The Human Condition (Gomikawa novel)

The Human Condition (人間の條件, Ningen no jōken) is a six-part novel written by Junpei Gomikawa. It was first published in Japan in 1958. The novel was an immediate bestseller and sold 2.4 million copies within its first three years after being published.^[1]

The novel is about the experience of the protagonist during World War II and is partly autobiographical.^[1][2] The novel is critical of Japan's role in the war. According to Naoko Shimazu, the novel is unique in that it portrays Japan as the aggressor during the war, and how the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese people themselves were victimized by those actions. Shimazu said that the novel was important for "purify[ing] the Japanese from their polluted past, by expressing their deeply held anger".^[1]

Right-wing critics in Japan criticized the novel's "sentimental humanism".^[3]