Hirotsu Kazuo, novelist, translator and literary critic, was the son of novelist Hirotsu Ryuro. He published the literary journal Kiseki (Miracle), to which he contributed translations of European literature and short stories. During World War II, he moved to Shizuoka Prefecture near friend Shiga Naoya. A critic of nihilism, Hirotsu became part of the proletarian literature movement of the 1930s and later wrote I-Novels. He won the Noma Prize for Nengetsu no ashiato (The Footsteps of Time, 1963). He also wrote an extensive defense of the accused Communist saboteurs in the Matsukawa incident, published in two parts, Izumi e no michi (Road to the Spring, 1953–54) and Matsukawa Saiban (The Matsukawa Trial, 1954–58).
Historical dictionary of modern Japanese literature and theater. J. Scott Miller. 2009.