Seiichi Morimura

{{Short description|Japanese novelist and author (1933–2023)}}

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| name = Seiichi Morimura

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| native_name = 森村 誠

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1933|01|02}}

| birth_place = Kumagaya

| death_date = {{death date and age|2023|07|24|1933|01|02}}

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| notable_works = {{ill|The Devil's Gluttony|ja|悪魔の飽食}}

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| awards = Edogawa Rampo Prize (1969)

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{{nihongo|Seiichi Morimura|森村 誠一|Morimura Seiichi|January 2, 1933 – July 24, 2023}} was a Japanese novelist and author, born in Kumagaya. He is best known for the controversial {{ill|The Devil's Gluttony|ja|悪魔の飽食}} (悪魔の飽食) (1981), which revealed the atrocities committed by Unit 731 of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).{{cite news |title=The Devil's Feast... |newspaper=Boston Globe |date=April 20, 1982 |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/666319181.html?dids=666319181:666319181&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Apr+20,+1982&author=&pub=Boston+Globe+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=%5B+The+Devil%27s+Feast...+%5D&pqatl=google |accessdate=December 7, 2010}}{{dead link|date=July 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}{{cite news |title=Japanese public reliving war |newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=March 15, 1982 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=oeYNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=lG0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4877,3430477&dq=seiichi-morimura&hl=en |accessdate=December 7, 2010}}

The Devil's Gluttony was serialized in the Shimbun Akahata (Japanese Communist Party's newspaper) in 1980, and subsequently published by Kobunsha (光文社), in two volumes in 1981 and 1982.{{cite book |title=Chemical and biological warfare: an annotated bibliography |last=Croddy |first=Eric |year=1997 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |page=18 |isbn=9780810832718 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tYJFT9O1ssgC&q=%22Seiichi+Morimura%22+Kobunsha&pg=PA18 |accessdate=December 7, 2010}} In the ensuing controversy, half of a photograph was discovered to be a fabrication, and Kobunsha subsequently withdrew the book. A second edition was then published by Kadokawa Shoten in 1983 with the controversial photograph removed.{{cite book |title=Textbook controversy and the production of public truth: Japanese education, nationalism, and Saburo Ienaga's court challenges |last=Nozaki |first=Yoshiko |year=2000 |publisher=University of Wisconsin--Madison |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a3POAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Seiichi+Morimura%22+Kadokawa |accessdate=December 7, 2010}}

Morimura won the Edogawa Rampo Prize in 1969 for Death in the High-Rise (高層の死角).{{cite book |title=Handbook of Japanese popular culture |last=Gid Powers |first=Richard |author2=Hidetoshi Katō |author3=Bruce Stronach |year=1989 |publisher=Greenwood Press |page=283 |isbn=9780313239229 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tuRwAAAAMAAJ&q=Rampo |accessdate=December 7, 2010}}

His short story "Devil of a Boy" appears translated into English in Ellery Queen's Japanese Golden Dozen: The Detective Story World in Japan anthology, which was edited by Ellery Queen.

Seiichi Morimura died of pneumonia on July 24, 2023, at the age of 90.[https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/obituaries/20230724-125003/ Award-Winning Novelist Seiichi Morimura Dies at 90]{{cite web | last=Sandomir | first=Richard | title=Seiichi Morimura, 90, Who Exposed Japanese Wartime Atrocities, Dies | website=The New York Times | date=2023-08-03 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/03/world/asia/seiichi-morimura-dead.html | access-date=2025-06-08}}