Sasakwa Ryoichi A Study

'Sasakawa Ryoichi was a remarkable man. Born in Kansai in the late years of Japan's great Meiji Era, his long life'he died in 1995 at the age of 96?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 for three years in 1935 for extortion in an action instigated by political enemies, he was released after acquittal by an appeals court'in time to be elected as an independent candidate for 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 extra-ordinary 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? ?as a long-time student of things Japanese, I find Sato's biography of this remarkable man makes a valuable postscript to the history of Japan in the 20th Century.' ?from the Preface by Frank GibneySato, Seizaburo is the author of 'Sasakwa Ryoichi A Study', published 0008 under ISBN 9781891936968 and ISBN 1891936964.