The acceptance of George Orwell in Japan can be separated into four periods.
The first period was from 1949 to 1952. At first, Animal Farm was translated into Japanese in 1949 and Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1950. At that time, these novels were generally considered to be those of simple anti-communism. Only few novelists, scholars and critics knew that they had deeper and more complicated themes.
The second period was from 1956 to 1961. In this period, mainly his short stories and essays were introduced to Japanese readers. And his stories and essays were used for English textbooks for high school and college students. From that time, the critical studies on George Orwell began to increase.
The third period was from 1966 to 1973. His nonfiction and journalistic writings such as Down and Out in Paris and London, Homage to Catalonia and four volumes of The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell were translated into Japanese. His works drew attention from various points of view. He was recognized not only as an anti-communist novelist and a fine prose writer but also as a journalist, nonfiction writer, science fiction writer, democratic-socialist, and a volunteer soldier in the Spanish War.
The fourth period began from 1982. Of course it was because of the year of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Especially from the latter half of 1983 through 1984, there was a George Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-Four boom. In newspapers and journals, they were treated and mentioned over and over again. His novels were all translated into Japanese. Some biographies and many critical studies of George Orwell have been published. Many kinds of people such as novelists, poets, critics, literary scholars, economists, political scientists, sociologists, architects, government officials, and so on commented on George Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Through these periods, such novelists as TAKEDA Taijun, KAIKOU Takeshi, KOMATSU Sakyo and ITSUKI Hiroyuki were much concerned with George Orwell and wrote about him and his writings. Especially KAIKOU Takeshi published a book Today Is the Tomorrow of Yesterday which included his critical essays on G. Orwell. KAIKOU praised him and was much influenced by him. He wrote Something Coming from the Seashore and The Shining Darkness under the influences of George Orwell.
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