Jirō Nitta
Jirō Nitta is the pen name of popular Japanese historical novelist Hiroto Fujiwara. He was born in an area that is now part of the city of Suwa, Nagano Prefecture, Japan.Career
His uncle was the famed meteorologist Sakuhei Fujiwara and his son is mathematician Masahiko Fujiwara. After retiring from the Japan Meteorological Agency, he began writing professionally. Originally a meteorologist, he wrote mainly on themes connected with mountains.
At least three of his documentary novels have been translated into English. Death March on Mount Hakkōda is based on an incident in 1902 in the Hakkōda Mountains. Alaskan Tale is about the adventures of Frank Yasuda.
Phantom Immigrants deals with the Meiji era entrepreneur, Jinzaburo Oikawa from northern Miyagi prefecture, who went to Canada in 1896 to export salmon roe back to Japan. In 1906, he chartered the schooner Suianmaru to smuggle 82 fellow villagers out of Japan and into Canada. They were apprehended and arrested on Vancouver Island without passports but allowed to stay in Canada thanks to negotiations by Saburo Yoshie of the Japanese consulate in Vancouver.
His 1973 two-volume novel Kokou no Hito has been adapted into a manga series of the same title in which he is credited as writer.
