From 1990 to 2001, a group called Hakusa-kai in Kyoto regularly hosted meetings with Kato Shuichi, who was a professor emeritus with Ritsumeikan University at that time. Kato Shuichi, a prominent public intellectual and a passionate advocate of Article 9, passed away on December 5, 2008. Kato was the keynote speaker at the Vancouver Save Article 9's launching event on May 30, 2005.MihokoYamamoto, one of the youngest members of Hakusa-kai and a friend of mine, lived in Vancouver from the fall of 2008 to the spring of 2009, as an exchange student at UBC from Ritsumeikan University. I knew her from before, as she participated in the 2007 Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Tour. She joined Vancouver Save Article 9, and brought many other Ritsumeikan students to my peace education activities. It was an deeply sad experience that the news of Kato-sensei's death arrived during that time.
Hakusa-kai recently compiled a collection of articles dedicated to Kato-sensei by those who knew him, and Kamogawa Publishing put it out as a book called 『私にとっての加藤周一』（"Kato Shuichi for Me"). With Mihoko's encouragement, I contributed an article to this book, in which I talked about the inspiration that Kato-sensei gave to the birth of Vancouver Save Article 9, and his influence on my own work for peace. Mihoko and other members of Hakusa-kai contributed articles too, and so did Anzai Ikuro, head of Ritsumeikan's Kyoto Museum for World Peace.
The book (in Japanese) is available to purchase through Kamogawa Publishing. I have a copy available for lending too.
A Happy New Year,
Satoko
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