Becoming Japanese

Donald L . Keene passed away due to heart failure in a Japanese hospital at the age of 96 on February 24th, 2019 at 6:21am in a hospital near where he lived in 東京都台東区 { Tōkyō-to Taitō-ku } (Taito City, Tokyo). This site has followed Donald Keene's path to naturalization only, as covering his entire contributions to Japan would be too difficult and too long for a site like this. On a personal note, I should add that I had the opportunity to communicate with Donald Keene for a bit related to this site. This site has had over fifteen direct contributors (who have written directly for it in some way or form), and over two dozen contributors who have contributed documents and resources behind the scenes. All of these contributors were naturalized Japanese. And Donald Keene was among them. When the site first hit one million visitors about a half decade ago, I hosted a party for all the naturalized Japanese in Japan who had contributed to the site. We rented out the big party r...