KENJIRO DEN
(Den Kenjirō)
Den was a liberal reformer. There were many liberal politicians in Japan until the right wing militarists took over. Most Japanese were extremely racist and wanted education to be segregated, not unlike the American South at the time. Den’s action described in this quotation was earthshaking to many Japanese. Integration of the schools was to them bad enough, but assimilating Chinese into the Japanese society was much worse.
Baron Den Kenjirō was a Japanese politician and cabinet minister in the pre-war government of the Empire of Japan. He was also the 8th Japanese Governor-General of Taiwan from October 1919 to September 1923, and the first civilian to hold that position. Den was also a co-founder of Kaishinsha Motorcar Works, a predecessor to present-day Nissan and the original manufacturer of Datsun automobiles.
