Sasakawa Ryoichi (1899-1995) was a remarkable man. Born in Kansai in the late years of Japan's great Meiji Era. His long life spanned almost an entire century of tumultuous change. Any appraisal of his career must take into account the drastic, almost seismic transformations that befell Japan and the entire world within that time...
Jailed with other Party members in 1935 for extortion (an action instigated by political enemies), he was acquitted by an appeals court in 1938, just in time to be elected to the Lower House of the Diet. There he served throughout the war period. A firm if highly critical supporter of Japan's World War II war effort, he voluntarily entered Sugamo prison in 1945 as a suspected war criminal under the American Occupation; his book Sugamo Diary, published after his release, was an impassioned defense of Japan's wartime leaders...
Looking back from a foreigner's perspective at the biography of Sasakawa Ryoichi, his lifetime transition from a right-wing pre-war nationalist to a world-class philanthropist seems like an extraordinary achievement in human chemistry. But for Sasakawa, a man who lived with his times, it seemed very natural.
Gifted with a strong will and an independent social conscience all his own, he followed his instincts to make the best of situations as they changed. A man of strong convictions, and never loath to express them, he was a lightning rod of controversy during the leftist-rightist arguments of the post-war period. Yet in a way, his political evolution tells the story of his century and it highlights the changing and expanding role of his country, from beleaguered, nervous island country to peaceful economic super-power...
Sato Seizaburo was born in Tokyo in 1932. After receiving degrees in Literature and Law from Tokyo University, he taught in the Faculty of Law at Rikko University and then at his alma mater. He also taught at Keio and Saitama universities and was a vice rector at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies. He was chief researcher at the World Peace Research Institute and served as adviser to prime ministers Ohira Masayoshi and Nakasone Yasuhiro. His published works include
Shi no choyaku wo koete: Seiyo no Shogeki to Nihon (The impact of the West on Japan) and
Sasakawa Ryoichi kenkyu: ijigen kara no shisha (A study of Sasakawa Ryoichi). Professor Sato died in 1999.
Hara Fujiko holds a master's degree in the history of international relations from Sophia University in Tokyo. Raised in both Japanese and British cultures, she has devoted her life to international understanding. She has interpreted for many of the world's leaders and heads an interpreting and translation company, Diplomatt, Inc. Among her published works is a translation of the memoirs of her statesman grandfather, Ozaki Yukio.
