James Graham Ballard (born 15 November, 1930) was a British novelist and short story writer who was born and raised in the Shanghai International Settlement. After the attack on Pearl Harbor the International Settlement was occupied by the Japanese. In early spring 1943 they began interning Allied civilians, and Ballard was sent to the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center with his parents and younger sister. He spent the remainder of World War II in the internment camp. His experiences during that time formed the basis of his novel Empire of the Sun, which was later turned into a movie by Steven Spielberg starring 13-year-old Christian Bale, as well as John Malkovich and Miranda Richardson.
J G Ballard died on April 19 2009, aged 78 after a lengthy battle with cancer.
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