Joseph Roggendorf, Between Different Cultures

Joseph Roggendorf's life and experience included Germany during the First World War and in the 1920s and 30s, Britain briefly in the late 30s, Japan at war and under the Occupation and subsequently the new post-war Japan. This memoir includes pen-portraits that illuminate Father Roggendorf the man and his work. Originally published in Japanese, in 1983, shortly after Roggendorf’s death, the English text from which the Japanese translation was made has only recently come to light; it is presented in this volume. Pen-portraits by Edward Seidensticker and also Hugh Cortazzi illuminate the man and his work and help fill in some of the inevitable ‘gaps’ of persona and place.