author
Tadayoshi Sakurai
1879–1965
Remembered for a vivid firsthand account of the Russo-Japanese War, this Japanese army officer turned battlefield experience into writing that reached readers far beyond Japan. His best-known book, Human Bullets, helped introduce his voice to an English-speaking audience in the early 20th century.
1 Audiobook
Human Bullets: A Soldier's Story of Port Arthur
by Tadayoshi Sakurai
About the author
Born in 1879, Tadayoshi Sakurai was a Japanese army officer and writer. He served in the Russo-Japanese War, and his experiences there became the basis for the work he is most associated with, Human Bullets—published in English as Soldier's Story of Port Arthur—a dramatic account of front-line combat that drew international attention.
Sakurai's career was not limited to writing. Japanese reference sources describe him as a professional soldier who rose to the rank of major general, and also note his work as an author. That combination of military service and literary activity shaped the direct, eyewitness quality of his best-known books.
He died in 1965, but his name still appears in library catalogs, historical collections, and studies of war writing. For listeners interested in memoir, military history, or early modern Japanese literature, his work offers a rare view from someone who wrote out of lived experience rather than distance.