Kenzaburo Oe, a progressive Japanese writer who won his country’s second Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994 for books about the horrors of war and his disabled son, has died at the age of 88.

The news of the death was reported by Kodansha Publishing, stating that Oe passed away on March 3, 2023 from old age.

Oe later became known as a campaigner against nuclear weapons and nuclear power.

He wrote about horror stories in Hiroshima and stressed that the shock of what happened there may have inspired him to become a writer.

The driving force behind his work was also his son Hikari, who had brain damage. For many years the child could not communicate with his family, and when he came of age, he became known as a composer. Oe stated that much of his writing was created to give his son a chance to speak.

Several of his books have characters based on Hikari, with “Personal File” describing the difficulties of accepting a child.

Some of his most popular books are Silent Scream, Death by Water, Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness, Crush ‘Em Young, Kill ‘Em as Children, etc.

The author was born on the smallest of Japan’s main islands, Shikoku. He was the third son of seven children in the family. When his father died suddenly in 1944 at their home, he was raised by his mother, who bought him books such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

He studied French literature at the University of Tokyo and began publishing short stories while still a student. In 1958, he received the Akutagawa Prize for Young Writers.

Oe was nominated for the Order of Culture of Japan, but turned it down because it was to be given to him by the Emperor. “I do not recognize any power, any value above democracy,” he said.

In 2013, he organized an anti-nuclear rally in Tokyo, and in 2015 he joined thousands of people in protest against Abe’s decision to allow Japanese troops to fight abroad.

In 1960, he married Yukari, the sister of director Yuzo Itami.

According to Reuters