THE EDUCATION OF

SHUNSUKE TSURUMI

Shunsuke Tsurumi (b. 1922) is a prolific writer,

philosopher and citizen activist with an
interesting Harvard connection. He was born and
raised in Tokyo, the son of a prominent politician.
As a youth he was expelled from three different
schools, and attempted suicide more than once.
His father sent him to America in 1938, as a last
resort. Tsurumi entered Harvard, where he
studied philosophy, in 1939.
He brought with him to America a small personal
library. He loved Russian literature. Peter
Kropotkins guide to Russian literature led him to
Turgenev, Pushkin, and others. He read Mikhail
Lermontovs A Hero of Our Times twice. Like
many contemporary Japanese he loved Tolstoy
and Dostoevsky. On November 11, 1939 he
finished reading Jules Renards Journal. He read
Nietzsche and Kierkegaard with enthusiasm.
Tsurumis excitement is apparent in his energetic
red and blue pencil markings.
Things changed with the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor, and the outbreak of war. The Harvard
Crimson interviewed Tsurumi and two other
Japanese students, and reported Tsurumi to have
expected a war, and adopted the philosophic
attitude about his fate.
In March 1942 he was arrested by the FBI for self-
identifying as an anarchist. He completed his
honors thesis on the pragmatism of William
James while an inmate in the Charles Street Jail in
Boston. Harvard granted him a degree, and he
left for Japan in June 1942, in a prisoner
exchange. His books, which were seized by the
FBI, eventually found their way into Harvard-
Yenching Library.
Tsurumi, who has never returned to the United
States, now lives in Kyoto.