| Зүйлийн тодорхойлолт: | Few figures in postwar Japanese history have been as controversial as Sasakawa Ryoichi (1899-1995). His critics focus on his prewar activity as an ultra-nationalist with shady business dealings on the Asian continent and his postwar career as a political fixer with alleged gangster connections, reliant on motorboat gambling profits to build an empire of self-serving philanthropy. Sasakawa's equally vociferous partisans, meanwhile, present him as a man who through hard work, remarkable energy, and abiding principle managed to rise above the limitations of his place and time to become a committed internationalist and a "warrior for peace," fully deserving of the Nobel Prize. This volume allows Sasakawa to speak for himself at a pivotal midpoint in his very long life: when he was incarcerated in Sugamo Prison as a suspected Class A war criminal. He would be released more than three years later, unindicted, having kept a meticulous record of his thoughts and experiences as a prisoner, both in a daily diary for the first year and through numerous letters to friends and relatives, here translated into English for the first time. |
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