Kiyoshi Kiyosawa

Kiyoshi Kiyosawa (清沢 洌 Kiyosawa Kiyoshi, 8 February 1890 – 21 May 1945) was a Japanese journalist and writer who is most well-known for his wartime diary that was written between 1942 and 1945, but was first published under the name of after the war, in 1948, where it caused a sensation. It was first published in the English-speaking world as A Diary of Darkness: The Wartime Diary of Kiyosawa Kiyoshi in 1999. He advocated for relinquishing Japan's colonial claims and focusing on being a trade nation, a position then known as "Little Japanism."

In the 1930s, he switched to become a freelance writer. Kiyosawa was critical of Japanese newspapers in the militaristic era because they reinforced the hysteria of the Japanese public to chase profit and increase readership rather than publishing critical viewpoints. The Japanese education system was also a common theme in his writings for the same reason, that is, they only promote one view and did not permit opposing views. He also criticised the education system for excessive focus on technical subjects conducive to the military rather than subjects such as the humanities. In 1943, Kiyosawa founded the Japanese Institute for Diplomatic History (日本外交史研究所) with future prime minister Hitoshi Ashida.

Throughout his life, he was influenced by some contemporary Japanese Christians, such as those in the non-church movement, although he never became a Christian himself.