Japanese Modern Literature and the war hero This paper discusses the process of deification of KyuGunsin found in Aikoku-Shisyu and Gunsin-Ni-Tsuzuke. Aikoku-Shisyu is a collection of patriotic poems read aloud on radio after the outbreak of the World War II. Miyoshi Tatsuji’s work, “The names of nine pearls”, is a poem that praises the KyuGunsin and compares them to pearls based on Japanese lyrical tradition. Gunsin-Ni-Tsuzuke was published to present KyuGunsin as heroes and puts emphasis on inheriting their patriotism.