary organization in the factory being destroyed by enemies and then reestablished.
In 1931, Kobayashi became a central committee member and secretary of the Writers’ League, and officially joined the Japanese Communist Party. He wrote many articles guiding the revolutionary literary movement and continued his creative work. However, enemy persecution grew increasingly severe. He was finally arrested during a journey and subjected to brutal torture. Subsequently, the court prosecuted him on charges of disrespecting the Emperor in “Crab Ship.” He spent five months in prison. After release, he immediately began writing “Anko” and “The People of the Turning Period.”
“Anko” describes the process of two rural women participating in underground party activities and gradually raising their class consciousness. At that time, many works, to emphasize the class nature of characters, were somewhat formulaic and conceptual. The author aimed to create a vivid and distinctive image through Anko’s character but was not entirely successful.
“The People of the Turning Period” was originally planned to be divided into three parts: the first depicting the rise of Fukumotoism, the middle describing the general strike in Otaru, and the last showing the decline of Fukumotoism and the outbreak of the “March 15 Incident.” The author attempted to illustrate the characteristics of that era through the lives of workers, farmers, and students. However, in 1931, Japan’s ruling class launched the “September 18 Incident,” and reactionary forces became increasingly ferocious. The persecution of the author intensified, making open activities impossible. After April 1932, he was forced into extreme underground struggle, and this long novel was only started with an introductory chapter and remained unfinished. During his underground activities, he continued to guide the proletarian literary movement while writing his final novella, “Party Member.”
“Party Member” is a first-person novel written by the author during his busy revolutionary activities, composed bit by bit in his limited free time. The “I” in the work is a revolutionary intellectual dedicated to the cause, engaging in secret activities in the factory branch under extremely difficult conditions, constantly overcoming residual petty-bourgeois consciousness, and training himself step by step to become a Communist Party member who wholeheartedly serves the people. In this work, the protagonist’s determination for self-revolution and unconditional dedication to the revolutionary cause deeply moved readers. The sincere feelings between the protagonist and his mother, and his correct handling of the relationship between revolution and personal life to serve the revolution, showcase the high artistic achievement of Japanese revolutionary literature.
In 1933, the author was arrested during underground work. On that day, he was brutally tortured by agents at the Tsukiji Police Station in Tokyo. The agents, aware of Kobayashi’s significant role in the revolutionary literary movement, sought to extract party secrets from him, but their attempt failed. The author remained steadfast in his revolutionary oath and said nothing. That night, Kobayashi Takiji, the outstanding son of the Japanese working class, died in prison.
Kobayashi Takiji’s luminous name will forever exist in the history of Japanese literature. Moreover, as the Japanese people’s liberation cause advances, the significance of his works will be increasingly recognized by the Japanese people. The large-scale dissemination of his works after the war and the establishment of the “Takiji and Yuriko Research Society” are proof of this.
A key feature of Kobayashi’s works is their prominent use of artistic imagery to expose the essence of Japan’s ruling class. His early major works—“March 15, 1928,” “Crab Ship,” and “Not a Landlord”—form a whole, constituting a comprehensive indictment of the fascist imperial regime, the bourgeoisie, and feudal landlords. Later major works mostly depict revolutionary figures, inspiring readers to struggle against the dark society. As a result, the ruling class fears the dissemination of his works most; anyone possessing his writings risks arrest. After the war, some Japanese literary critics criticized Kobayashi Takiji’s artistic achievements, but considering their limited role, no one could deny the true value of his works.
Of course, as his closest comrade, Kurahara Kenji, said, Kobayashi’s works are not without flaws. Considering his specific circumstances of creation—during the embryonic stage of Japanese revolutionary literature, under difficult conditions of revolutionary practice, constantly exploring, self-reforming, and fighting the enemy—some imperfections in artistic maturity are understandable. However, we must not deny his achievements because of these partial flaws, nor allow exaggerated criticisms of these flaws to serve formalist literary defenses. Chinese readers, like the Japanese working people, highly evaluate Kobayashi’s works.
In the preface he wrote for the Chinese translation of “Crab Ship” in 1929, he said:
“The heroic struggle of the Chinese working class has greatly inspired the Japanese proletariat, who are connected by flesh and blood. Now… the brave Chinese working class can read this book, and I am deeply excited.”
This reflects Kobayashi Takiji’s friendly spirit and deep respect for the Chinese proletarian revolution. After his murder by enemies, Mr. Lu Xun sent a condolence telegram:
“The Japanese and Chinese peoples are brothers. The bourgeoisie has drawn a line of blood between us, and is still drawing it. But the proletariat and its pioneers are washing away this line with blood. Kobayashi Takiji’s death is the best proof. We know we will not forget, and we will firmly follow Kobayashi’s blood-stained path, advancing hand in hand.”
From Lu Xun’s words and Kobayashi Takiji’s, we can understand the profound history of friendship between the working peoples of China and Japan. Today, rereading Kobayashi Takiji’s works, we feel an infinite sense of emotion.
Kobayashi Takiji’s life was a process from a humanitarian with a sense of justice to a steadfast Communist; a process of intellectuals determined to self-reform and dedicate their entire being to the people; a life of offering all his energy and life to the proletarian revolutionary cause, fighting tirelessly with pen and action. From Kobayashi Takiji’s works depicting the heroic struggles of Japanese laborers and the proletariat against feudalism, capitalism, and fascist oppression, we foresee that Japan’s future will surely belong to the entire Japanese working people and the working class. The immense significance of Kobayashi Takiji’s works lies precisely in this.
