Remembering Donald Keene

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 room at Nichola Zappetti's (the naturalized Japanese who was the subject of Robert Whiting's book, "Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan") pizza parlor.

Donald Keene was on the invitation list thanks to his name being on this site in multiple articles. I wrote to him (on paper via the postal mail, as I assumed he would prefer, although we would later communicate via his Columbia University email address which he still used) sending him a formal invitation, not thinking about the logistics of a nonagenarian at an all-you-can-drink banquet.

He was quite gracious in his decline, saying that at the age of 93 [2015], he regrettably didn't go out to banquets anymore, but that he highly "approved" of the work we did here. Although we corresponded, I regret that I never got to meet him face to face.

I hope to visit both the Donald Keene Center in New York City and its sister institution in Kashiwazaki City, Niigata Prefecture.

Donald Keene is survived in Japan by his adopted Japanese son.

Rest in peace, キーン ドナルド先生 {KĪN Donarudo-sensei}.
Location: 日本、東京都台東区

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