[2] Led by the prominent proletarian writers Korehito Kurahara, Yuriko Miyamoto, and Shigeharu Nakano, the new association's 173 founding members also included Ujaku Akita, Kan Eguchi, Seikichi Fujimori, Tsurujirō Kubokawa, Sunao Tokunaga, and Shigeji Tsuboi.
"[4] Miyamoto's appeal proved popular, and several other writers joined the organization over the next few years, including Kōbō Abe, Kiyoteru Hanada, Ichirō Hariu, Shūgo Honda, and Hiroshi Noma.
In the immediate aftermath of the war, almost all of these writers and critics had joined or rejoined the Japan Communist Party (JCP), which they viewed as the only group in Japanese society to have resisted wartime militarism.
Many members of the Association participated in the massive 1960 Anpo protests against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty and were disappointed with what they perceived to be the Communist Party's overly passive stance.
Thereafter, the Association maintained a stance harshly critical of the JCP, although a small group of dissenters still loyal to the party splintered off to found a competing "Japanese Democratic Literature Alliance" (Nihon minshu shugi bungaku dōmei) in 1965.