However, he quit in 1935 to devote his attentions to the direct the movie Dancing Girl of the Peninsula (Hanto no Maihime), starring Choi Seung-hee at the new Shinkō Kinema.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he maintained a correspondence with Mu Shiying, a Chinese writer who hoped that cultural exchange would help bring peace to Asia.

Kon hid in the mountains of Luzon for five months with several narrow escapes from death in combat while reporting on the fleeing Imperial Japanese Army.

He escaped the Philippines on a jury-rigged Type 100 Command Reconnaissance Aircraft to Taiwan, and was flying in a DC-3 from Taipei to Fukuoka when word came of the surrender of Japan.

In 1949, Kon published Sanchu Horo ("Wandering in the Mountains"), a story based on his wartime experiences in the Philippines, which marked the start of his literary career.

In June 1968, Prime Minister Eisaku Satō asked Kon to accept the newly created position of Director of the Agency for Cultural Affairs.