Shuichi Kato

Background

Kato, Shuichi was born on September 19, 1919 in Tokyo. Son of Shin'ichi and Oriko (Masuda) Kato.

Education

Doctor of Medicine, Tokyo University Medical School.

Career

Born in Tokyo, Katō trained as a medical doctor at the University of Tokyo during World World War II, specializing in haematology. The experience of living under Japan’s fascist government and American bombing of Tokyo would shape a lifelong opposition to war, especially nuclear arms, and imperialism. lieutenant was also in this period that began to write.

In the immediate postwar period, Katō joined a Japanese-American research team to assess the effects of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

He subsequently travelled to Paris for a research fellowship at the Pasteur Institute. When he returned to Japan, he turned to writing full-time.

After participating in a 1958 conference of writers from Asia and Africa, he gave up practicing medicine entirely. Fluent in French, German, and English, while being deeply focused on Japanese culture and classical Chinese literature, Katō gained a reputation for examining Japan through both domestic and foreign perspectives.

He served as lecturer at Yale University, professor at the Free University of Berlin and the University of British Columbia, guest professor at Ritsumeikan University (Department of International Relations), and curator of the Kyoto Museum for World Peace.

From 1980 until his death, he wrote a widely read column in the evening culture pages of the Asahi Shimbun in which he discussed society, culture, and international relations from a literate and resolutely leftist perspective.

Achievements

• Shuichi Kato has been listed as a notable educator, writer by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A History of Japanese Literature: Vol.3: the Modern Years (v. 3)

    (A new simplified edition translated by Don Sanderson. The...)

  • Form Style Tradition : reflections on Japanese Art and Society
  • Form, Style, Tradition: Reflections on Japanese Art and Society (English and Japanese Edition)
  • Form, Style, Tradition: Reflections on Japanese Art and Society

Views

In 2004, he formed a group with philosopher Shunsuke Tsurumi and novelist Kenzaburō Ōe to defend the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan.

Connections

Married Midori Yajima. Children: Kiriko, Sonja.

Father:

Shin'ichi Kato

Mother:

Oriko (Masuda) Kato

Spouse:

Midori Yajima

child:

Sonja Kato

child:

Kiriko Kato