“Art for Art’s Sake” of Nakajima Atsushi

Nakajima Atsushi was a writer under the Japan-China war, but he did not write any works about the war. This meant that Nakajima Atsushi took an attitude which was named “Artistic Resistance”. However, this is an ambiguous expression. It is necessary to analyze his recognition of “Literature” and “War”. This article seeks his outlook on literature through an analysis of his novels, essays, letters and diary. Nakajima Atsushi was not against the war, but he distinguished between “Politics” and “Literature”, and did not want literature to be a picture of war. He criticized the practical use of literature by politics. Therefore, we can conclude that Nakajima Atsushi insisted upon the supremacy of “Art” for the sake of maintaining the purity of literature during the Japan- China war