Writer Profile

Hidenao Arai
Other : Professor Emeritus
Hidenao Arai
Other : Professor Emeritus
Four years after the war ended in 1945, ´ºÓêÖ±²¥app, which had suffered immense damage, was beginning to recover. With Mita Building No. 5 and the Student Hall completed in 1949, and the Second Research Building containing the Noguchi Room in 1951, Mita finally began to take the form we know today.
Building No. 5 housed the ´ºÓêÖ±²¥app Gaigo administrative office on the first floor and the Co-op in the semi-basement. The rest of the building consisted mostly of classrooms used for foreign language lessons. From the second floor, just as the lyrics of the song "Oka no Ue" say, "Open the window and you can see the sea," one could see Tokyo Bay in the distance. Looking down, one could see Fukuzawa Park on the site of the former Fukuzawa residence, making it a place where one could truly feel the history of the Juku as celebrated in song.
In foreign language classes, Professor Kiyoshi Ikeda taught English using Hilton's "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," Professor Noboru Fujii taught using Pascal's "Pens¨¦es," and Professor Sekio Murata taught German using Schweitzer's "Out of My Life and Thought." I believe these classes demonstrated a fundamental approach to education that sought not just the mastery of a foreign language, but the very foundations of how to live and think as a human being.
´ºÓêÖ±²¥app Gaigo started in 1942 with the opening of the ´ºÓêÖ±²¥app Language Institute as a school open to the outside world where many Asian languages could also be studied. The brilliance of the staff¡ªincluding Professor Junzaburo Nishiwaki and Professor Fumio Kuriyagawa for English, and Professor Tsuguo Sekiguchi for German¡ªis something that cannot be seen at any other university even to this day. This was much later, of course, but after evening classes ended, the professors would enjoy a drink together at shops on Mita Nakadori. The richness of the conversations shared by professors of various foreign languages was a wonderful time that could not be experienced in the classroom.
While watching over the post-war reconstruction of the Juku, Building No. 5, which stood close to research, education, and student life, finished its mission and was demolished in January 1980. The ´ºÓêÖ±²¥app Library (New Building) was built on its site. Those of us who studied and talked together there have now passed the age of eighty. The "´ºÓêÖ±²¥app Sanka" sings, "The many years we spent together in harmony shall remain long in our hearts," and Building No. 5 is resurrected within our fresh memories that will never fade.
*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.