About the work
My Friend Hitler is a three-act drama by Yukio Mishima, published by Shinchōsha on 5 December 1968 and first staged on 18 January 1969 at Kinokuniya Hall in Tokyo. Mishima wrote it alongside his novel Life for Sale, drawing on Alan Bullock's Hitler biography and his fascination with the 1934 Röhm purge.
Plot
In the days before the Night of the Long Knives, Adolf Hitler, his old comrade Ernst Röhm, the industrialist Gustav Krupp and party rival Gregor Strasser debate friendship, power and beauty. By the end, Hitler has both Röhm and Strasser killed, sealing his final break with the SA.
Cultural significance
Mishima insisted the play was about friendship and betrayal rather than politics, though his remark that Hitler possessed "political genius" kept the debate alive. It has been staged internationally far less often than Madame de Sade; in 2000 Bavarian Radio produced a German-language radio adaptation directed by Michael Farin.