[JAPAN] Tribute to Sir. Donald L. Keene, Ph.D.

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• published: 07 Jan 2017
• views: 135

This video is dedicated to Sir. Donald Lawrence Keene, Ph.D., a former professor of Japanese Literature at Columbia University in the City of New York and a well-known novelist. Sir. Keene was born in the United States of America but soon after the 2011 Tohoku earthquakes and tsuname, he retired from Columbia to move to Japan permanently to help Japanese people. He became a citizen of Japan in 2011 and obtained a Japanese name as "Kin Do.na.ru.do" (in Japan, a Sir name comes first). Before becoming "Sir. Keene," Donald as a young man obtained his Bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 1942. He then studied the Japanese language at the U.S. Navy Japanese Language School in Boulder, Colorado and in Berkeley, CA. Donald served as an intelligence officer in the Pacific region during World War II. During WW II, he wrote that he walked through the aftermath of the battlefields in the Pacific Islands. The Imperial Japanese soldiers were never captured to become P.O.W.s during the war; the ones captured as "Japanese" were all Koreans for the Korean Peninsula was annexed to the Imperial Japan from 1910~1945. The Japanese, both soldiers and civilians, chose to kill themselves than captured by the enemy and enslaved. When the belongings of dead Imperial Japanese soldiers were gathered and checked by Donald's team for information gathering, Donald was astonished. There were beautifully written poems called, "Ha.i.ku," describing the soldiers' feelings at the time in the battle field. At first Donald and the team were expecting to find something about their "military information" but there were none to be found from those dead soldiers' memo-notes. Indeed the Imperial Japanese soldiers were almost all highly skilled poets. Donald and the team began wondering who their enemy really were, having such sophistication and high moral standard. Upon Donald's discharge from the U.S. Navy, he returned to Columbia University where he earned a Master's degree in Japanese Literature in 1947. He was determined to find out what Japanese people are all about. So, his research continued on. After Columbia, Donald studied for a year at Harvard University and then to Cambridge University in England where he earned a second Master's degree and became a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge from 1948–1954, and a University Lecturer from 1949–1955. In the interim, in 1953, he also studied at Kyoto University in Japan, earning his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1949. Donald credits Prof. Ryūsaku Tsunoda as a mentor during this period. WW II in the Pacific to Donald was a life changing experience. The Japanese Imperial soldiers were poets; as a matter fact, they were well-educated and highly sophisticated... which image was completely different from how they were taught by the U.S. gov't through their propaganda. This discrepancy shocked young Donald tremendously. In 1945, after WW II, Donald saw the "live" Japanese people in Japan for the first time. They were kind and polite people. The country was bombed by the U.S. to the point of complete ruin and yet they were still quite civilized to him; this also shocked him. When he traveled within Japan and saw what remained of Japan... especially a few cities weren't bombed such as Kyoto or Hagi in Yamaguchi-prefecture, he was heart-broken because they were so beautiful. Japan was and still is indeed one of the "world treasures." Since then, he has decided to dedicate his life to preserve this "world treasure" called Japan. Please enjoy the video and give a big thumbs up; many thanks indeed for watching. My videos are sort of related to each other, so enjoy others as well. Peace out... to all the beautiful souls out there in the world... ; D

[JAPAN] Tribute to Sir. Donald L. Keene, Ph.D.

• Report rights infringement
• published: 07 Jan 2017
• views: 135

This video is dedicated to Sir. Donald Lawrence Keene, Ph.D., a former professor of Japanese Literature at Columbia University in the City of New York and a well-known novelist. Sir. Keene was born in the United States of America but soon after the 2011 Tohoku earthquakes and tsuname, he retired from Columbia to move to Japan permanently to help Japanese people. He became a citizen of Japan in 2011 and obtained a Japanese name as "Kin Do.na.ru.do" (in Japan, a Sir name comes first). Before becoming "Sir. Keene," Donald as a young man obtained his Bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 1942. He then studied the Japanese language at the U.S. Navy Japanese Language School in Boulder, Colorado and in Berkeley, CA. Donald served as an intelligence officer in the Pacific region during World War II. During WW II, he wrote that he walked through the aftermath of the battlefields in the Pacific Islands. The Imperial Japanese soldiers were never captured to become P.O.W.s during the war; the ones captured as "Japanese" were all Koreans for the Korean Peninsula was annexed to the Imperial Japan from 1910~1945. The Japanese, both soldiers and civilians, chose to kill themselves than captured by the enemy and enslaved. When the belongings of dead Imperial Japanese soldiers were gathered and checked by Donald's team for information gathering, Donald was astonished. There were beautifully written poems called, "Ha.i.ku," describing the soldiers' feelings at the time in the battle field. At first Donald and the team were expecting to find something about their "military information" but there were none to be found from those dead soldiers' memo-notes. Indeed the Imperial Japanese soldiers were almost all highly skilled poets. Donald and the team began wondering who their enemy really were, having such sophistication and high moral standard. Upon Donald's discharge from the U.S. Navy, he returned to Columbia University where he earned a Master's degree in Japanese Literature in 1947. He was determined to find out what Japanese people are all about. So, his research continued on. After Columbia, Donald studied for a year at Harvard University and then to Cambridge University in England where he earned a second Master's degree and became a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge from 1948–1954, and a University Lecturer from 1949–1955. In the interim, in 1953, he also studied at Kyoto University in Japan, earning his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1949. Donald credits Prof. Ryūsaku Tsunoda as a mentor during this period. WW II in the Pacific to Donald was a life changing experience. The Japanese Imperial soldiers were poets; as a matter fact, they were well-educated and highly sophisticated... which image was completely different from how they were taught by the U.S. gov't through their propaganda. This discrepancy shocked young Donald tremendously. In 1945, after WW II, Donald saw the "live" Japanese people in Japan for the first time. They were kind and polite people. The country was bombed by the U.S. to the point of complete ruin and yet they were still quite civilized to him; this also shocked him. When he traveled within Japan and saw what remained of Japan... especially a few cities weren't bombed such as Kyoto or Hagi in Yamaguchi-prefecture, he was heart-broken because they were so beautiful. Japan was and still is indeed one of the "world treasures." Since then, he has decided to dedicate his life to preserve this "world treasure" called Japan. Please enjoy the video and give a big thumbs up; many thanks indeed for watching. My videos are sort of related to each other, so enjoy others as well. Peace out... to all the beautiful souls out there in the world... ; D