World-renowned Japanese writer Yukio Mishima commits suicide
after failing to win public support for his often extreme
political beliefs. Born in 1925, Mishima was obsessed with what
he saw as the spiritual barrenness of modern life. He preferred
prewar Japan, with its austere patriotism and traditional
values, to the materialistic, westernized nation that arose
after 1945. In this spirit, he founded the "Shield Society," a
controversial private army made up of about 100 students that
was to defend the emperor in the event of a leftist uprising. On
November 25, Mishima delivered to his publisher the last
installment of The Sea of Fertility, his four-volume epic on
Japanese life in the 20th century that is regarded as his
greatest work. He then went with several followers to a military
building in Tokyo and seized control of a general's office.
There, from a balcony, he gave a brief speech to about 1,000
assembled servicemen, in which he urged them to overthrow
Japan's constitution, which forbids Japanese rear