 A further and more controversial campaign attempted to ban men with venereal disease from marrying.This unsuccessful campaign remains a point of controversy surrounding Hiratsuka’s career in that it saw her aligned herself with the eugenics movement, asserting that the spread of V.D.was having a detrimental effect on the Japanese “race.”

The next couple of decades saw Hiratsuka withdraw somewhat from the public eye, saddled with debts and her lover beset with health problems, although she would continue to write and lecture.