Okawa Shumei

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Shumei Okawa (大川周明, Ōkawa Shūmei^?) (December 6, 1886; Sakata, Yamagata, Japan - December 24, 1957; Tokyo, Japan) was a Japanese ultra nationalist, Pan-Asian writer and Islamic scholar.

1 Background
2 Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal
3 Translation of Quran
4 Major Publications

[edit] Background

Ōkawa graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in 1911, where he had studied Vedic literature and classical Indian philosophy. He had a sound knowledge of German, French, English, Sanskrit and Pali. In the summer of 1913 he read a copy of Sir Henry Cotton's New India or Indian in transition (1886 revised 1905) which dealt with the contemporary political situation. After reading this book, Ōkawa abandoned "complete cosmopolitanism" (sekaijin) for Pan-Asianism. Later that year articles by Anagarika Dharmapala and Maulavi Barkatullah appeared in the magazine Michi, published by Dokai, a religious organisation in which Ōkawa was later to play a prominent part.

[edit] Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

After World War II, he was prosecuted as a class-A war criminal by the Allies. However, he started behaving somewhat erratically - hitting the bald head of the former prime minister Hideki Tojo, shouting "Inder! Kommen Sie!" (Come, Indian!) in German, and the list goes on. Therefore, the preciding judge Sir William Webb (The President of the tribunal) concluded that he was mentally ill and dropped the case against him. From the beginning of the tribunal, he was saying that the court is a farce and not even worthy of calling it a legal court. Therefore, some people still believe that he was faking his madness in order to be released.

[edit] Translation of Quran

He was transferred from the jail to a US Army hospital in Japan, which concluded that he had mental instability from Syphilis. Later, he was transferred to The University of Tokyo, then Matsuzawa Hospital in Tokyo, where he completed the first Japanese translation of the entire volume of Quran. It effectively restored his honour and he was finally released.