Confessions of a Mask Mishima rejected conventional morality and the precept that literature should serve a redeeming social purpose. Even so it is difficul t for any of the Japanese to ignore the deep Confucian indoctrination their society exerts.

On the surface the theme of Confessions of a Mask (1949), a somewhat autobiographical novel, is self-centered and rebellious. Underneath that surface there is a note of censure of the protagonist for his inability to marry and raise a family as his parents expect and, above all, for the lies that permitted him to dodge the draft and his opportunity to die for his country.

Before he died Mishima himself would, however tardily, marry, father a family, and die shouting the name of the Emperor.

Confessions of a Mask is written in first person presenting the childhood and adolescence of a man with a history like the author's...