Akita Ujaku

January 30, 1883 (age 79)

Aomori Prefecture, Japan

Wrote plays and participated in a new drama movement together with Hogetsu Shimamura and Takamaru Sasaki. In 1913 he learnt Esperanto from Vasili Eroshenko, as a result of a chance meeting, and soon became a leader of the proletarian Esperanto movement, and a member of the "La Semanto" group in 1921. He made a tour of inspection of the Soviet Union in 1927. Upon returning to Japan he became the head of the International Cultural Research Institute and the Proletarian Science Council. In January 1931 he helped found the national organization, Japana Prolet-Esperantista Union (JPEU), with about 150 members, and with Akita as president. He translated Eroshenko's writings into Japanese, and wrote a textbook on Esperanto. An advocate of Esperanto, he wrote many plays, novels and essays. He was director of the Dramatic Arts School (Butai Geijutsu Gakuin). After the war he established a performing arts school and was active in other organizations, such as the New Japan Literary Society (Shin Nihon Bungakukai) and established the Japan Militant Atheists' Alliance (Nihon Sentokteki Mushinronsha Domei).