Wataru Hiromatsu | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | May 22, 1994 | (aged 60)
Alma mater | University of Tokyo |
Occupation | Philosopher |
Wataru Hiromatsu (廣松 渉, August 11, 1933 – May 22, 1994) was a Japanese philosopher. He was a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo. His pen name was Shoko Kadomatsu (門松暁鐘).
Life
He was born in Yanagawa, Fukuoka Prefecture. His birthplace was Asa District, Yamaguchi Prefecture (present-day Sanyo-Onoda). In 1946, when he was in the first year of junior high school, he joined the Democratic Youth League of Japan. In April 1949, he joined the Japanese Communist Party at the same time as he entered high school. When the Cominform criticized the JCP in 1950, he belonged to the Internationalists, and after the dissolution of the Internationalists' "National Unification Conference" in 1951, he did not return to the party and was active in the Zengakuren.
After being expelled from Fukuoka Prefectural Densikan High School, he passed the university entrance exam and obtained the qualification to enter university. He entered Tokyo Gakugei University but dropped out and re-entered the Department of Philosophy at University of Tokyo. Initially, he was strongly interested in Ernst Mach, but on the recommendation of his supervisor, he decided to concentrate on the study of Kant. He then went on to graduate school at the University of Tokyo. In 1965, he completed the course requirements for the doctoral program and left the university.
In July 1955, he rejoined the party following the Sixth National Conference of the Japanese Communist Party, but left the party the following year after his co-authored book The Student Movement in Japan (日本の学生運動), was criticized. In December 1958, when the Communist League, which was hostile to the JCP, was formed, he continued to support it by writing theory. It is said that the journal Situation (情況), first published in 1967, was founded with 1 million yen in aid from Hiromatsu, according to its founder Susumu Koga.[1] In 1990, when socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were collapsing, he was also involved in the launch of a civic organization, Forum 90s (フォーラム90s).
From 1965 to 1970, he taught German language and philosophy at Nagoya Institute of Technology and Nagoya University. He joined Nagoya Institute of Technology in 1965, became an associate professor in 1966, a lecturer at Nagoya University in 1967, and an associate professor in 1969. In 1970, he resigned from Nagoya University in support of the student movement.
He was a lecturer at Hosei University and a professor at the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo. He retired from the University of Tokyo in March 1994. He died of lung cancer on May 22, 1994.
- ^ 荒岱介『破天荒な人々 叛乱世代の証言』(彩流社2005)古賀暹インタビュー