[citation needed] Tōge started composing poems in the second year of middle school.
[citation needed] Tōge was 28 in Midori-machi, 3 km (1.9 mi) from the hypocenter of the bomb dropped by the Americans on Hiroshima to end World War II in 1945.
Because of this activism, he gained a higher profile than two other prominent poets who also wrote about the bomb, Hara Tamiki and Ōta Yōko.
[2] In 1946, he submitted an essay entitled "Hiroshima in 1965", containing ideas for the revival of the city, to a competition held by Chugoku Shimbun newspaper, winning first prize.
[3] His work includes references to the political environment of the time, especially of Japan occupied by the Allied Forces, and he expresses anger at the United States, while not mentioning the country by name.
[citation needed] In December 1942, he was baptized into the Catholic Church, and did not denounce religion after joining the Communist Party.
[citation needed] During his illness and hospitalisation, his supporters raised funds to pay the fees for his medical expenses.
[4] Midnight in Broad Daylight (2016), by American historian Pamela Rotner Sakamoto, takes its title from a poem by Tōge.