Hiroaki Sato - The Japan Times

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

Hiroaki Sato

Meta

Hiroaki Sato

A Japan Times columnist since 2000, Hiroaki Sato has won prizes for his translation of poetry (PEN American Center, Japan-US Friendship Commission). A paperback edition of his "Legends of the Samurai" has recently appeared. He is now working on a second collection of samurai tales with their origins.

For Hiroaki Sato's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

COMMENTARY / World / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Jun 24, 2016

Guns make the U.S. less fair and less tolerant

The numbers make it clear: America has a gun problem.

COMMENTARY / World / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Jun 3, 2016

Don't exterminate the zebra mussels or ruffes

'Invasive' species aren't necessarily a bad thing.

COMMENTARY / World / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

May 4, 2016

The complexities of 'they' versus 'xe/him/xir'

The long search to find a way to refer to people in English without relying on gender won't be ending anytime soon.

COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Mar 31, 2016

'I became temporarily blind, deaf and paralyzed'

Michi Kobi's acting career reflected the way the U.S.-Japanese relations changed over the years.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Books

Mar 26, 2016

'Mapping Courtship and Kinship in Classical Japan' explores peeping tomism and aristocratic polygamy

Peeping tomism plays a pivotal role in the elegant world of Murasaki Shikibu's "The Tale of Genji," Doris Bargen argues in her new book, "Mapping Courtship and Kinship in Classical Japanese." This may surprise readers as much as the argument in her 1997 monograph, "A Woman's Weapon." In that erudite book, she refuted the traditional understanding of mononoke ("spirit possession") in Shikibu's grand romance. Mononoke is the spirit central to such haunting noh plays as "Aoi no Ue."

COMMENTARY / Japan

Feb 26, 2016

Undergoing the third degree in prewar Japan

A New Zealander who was taken into custody by prewar Japanese police provides a haunting account of jailhouse torture.

Japan Times

COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Jan 29, 2016

American legal principles and the Magna Carta

Henry Mittwer was a man of Japanese and American descent who stood up to the U.S. internment during World War II but in the end bore no rancor for that nation.

COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Dec 28, 2015

'Allegiance' and what it meant

The road to immigration and assimilation in America has been at times tortuous, as shown by the U.S.' treatment of Japanese nationals and Japanese-Americans during World War II.

COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Dec 4, 2015

Stimson's love of Kyoto saved it from A-bomb

The glories of Kyoto impressed Henry Stimson, and the decisions he made decades later as the U.S. secretary of war.

COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Oct 28, 2015

Who saved Kyoto from the atomic hellfire?

Many Americans have been given credit for sparing Kyoto from bombings, both conventional and atomic, during World War II, but it turns out that an old secretary of war was responsible.

COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Oct 1, 2015

Looking back at 70 years before the war's end

Looking back 70 years before Japan's surrender in World War II shows how far the nation has come.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Aug 30, 2015

A Korean woman recalls the tragedy of two wars

Seventy years have passed since the end of World War II, but memories of it and the Korean War that followed remain vivid in the mind of a 90-year-old Korean woman.

COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Jul 30, 2015

Colonial management was never a 'charity'

While Japan's rule over Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula may have brought some benefits, colonization is never altruistic.

Japan Times

COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Jun 29, 2015

Japan's colonial rule of Korea was 'moderate'

Japan's colonial policies in Korea were moderate in comparison with the way some European countries treated their colonies.

COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

May 28, 2015

President Park Geun-hye's Japan stance in perspective

Where does South Korean President Geun-hye Park's open antipathy toward Japan come from?

COMMENTARY / World / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Apr 29, 2015

Anti-abolitionist sentiments are alive and well

Why haven't black civil rights leaders demanded that the American national anthem be changed?

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 30, 2015

Taiwanese writer Chou Chin-bo as war victim

Recently I was asked to translate into English a short story that the Taiwanese writer Chou Chin-bo wrote in Japanese back in 1941. I was happy with this request. I was born in Taipei in 1942, but ever since my family was forced out of the island upon Japan's defeat in the war, in 1945, I have never really had anything to do with Taiwan.

COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Feb 27, 2015

Yamashita trial as a monument to our humanity

Many U.S. commentators' assumption that Japan is beyond redemption because it is a 'war-crime nation' appears to have taken off at the trial of Tomoyuki Yamashita, who was convicted after the Pacific War in Manila for failure to exert 'command responsibility' over every action of his troops.

COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Jan 26, 2015

Sex slave wrangling misses human picture

When a dispute arises between the South Korea and Japan, such as the 'comfort women' controversy, the South Koreans who most fiercely criticize Japan are 'liberals' while the Japanese who criticize South Korea are 'conservative rightists.'

COMMENTARY / World / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Dec 29, 2014

'Comfort women' politics in Japan, Korea, U.S.

Perhaps the wartime existence of 'comfort women' owes its notoriety in recent years to Japan's retroactive bad conscience, South Korean politics and the unwarranted U.S. propensity to be a moral scold.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.

Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports