Toshio Shimao

In 1944 he entered the military and was sent to Japan's southern Amami Islands as an officer for a naval suicide attack (kamikaze) squadron in World War II.

His wartime experiences inspired his earliest works, including Shima no hate (1946) and Shutsukotō-ki (A Tale of Leaving a Lonely Island, 1949), as well as several later works including Shuppatsu wa tsui ni otozurezu (1962) and Gyoraitei gakusei (Student on the Torpedo Boat, 1985).

[2] A second major theme in his work is that of madness in women, with notable examples in Ware fukaki fuchi yori (1954) and Shi no toge (The Sting of Death, 1960).

He then chose to live with her at the mental hospital, which was seen as a highly unusual action yet praised by Yutaka Haniya's wife as showing "extraordinarily deep love."

Although Shimao seems to have felt somewhat to blame for his wife's illness due to his past affairs and what he describes as his own selfishness.