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Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan

Donald Keene

4.17 · Rating details · 233 ratings · 44 reviews

Hailed as the 'leading expert on Japanese literature' by the New York Times Book Review, Donald Keene has devoted more than half a century to the study and appreciation of Japanese art and culture. This memoir chronicles his extraordinary life and intellectual pursuits. ...more

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Hardcover, 1st, 196 pages

Published 2008 by Columbia University Press

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Mar 06, 2010 Jim Coughenour rated it really liked it

Shelves: memoir

Any American reader of Japanese literature owes a debt to Donald Keene, an eminent translator and long-time professor at Columbia. My first encounter with his translations (over 25 years ago) was Essays in Idleness by the Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō, a book I still unearth from time to time.

Keene's memoir is, in most respects, a quiet tale of an uneventful life. Other than serving as an interpreter for Japanese prisoners during World War II, the highlight of Keene's life seems to have been traveling ...more

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Dec 30, 2021 Philipp rated it it was amazing

Shelves: japan, america, on-living, autobiography, on-writing, on-reading

What an absolute joy, what a way to finish this year.

A short-ish autobiography written by Donald Keene, one of the main translators and critics who brought Japanese literature and arts to a US audience. For most of his life, Keene taught Japanese literature at Columbia University, all the while writing essays and non-fiction for a general audience (in English as well as in Japanese!) as well as translating Japanese art to English. To sound like a cliche, I feel like this describes a more civiliz What an absolute joy, what a way to finish this year.

A short-ish autobiography written by Donald Keene, one of the main translators and critics who brought Japanese literature and arts to a US audience. For most of his life, Keene taught Japanese literature at Columbia University, all the while writing essays and non-fiction for a general audience (in English as well as in Japanese!) as well as translating Japanese art to English. To sound like a cliche, I feel like this describes a more civilized time, when people could spend their lifes translating beauty, from before universities became neoliberal degree machines. Back when a student could walk into a university course, realise he's the only one, and the professor would say, 'One is enough.'. That would be impossible today, units like that get culled quickly.

In many ways I was reminded of the German literature critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki's autobiography Mein Leben - both books feature a parade of who is who of post-war literature. Like Reich-Ranicki, Keene was connected with all of the literary giants of his day - he was good friends with Arthur Waley, Tanizaki Jun'Ichiro, Mishima Yukio, Abe Kobo, Kawabata Yasunari, Kenzaburo Oe, it's ridiculous what names come through here, and how many of these giants were close friends of Keene. (That's the Reich-Ranicki link - Reich-Ranicki did the same but with all the big names of post-WWII German literature). Keene even bumped into a young Yoko Ono at one point, back when she was still working as an interpreter, only connecting the dots decades later.

I loved this book because Keene's life was all about love of knowledge, and arts, and the past, and literature - being interested in everything for the good of everything. A younger Keene could be a bit ignorant, not understanding that one needs a lot of knowledge to appreciate temples; there's a funny story about Keene being annoyed at an unnamed Western visitor who got sick of all the temples in Kyoto, a feeling I shared when I was in Kyoto. Keene knew which temple was built by whom and for what reason and what makes each temple special, a dumbo like me sees only yet another church. There is infinite beauty in this world, but you have to work on yourself to recognise that beauty.

Keene also does not lie; often autobiographies are represented as a straight line. Keene makes it clear again and again how random all these accidents in his life put him into this happy life he lived; he sat next to someone from China as an undergrad, thereby triggering an interest in Chinese literature, from which it was not far to Japanese; WWII broke out so the US government paid for Americans with no Japanese background to become translators, and that work laid the foundation to his reading/writing knowledge; his skillset was always rare, at one point being one of ten foreign students in all of Kyoto; then he always bumped into the right person who introduced him to the next person, all the way up to becoming friends with two Literature Nobel Prize winners.

Another thing that struck me is how self-directed Keene was. Normally, you have some kind of boss or some kind of mentor, some kind of environment in which researchers work, like grants setting up research programs etc., so you have some externally-given thread to follow. Keene describes his decades-spanning work on histories of literature as something he usually came up with himself, and worked on himself, without much external direction. That's so extremely rare.

What's interesting is the complete absence of any girlfriends/wives/boyfriends/husbands,
This came out in 2008 - after the large Tohoku earthquake in 2011, Keene moved to Japan and took up Japanese citizenship, leaving his US citizenship behind, living the last eight years of his life in Tokyo. I would've loved to see Keene's reasoning behind this late move; he must've been 89 years old. Later in 2013 Keene adopted Shamisen player Uehara Seiki, why? how? Edit, 2nd January 2022: I've been informed by my wife that adoption is a common approach in homosexual couples in Japan. Marriage still is not legal, so adoption solves issues like inheritance or hospital visits.

Recommended for: people who love knowledge for knowledge's sake. ...more

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Jan 10, 2009 Natalie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: newly-read-2009

How did I not write a review of this?! Probably because I have too much to say about it, but a lovely memoir. It often shocks me that when I'll be talking to a fellow self-professed student of Japanese and mention Donald Keene, they have no idea who he is! May they wonder no more through these handy dandy memoirs!

Still, this book is just lovely for ... so much. First, a look at Keene's amazing life. I smiled at his recollection of that cabin in the Carolinas where he first started studying Japan How did I not write a review of this?! Probably because I have too much to say about it, but a lovely memoir. It often shocks me that when I'll be talking to a fellow self-professed student of Japanese and mention Donald Keene, they have no idea who he is! May they wonder no more through these handy dandy memoirs!

Still, this book is just lovely for ... so much. First, a look at Keene's amazing life. I smiled at his recollection of that cabin in the Carolinas where he first started studying Japanese because as a Japanese student, we had to read an essay about that experience in Japanese! But even more than that, his war experiences brought to life an era that my generation is beginning to lose touch with. My heart warmed at his description of Chinese characters as precious stamps in his memory.

And his descriptions of Kyoto as he remembers it...! Oh, I could swoon! I had the good fortune to live there for awhile as a student a couple years ago, and Kyoto is still my favorite place in Japan but his stories... Ryoanji at night, sharing tea with the priest's wife! Cars, still a rarity! What a city it must have been. While I am truly a child of my internet/convenience generation, Keene brought tears to my eyes describing what I've missed.

His anecdotes, also, are not to be missed, for all the amazing people he's associated with in his life, and for his gently humorous, well-measured writing style. And speaking of his writing style, one can't help reading his memoirs without realizing just how thoroughly he has influenced Japanese literature in translation in the West. Sometimes, he'll write here, "I was moved to tears..." or some other phrase that feels not quite Western, but a good reader will know often appears in translation of Japanese literature. It makes me wonder how much Japanese has affected Keene, and then, how much he has affected the study of Japanese in turn.

Truly, a thoroughly enjoyable read.

[edit to add years later] and now that he’s passed, it’s hard not to miss him. I was one of the students who participated in his final classes at Columbia before his permanent move to Japan for his final years... I will always treasure this book. ...more

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Sep 27, 2020 micha rated it it was amazing

Shelves: japan

Quite moving but mainly insanely interesting account of Donald Keene's life and work - his books, the people he met, the times during the war, his love for opera and, above all, his passion for Japan. A must-read for every Japanophile. ...more

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Dec 15, 2020 Christie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, own, biography-autobiography-memoir

This is the best autobiography/memoir I have ever read! It is my favorite book I have read this year, I would rate it 10 stars if I could. This is not just a chronicle of a man's life and passionate scholarship/work (though it is that), this is a story about PEOPLE and their influences and impacts on our life, no matter how brief or deep. Also, how luck and chance often shape the course of life. Keene's love of music and travel figure greatly into his recollections.

I was moved and impressed by ...more

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Jan 07, 2008 kkurtz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biography

this is a wonderfully heartfelt & humble memoir from the pre-eminent Japanese Scholar. Keene recounts how he fell into his love for the Japanese culture & language quite by accident, but how those early events would shape the rest of his life. The reader gets a vivid picture of the often solitary life of a working scholar, as well as glimpses into Keene's friendships with leading Japanese writers of the day. Writers like Mishima, Kenzaburo Oë, & Kobo Abe. The book was originally written for seri ...more

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Apr 20, 2019 Mayumi added it

As I have enjoyed a long relationship with Japan, Prof Donald Keene's thorough and sensitive telling of his studies about Japan, time as a US Navy interrogator of Japanese prisoners, world travels, and his many, many tales of learning from, and partying with, the most esteemed of all Japanese scholars and authors (Mishima, Tanizaki, Kawabata, Oe, Abe, et al), this book touched my heart. The autobiography includes personal accounts of the background considerations leading to his most interesting ...more

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Aug 14, 2018 Arvind Radhakrishnan rated it it was amazing

This is easily one of the best memoirs I have read.Donald Keene's erudition is truly astounding.I had started exploring Japanese literature seriously after reading his essays and books. So it was a treat to read about his life and experiences as a Japanologist. Through his wise insights he has transmitted to the world the beauty of Japanese literature. Keep teaching us Keene-san! ...more

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Apr 25, 2013 Charlie Canning rated it really liked it

For anyone studying Japanese culture, and especially Japanese literature, the name Donald Keene is a familiar one. In a career dating back to the 1950s, Keene has published more than thirty books of translation, criticism, and history. His latest offering, Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan (Columbia, 2008), is an autobiography that was first serialized in The Daily Yomiuri newspaper in 2006 as "Chronicles of My Life in the 20th Century."

Keene begins the narrative with his For anyone studying Japanese culture, and especially Japanese literature, the name Donald Keene is a familiar one. In a career dating back to the 1950s, Keene has published more than thirty books of translation, criticism, and history. His latest offering, Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan (Columbia, 2008), is an autobiography that was first serialized in The Daily Yomiuri newspaper in 2006 as "Chronicles of My Life in the 20th Century."

Keene begins the narrative with his childhood in New York City. He was a sensitive boy who cared more for music and stamp collecting than he did baseball, and except for a trip to Europe in 1931 with his father, he seemed to have had a tough time of it. The family fortunes changed dramatically in the lean years of the 1930s and this, coupled with the death of his sister and the divorce of his parents, made Keene even more studious and withdrawn. In 1938, however, at the age of sixteen, he won an extremely competitive four-year Pulitzer scholarship to Columbia University and things began to look up.

At Columbia, he studied with Mark van Doren. Professor van Doren's teaching style and his emphasis on the importance of the so-called "Great Books" of Western civilization were to have a life-long influence on Keene: "Van Doren had little use for commentaries or specialized literary criticism. Rather, the essential thing, he taught us, was to read the texts, think about them, and discover for ourselves why they ranked as classics. Insofar as I have been a success as a teacher of Japanese literature, it has been because I had a model in Mark van Doren."

The other outstanding teacher that Keene had at Columbia was Tsunoda Ryusaku who taught the history of Japanese thought. When Keene first enrolled in Professor Tsunoda's course in 1941, he was the only one registered. Thinking that the course would not be offered to only one student, Keene had thought to withdraw. But in characteristic Japanese fashion, Tsunoda had said, "One is enough."

Keene was hiking on Staten Island on December 7, 1941 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Although a pacifist by nature, Keene would later refer to the timing of the war as a form of "luck": "The outbreak of the Pacific War, just at a time when I had begun to study Japanese, determined my whole life." He was admitted to the U.S. Navy Japanese Language School and studied Japanese intensively for eleven months. Upon graduation in February 1943, he was sent to Pearl Harbor where he worked on the translation of captured Japanese documents. Other wartime assignments included trips to the Aleutians, the Philippines, and Okinawa.

Keene's first visit to Honshu was in December 1945 when he spent a week in Tokyo. The attitude of the people that he met then surprised him: "I could detect no trace of enmity of Japanese for Americans or of Americans for Japanese, and yet it had been scarcely four months since a bitter war ended. How was it possible for people's emotions to change so rapidly? I wondered. But perhaps friendship is the normal feeling between peoples, and war is only an aberration."

It was to be another eight years before Keene would return to Japan. During this period, he continued his studies at Columbia, Harvard, and Cambridge. At Cambridge, Keene met Betrand Russell, E. M. Forster, Lionel Trilling, and Arthur Waley, "the great translator who had rendered The Tale of Genji into marvelously beautiful English." According to Keene, "Waley was a genius. The word genius is sometimes used in Japan for any foreigner who can read Japanese, but Waley knew not only Japanese and Chinese but also Sanskrit, Mongol, and the principal European languages. Moreover, he knew these languages not as a linguist interested mainly in words and grammar but as a man with an unbounded interest in the literature, history, and religion of every part of the world."

In 1953, Keene returned to Japan and spent two years in Kyoto. He began publishing articles on Japanese literature in Japanese and also compiled the outstanding two-volume Anthology of Japanese Literature published by Grove Press in 1955 and 1956. This work brought him into contact with many of the great writers of the day including Mishima Yukio and Tanizaki Junichiro. Later, he would develop friendships with Abe Kobo, Oe Kenzaburo, and Kawabata Yasunari.

Keene returned to New York in 1955 to take up his position teaching Japanese literature and history at Columbia University. Although he wept in the airplane at the thought that he would never be able to return to Japan, he has "managed to spend at least a month in Japan every year since then."

In the intervening years, Keene has been enormously productive with books on fiction, poetry, theater, and history too numerous to mention. Keene's memoir, coming as it does at the end of a long and distinguished career, is yet another worthy title to read. ...more

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Aug 15, 2010 Darryl rated it really liked it · review of another edition

"Chronicles of My Life" is a short autobiography and memoir written by Donald Keene, who is arguably the leading American scholar of Japanese literature, poetry and theater. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University, where he has taught for over 50 years, and he has written several dozen books about Japanese history, culture and literature, including "Modern Japanese Literature", "Twenty Plays of the No Theatre" and "Five Modern Japanese Novelists". His lat "Chronicles of My Life" is a short autobiography and memoir written by Donald Keene, who is arguably the leading American scholar of Japanese literature, poetry and theater. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University, where he has taught for over 50 years, and he has written several dozen books about Japanese history, culture and literature, including "Modern Japanese Literature", "Twenty Plays of the No Theatre" and "Five Modern Japanese Novelists". His latest book, "So Lovely A Country Will Never Perish: Wartime Diaries of Japanese Writers", was published by Columbia University Press earlier this year.

Keene was born in New York City and initially attended Columbia on a scholarship, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1942. He enlisted in the Navy, where he was trained to be a Japanese translator during World War II. He made his initial trips to China and Japan during the war years, serving both as an interviewer of Japanese prisoners and civilians and a translator of sensitive documents and diaries. Upon his discharge from the Navy he attended Cambridge, then spent several years living in Japan, where he continued his study of Japanese literature while befriending many leading Japanese novelists, including Yukio Mishima, Nobelists Yasunari Kawabata and Kenzaburo Oe, and Kobo Abe. He returned to Cambridge to teach, while spending summers in Japan, and then returned to Columbia, where he received his PhD and taught Japanese literature and culture.

Keene describes his fascinating life and experiences in New York, Cambridge and London, and Tokyo and Kyoto in this compelling and personal account, with great sensitivity and candor. His life is both enriching and most rewarding, but he also portrays himself as a sensitive, often lonely and sometimes depressed man, which endeared this reader to the man and his story. He also describes, in lesser detail, the personal lives of several tragic figures, including Mishima, who committed seppuru in 1970 after being passed over for the 1968 Nobel Prize, and Kawabata, who may have also taken his life in part due to Mishima's death.

Keene also aptly describes his experiences as a foreigner in Japan, a translator of Japanese literature and the difficulties he faced in getting American publishers to accept Japanese literature despite its popularity in the mid-20th century, and the rewards and frustrations of teaching at Columbia and Cambridge.

"Chronicles of My Life" is a wonderfully written and sensitive memoir, and is highly recommended. ...more

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Feb 15, 2013 Caroline rated it liked it

Donald Keene became one of the only American who has been allowed to be a Japanese citizen. He became a Japanese citizen at the age of 90. This is how and why I read about him in the NY times. He is a professor emeritus at Columbia where he taught for over 50 years. Japanese scholar, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature. It all begun after he had been an intelligence officer during the WWII. The book is a little disappointment because he doesn't speak a lot about him and about h ...more

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Apr 17, 2012 Libby rated it really liked it

This is the autobiography of Donald Keene, a famous scholar of Japanese literature. I found the first 2/3 of the book very interesting, especially the stories of how Keene ended up studying Japanese language and literature. I found the last third of the book kind of boring, though--there is a lot of discussion of whose books he translated and who he visited with. It seemed at the end as if he felt he had to mention everyone who might be still living, or whose families would want to be mentioned ...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Masanaka Takashima rated it really liked it

I have come to like Mr Keene through this stunning memoir. Chapters where he meets my literary heros like Kenich Yoshida and Arthur Waley excited me a lot, but I enjoyed the earlier development of how he met and learned Japanese language, and joined the US Navy as a linguist officer working in war-operations against Japan. There he translated huge amount of various Japanese sources into English. Among them were killed Japanese soldiers' diaries. Japanese soldiers were encouraged to keep a diary ...more

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Jun 24, 2013 Jason Keenan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: japan

What a wonderful journey and what a wonderful life. Donald Keene traces the chains of his long life (he's now in his 90s) that lead from sitting next to a Chinese student in his youth to a life as one of the world's preeminent experts on Japanese literature (and quite the writer on culture and history as well).

His life and his career and his friendships with modern writers like Yukio Mishima, as well as his focus on the history of Japanese literature, will have you taking copious note for your t ...more

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Nov 02, 2014 Kazen rated it really liked it

Have you ever read an obituary of a semi-famous person and think, "Hey, this person was awesome! Why didn't I know about them?" That's the way I feel about Donald Keene, though (thankfully) he's still alive and kicking.

Keene is a translator, professor, and scholar of Japanese literature. Those who know even a little bit about post-war writers like Mishima and Kawabata will love the anecdotes Keene relates. And anyone who has ever visited Japan, especially Kyoto, will enjoy his stories about what ...more

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Sep 14, 2008 Bruce rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: anyone interested in Japan

Professor Keene's memoir is all the more powerful because of his understated style. Anyone who has lived in Japan will get a lot out of this, as will anyone who translates for a living. This is a memoir that actually has a lot to impart to its readers. It inspired me to both continue translating Japanese writers and to try to maintain even closer ties with Japan. His anecdotes about working with and becoming friends with Mishima, Abe, Tanizaki, Oe and others give us a fascinating glimpse of the ...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Karl Lion rated it really liked it

I've finished reading the book. I love many parts in it which I cannot tell you without citing almost the whole book that are still so alive and vivid in my mind. It thrills me a lot as if I've met in person with Mr. Keene. I've made a plan to read other books of his and of those he mentioned in this one. I especially love the conclusion he made for the book as well as for his life: "I hope that this chronicle, for all its deficiencies, has at least suggested how one human being spent an essenti ...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Blake rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Received this book as part of a prize after meeting Mr Keene himself as well. It's really amazing to read about this man's life. Even though he might seem slightly reserved or retiring, it's clear that he didn't let anything hold him back all these years! The people he met, the times he experienced, they're all so fascinating. Definitely inspiring. I wonder who's going to be able to top his achievements in this field in the coming years... ...more

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Feb 01, 2013 Tim rated it liked it

Good quick read. To fully enjoy it, some knowledge of famous Japanese figures (especially from the literary world) may be required. He also talks about opera and theater a bit more than I was expecting, but overall I was satisfied, and I particularly enjoyed the illustrations.

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Oct 31, 2008 Erin rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

Love Japan. Love this book.

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Oct 03, 2013 Alexander Páez rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

IMPRESCINDIBLE.

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May 24, 2019 Anson Cassel Mills rated it really liked it

First a disclaimer: I know nothing about Japanese literature, and I read Keene’s autobiography only because I am fascinated with people who are gifted at mastering other languages, especially difficult ones. (Apparently even some Japanese were surprised to discover that Keene read their language.)

Donald Keene (1922-2019) was a lucid writer who chronicled his life with grace and modesty. As is typical with academic autobiographies, the general reader will probably find Keene’s early career more i ...more

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Mar 05, 2021 Johan Åkerman rated it it was amazing

Shelves: japan, autobiography

If you have an interest in Japan, and in particular in Japanese literature, and possibly above all how it came to be known in the West, this book is for you. It's very easy to read, the text being straightforward and divided up into short chapters. If anything, the text might come across as a bit dry and barren, as it is very direct. It is not the literary quality that makes me give it 5 stars, but the content, following the life of the Donald Keene from childhood to his 80s. He has obviously le ...more

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Dec 10, 2021 Rich Uncle Pennybags rated it really liked it

The first couple of chapters were a bit dull, but Keene led a fascinating life, serving as an translator and interpreter in the Pacific War and rubbing shoulders with great Japanese authors and scholars of Japan seemingly immediately thereafter.

Keene's attention is strikingly focused on Japanese literature. There are very few women in this story and zero romance, he doesn't have more than a sentence or two to say about events that one would presume affected him deeply, and episodes that might h ...more

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Sep 20, 2020 J rated it it was amazing

Shelves: japan

I did not know Donald Keene before reading this book, but I will have to check out some of his translations of Japanese literature.
The "chronicles" are an autobiography and wonderfully written, anecdotes and memories strung together to form a picture of his fascination with Japan. It is not a complete account of his life, but it shows glimpses of it.
Keene has a beautiful style, clear and warm, it's a joy to read. ...more

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Sep 05, 2020 David Cowhig rated it it was amazing

Enjoyed reading Donald Keene's adventure of a life and in particular his friendship with some Japanese writers including Yukio Mishima and his World War II service. Look forward to reading some of his other books. ...more

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Dec 23, 2020 Nancy Miller rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir, owned-kindle

Very interesting account of an American academic who becomes so immersed in Japanese culture that he is fully accepted by his Japanese colleagues.

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Feb 23, 2022 Ron Gormley rated it it was amazing

Engaging description of his Japan experience in earlier stages of this life

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Oct 26, 2018 Tim rated it liked it

I’m sorry, this was a very interesting life story told in a very boring way.

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Jan 03, 2014 Patrick Wallace rated it really liked it

Donald Keene is one of the premier translators and scholars of Japanese literature. If you have read Mishima or Kawabata in English, likely it was in a book that he either translated or edited. He is also an important literary critic in the Japanese language, making him one of the very few westerners who is celebrated within Japan for works originally written in Japanese.

His memoirs are beautifully written, and form an important record of his life and his interaction with some of Japan's best mo ...more

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