David Bergamini

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David Bergamini (1928–3 Sep 1983,^[1] Tokyo),^[2] was an American author who wrote books on 20th-century history and popular science, notably mathematics. Bergamini was interned as an Allied civilian in a Japanese concentration camp in the Philippines with his mother and father for the duration of World War II.

Biography

Education

After the Second World War, Bergamini attended Dartmouth College until 1949, winning the Peter Grimes prize. Later, he traveled to England and spent two years as a Rhodes Scholar at Merton College, Oxford. Bergamini attributed his scholastic success to a Japanese guard in his camp, who disobeyed orders to allow the interned children access to schoolbooks. Following the Japanese tradition of education, the guard assisted the children in obtaining school supplies. The result was that all of the children in the camp stayed on target with their education, with two even gaining a year.^[3]

Career

Bergamini rose to become a contributing editor for Life magazine, where he authored several popular science books. Upon retirement in 1961, he started working as a freelancer, and is known for writing about the Social Troubles Institute in 1920s Japan. Bergamini wrote on the Japanese think tanks dedicated to planning imperial conquest of the Asian mainland, and the political implications thereof. In Japan's Imperial Conspiracy, Bergamini examines the role of Crown Prince Hirohito in the execution of Japan's Imperial conquest, and his role in postwar Japanese society. Bergamini's thesis is that Hirohito and his family were the originators and directors of Japan's incursions into China, Manchuria, and south-east Asia. Mr. Yoshida was part of the cabal in preparing from 1943 onward to be Prime Minister in a “Democratic” government.

Partial bibliography

The Fleet in the Window (a novel published in 1961)
The Universe (Life Nature Library) (1962; revised 1966, 1967)
Mathematics (Life Science Library) (1963)
Australia, Its Land and Wildlife (1964)
The Scientist (Life Science Library) (1965)
Japan's Imperial Conspiracy (1971), ISBN 0-688-01905-6
Venus Development (a novel published in 1976)

References

↑ New York Times, 4 Sep 1983
↑ Preface of Japan's Imperial Conspiracy
↑ Foreword of Japan's Imperial Conspiracy

Authority control	VIAF: 108275806 ISNI: 0000 0001 1002 7387

Persondata
Name	Bergamini, David
Alternative names
Short description	American writer
Date of birth	1928
Place of birth
Date of death	1983
Place of death

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