Imperial Japan university unites graduates decades after war

By CHISATO TANAKA
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Inspired by her Taiwanese grandfather, a journalist in Japan has illuminated a little-known university that started out as a grand piece of imperial propaganda celebrating Japan’s subjugation of Asia. In the decades since, it has become a place where former students and their families can share a sense of unity forged at the school. The Japan-run Kenkoku University, which only lasted for eight years, selected elite male students from Japan, China, Korea, then Soviet Union and Mongolia. The students lived and studied together under the banner of “the harmony of five ethnicities” in northern China’s Manchuria, during Japan’s occupation in the early 20th century.