Japanese Sociologist Rokuro Hidaka Dies at 101

June 7, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese sociologist Rokuro Hidaka, a noted Vietnam War protester, died of old age at an elderly facility in Kyoto on Thursday. He was 101.

Hidaka, born in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao, became an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Journalism and Communication Studies in 1949 and a professor in 1960. The institute is a predecessor of the university's Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies.

After retiring from the university in 1969, Hidaka worked as professor at Kyoto Seika University from 1976 to 1989.

Hidaka became known as a leading postwar debater in Japan as he actively took part in civil movements over the Vietnam War and Minamata disease, which was caused by mercury poisoning, in Japan.

His books include "Sengo Shiso wo Kangaeru" (Thinking about Postwar Thought). He produced a Japanese translation of psychoanalyst and social philosopher Erich Fromm's "Escape from Freedom." Jiji Press