Asakawa Kan’ichi: Apprehension In His Last Days

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 Asakawa Kan’ichi (1873 –1948) was a Professor of History at Yale, peace advocate, and a curator at Yale Library. He was born in Japan as the son of a samurai, however, he spent most of his time in America.


Fig. Asakawa.

Depicted person: Kan'ichi Asakawa – Japanese historian

Date  1940

Source https://web.archive.org/web/20120220021809/http://www.city.nihonmatsu.lg.jp/history/jinbutu/hito3.html

Author        Unknown author

This is in the public domain.

When the war ended, he was 73 years old. His wife Miriam had gone long time ago. They had no children. His hometown Nihontasu is more than 10000 km away from New Haven. (see Fig. Nihonmatsu-New haven)


Fig. Nihonmatsu-New Haven

Source: Google Earth modified by the author

In 1948, the year he passed away, he wrote to his friend Takeuchi who was a Nihonmatsu Highschool as well as Waseda classmate [1] (translation by the author):



My interpretation of he being “so busy” is that he “needed to be so busy” to overcome his anxiety. It is not difficult to feel his disappointment about Japan and anxiety of being alone. He continues:

[1] Asakawa, K., “Letters of Dr. Kan’ichi Asakawa”, Waseda University Press, 1990

[2] Togo Shigenori (1882 – 1950). Foreign Minister of Tojo cabinet. A-class war criminal. Died in prison.

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