Sakyo Komatsu

Sakyō Komatsu (Japanese小松 左 京, Komatsu Sakyō; born January 28, 1931 in Nishi- ku, Osaka as Minoru Komatsu (小松 実, Minoru Komatsu ); † July 26, 2011 in Osaka ) was one of the most famous Japanese science fiction writer.

Life

Komatsu studied at the University of Kyoto Italian literature and came through reading Kobo Abe and Italian classics to the idea that modern literature and science fiction are basically the same. It was after graduation worked as an editor at a business magazine and worked as a journalist and reporter for Radio Osaka. The first own science fiction story appeared in 1962; Chi ni wa Heiwa o (peace on earth ) describes the engagement of a future authority for future control in the course of the Second World War. In Western countries, it was lowered by the novels of Japan and Sayonara Jupiter (さよなら ジュピタ, dt The Day of Resurrection ) is known, both of which were filmed, Japan drops 1973 ( The Fall of Japan) and 2006 ( Sinking of Japan), The Day of the. resurrection his 1984 novel ESPY (エスパイ, 1970), which deals with ESP - gifted criminals hunters, was made ​​into a film (1974); neither the book nor the movie were published in Germany.

For Japan drops Komatsu got the Seiun price. The novel describes the sinking of the Japanese home islands in a chain of devastating earthquakes in Japan and a long-lasting success; the present on German versions are merely translations of the shortened down to one-third of the original American version. The novel also follows the film Nihon Chimbotsu ( Tidal Waves, The Fall of Japan).

Designs of his novel Fukkatsu no Hi in 1980, the film Overkill - rotated through hell for eternity.

Together with Shin'ichi Hoshi and Yasutaka Tsutsui Komatsu was counted among the " Big Three " of Japanese science fiction.

Komatsu died on July 26, 2011 in a hospital in Osaka pneumonia. He was 80 years old.

Works (selection)

• Chi ni wa heiwa o (地には平和を, 1963, Peace on Earth )
• ESPY (エスパイ, 1970)
• Nippon Chimbotsu (日本 沉没, 1973), dt Japan sinks, publishing folk and world, Berlin, 1979; If Japan sinks, Zsolnay, Vienna and Hamburg 1979
• Fukkatsu no Hi (復活の日, 1982), dt The Day of Resurrection, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1987