Ōe began publishing stories in 1957, while still a student, strongly influenced by contemporary writing in France and the United States. His first work to be published was "Lavish are the Dead", a short story set in Tokyo during the American occupation, which appeared in
Bungakukai literary magazine. His early works were set in his own university milieu. In 1958, his short story "Shiiku" (飼育) was awarded the prestigious
Akutagawa Prize. The first two characteristics are present in these early stories, while the latter two features come to the fore in the 'idiot boy' stories which appeared after the birth of his son Hikari. Between 1958 and 1961 Ōe published a series of works incorporating sexual metaphors for the occupation of Japan. He summarised the common theme of these stories as "the relationship of a foreigner as the big power [Z], a Japanese who is more or less placed in a humiliating position [X], and, sandwiched between the two, the third party [Y] (sometimes a prostitute who caters only to foreigners or an interpreter)". In each of these works, the Japanese X is inactive, failing to take the initiative to resolve the situation and showing no psychological or spiritual development. Yamaguchi had admirers among the extreme right wing who were angered by
The Death of a Political Youth and both Ōe and the magazine received
death threats day and night for weeks. The magazine soon apologized to offended readers, but Ōe did not, Ōe's next phase moved away from sexual content, shifting this time toward the violent fringes of society. The works which he published between 1961 and 1964 are influenced by
existentialism and
picaresque literature, populated with more or less criminal rogues and
anti-heroes whose position on the fringes of society allows them to make pointed criticisms of it.
Influence of Hikari Ōe credited
his son Hikari for influencing his literary career. Ōe tried to give his son a "voice" through his writing. Several of Ōe's books feature a character based on his son. In Ōe's 1964 book,
A Personal Matter, the writer describes the psychological trauma involved in accepting his brain-damaged son into his life.
2006 to 2008 In 2005, two retired Japanese military officers sued Ōe for
libel for his 1970 book of essays,
Okinawa Notes, in which he had written that members of the Japanese military had coerced masses of Okinawan civilians into committing suicide during the
Allied invasion of the island in 1945. In March 2008, the
Osaka District Court dismissed all charges against Ōe. In this ruling, Judge Toshimasa Fukami stated, "The military was deeply involved in the
mass suicides". In a news conference following the trial, Ōe said, "The judge accurately read my writing." Ōe did not write much during the nearly two years (2006–2008) of his libel case. He began writing a new novel, which
The New York Times reported would feature a character "based on his father," a staunch supporter of the imperial system who drowned in a flood during World War II.
Death by Water was published in 2009.
2013 Bannen Yoshikishu, his final novel, is the sixth in a series with the main character of Kogito Choko, who can be considered Ōe's literary alter ego. The novel is also in a sense a culmination of the I-novels that Ōe continued to write since his son was born developmentally disabled in 1963. In the novel, Choko loses interest in the novel he had been writing when the
Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami struck the
Tohoku region on 11 March 2011. Instead, he begins writing about an age of catastrophe, as well as about the fact that he himself was approaching his late 70s. == Activism ==