Ashihei Hino

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Ashihei Hino (火野 葦平, Hino Ashihei^?, 1907 January 25–1960 January 24) was born in Wakamatsu (now Wakamatsu ward, Kitakyushu) and in 1937 he received the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for one of his novels, Fun'nyōtan (糞尿譚, Tales of Excrement and Urine^?). At that moment he was a soldier for the Japanese army in China. He then got promoted to the information corps and published numerous works about the daily lives of Japanese soldiers. It is for his war novels that he became famous for during (and forgotten after) the war. His book Mugi to Heitai (麦と兵隊, Wheat and Soldiers^?) sold over a million copies. He took his own life aged 53. His birthhouse can be visited today.