周明 大川 (1886 - 1957)

Born 6 Dec 1886 in 日本山形県酒田市

Died 24 Dec 1957 at age 71 in 日本東京都

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Biography

周明 大川 is Notable.

Shūmei Ōkawa was a Japanese nationalist, Pan-Asian author, and indicted war criminal.

Being a supporter of Pan-Asianism, Ōkawa believed that the peoples of Asia should unite together as one. He believed that Japan should separate themselves from the western world to help resolve their problems, as they were a stronger nation when they were independent from the West.

His most well known work, Japan and the Way of the Japanese ("Nihon oyobi Nihonjin no michi"), was published in 1926, and was so popular that it was reprinted 46 times by the end of World War II.

After World War II, Ōkawa was prosecuted as a class-A war criminal by the Allies, the only civilian individual out of the 28 people indicted as such. This was largely due to his Pan-Asianistic stance, which was interpreted to be advocacy for a war between Japan and the West.

During the trial, Ōkawa behaved erratically, wearing pajamas to his trial and behaving inappropriately for the situation. Due to this, Ōkawa was declared unfit to stand trial.

He was transferred from the jail to a US Army hospital, where he was diagnosed with mentally instability caused by syphilis. He was transferred Tokyo Metropolitan Matsuzawa Hospital, a famous mental hospital, where he stayed until his release in 1948.

Sources

See also:

• Wikipedia: Shūmei Ōkawa
• Wikidata: Item Q385236, en:Wikipedia