Bio

Kalau Almony is a Japanese-English literary translator based in Kawasaki, Japan. His translations include the novels The Kingdom and Cult X by Fuminori Nakamura (Soho Press), Astral Season, Beastly Season by Tahi Saihate (Honford Star), and the Akutagawa Prize-winning Cannibals by Shinya Tanaka (Honford Star). Born and raised in Kailua, Hawaiʻi, he completed his BA in Comparative Literature at Brown University and MA in East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Project Description

To support the translation of the novel The Banshu Plain from Japanese by Yuriko Miyamoto. Set in 1945 during the early months of post-war Japan, The Banshu Plain is a work of autobiographical fiction that follows the protagonist Hiroko as she travels from Fukushima to Yamaguchi to help search for her missing brother-in-law who had been working in Hiroshima. Along the way she takes in the destruction left by American bombings, Japanese government oppression, the decimated public transit system, and fellow travelers ranging from now jobless military officials to Korean laborers trying to return to their newly freed homeland. Initially serialized in 1946-47, The Banshu Plain received the Mainichi Publishing Cultural Award after its publication in book format. Miyamoto (1899-1951) was involved in proletarian and women's liberation movements and was repeatedly imprisoned for her political views. Despite her short life, she was a prolific writer who had a lasting impact on Japanese literature