David Bergamini
David Bergamini (1928–3 September 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, father (John Van Wie Bergamini, an architect who worked for the American Episcopal Mission in China, Japan, the Philippines and Africa,) and younger sister 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 wrote several popular science books. Upon retirement from Life in 1961, he became a freelance writer.
He is known for his writing about the Social Troubles Institute in 1920s Japan. Bergamini wrote about the Japanese think tanks dedicated to planning imperial conquest of the Asian mainland, including the political implications. In his controversial 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 originated and directed Japan's incursions into China, Manchuria, and south-east Asia. Mr. Yoshida, as part of the cabal, prepared from 1943 on to become prime minister in a "democratic" government.
Bergamini believed that he was targeted by the CIA and blacklisted after publication of Japan's Imperial Conspiracy. He wrote his final published work, Venus Development, to preserve his sanity while under siege by the U.S. 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
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