by CanKiwi2 on 13 Sep 2012 20:19 I'm looking for any information (and photos) of two Japanese Reporters who worked in Finland covered the Russo-Finnish Winter War of late 1939 / early 1940. There names were Tsurutaro Adachi (reported for Domei) and Kichiano Kitaro (Asahi newspapers). They're on a list of reporters who were accredited in Finland for the Winter War.
I've tracked down one brief reference to Adachi - in the early 1930's he was one of a group of over 400 scholars of Japanese national universities semt to foreign countries for getting new academic knowledge or new scientific methods. Many were sent to Germany which in the late 1920's was the most attractive place not only by reason of the tradition in Japanese academics, but also as a new model of democracy under the Weimar constitution in 1919 after the collapse of the monarchy (for the Japanese who already experienced the Taisho Democracy). To this circle in 1926-29, belonged many young scholars who later led Japanese academics and culture post WW2.
Rouyama, Arisawa, Kunizaki of Tokyo University and some associate professors from Kyoto University - Muraichi Horie, Yoshihiko Taniguchi, Katsuichi Yamamoto, Katsujiro Yamada - were the founding members. Between 1927 and 1930, Kisaburo Yokota, Yoshitaro Hirano, Takao Tsuchiya of Tokyo university, Itaru Kuroda, Yoshinosuke Yagi, Torazo Ninagawa of Kyoto university, and Isao Kikuchi, Junnichi Funabashi of Kyushu university joined it. Ichizo Kudo, a teacher of Judo who learned at Berlin Sport College, later became the master of Tokyo Metropolitan Police School.
In 1930-33 when this group became politically more active, Shikanosuke Miyake of the Seoul Imperial University, Makoto Ouiwa of Kyoto university, Heiji Nomura of Waseda University, Eitarou Hattori of Touhoku university, Hiroto Saegusa in philosophy were active members. In addition to these scholars, there were artists and journalists in Berlin. Koreya Senda in theatre was the first and the leading artist of this group. Seki Sano and Yoshi Hijikata in theatre, Teinosuke Kinugasa and Souzo Okada in movie films, Seiichirou Katsumoto and Seikichi Fujimori in literature, Ousuke Shimazaki in painting, and Bunzou Yamaguchi in architecture were also members when this group began political activities.
Morimichi Okagami, the Asahi Shinbun correspondent, Toumin Suzuki of the Dentsu, and Yuzuru Yosano were the journalist members. Many young students of Berlin University at the time were also members. Among them, Hiroshi Kitamura, Masuo Ureshino, Tsurutaro Adachi, Kakutarou Inoue later became Japanese correspondents in Europe during the war. Yoshio Kobayashi, Shunnichi Ohno, Takayasu Senzoku and Kitamura became leading scholars in postwar Japan. Seizo Yagi and Kyoutarou Oguri were later businessman and local political leader of Nagoya Area, respectively.
If someone can point me to more information on Tsurutaro Adachi in particular, I'd be eternally grateful. Even links to any Japanese info on the web, Japanese newspaper articles or photos of the Winter War, that kind of thing.
Cheers.........Nigel
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