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Speaker: Hans Brinckmann, author: Showa Japan: Japan's Golden Age & Its Troubled Legacy
Topic: "Showa Japan"
When: Starting at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, 29 March 2009
Admission: Buy a copy of Showa Japan from Good Day Books
Born in 1932 in The Hague, The Netherlands, Hans Brinckmann joined a Dutch bank at the age of 17. In 1950, he was assigned to the bank's Kobe branch, and in 1961, he was appointed the bank's general manager for Japan. In 1964, the bank was acquired by Continental Illinois Bank of Chicago, Illinois, and Brinckmann worked in the same capacity for Continental Illinois for another ten years. During his 24 years in Japan, Brinckmann translated Japanese amateur poetry into English and short stories by Satomi Ton into Dutch. His articles and interviews appeared in The Japan Times, The Mainichi, The Asahi Shimbun, and various Japanese magazines. With friend Ysbrand Rogge, he also made professional documentaries on Japanese culture. Photographs taken by the pair during that period were the subject of a major exhibition at Fuji Film Square in Tokyo in September 2008. Part of that collection was also displayed at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo until the end of February 2009.
In 1974, Brinckmann retired to the English countryside with his wife Toyoko to devote himself to writing fiction and non-fiction. He returned to banking two years later for financial reasons, and then worked in Curaçao, Amsterdam, and New York, with side activities in charity and cultural promotion. In 1986 Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands made him an Officer in the Order of Orange Nassau in recognition of his “cultural and professional achievements.” In 1988, he again left banking for writing, this time for good. Brinckmann returned to Japan in 2003 and has lived there ever since. He is the author of: The Magatama Doodle: One Man's Affair with Japan, 1950-2004 (Global Oriental, 2005); Noon Elusive and Other Stories (H2H Publishers, 2006); and Showa Japan: The Post-War Golden Age and Its Troubled Legacy (Tuttle, 2008).
To attend Hans Brinckmann's BookNotes presentation, you must buy a copy of Showa Japan from Good Day Books. Hardcover copies of Showa Japan may be purchased at Good Day Books for three thousand one hundred fifty yen (¥3150) each, tax included.
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