At Northwood University and Hope College, Professor Hiro Aida told students about the close relationship and parallel modernization of America and Japan – an important contrast to the relatively short enmity between the two countries during WW2. But his presentations at the Russell Kirk Center enabled a deeper examination of how Japan wrestled with modernization, and how Edmund Burke became an important conservative counterweight to the pernicious ideas of Rousseau.

Professor Aida delighted the Kirk Center audience with stories and insights of personal connections that both Russell Kirk and Friedrich Hayek had to Edwin McClellan and his translation of Kokoro, an important Japanese novel about the perils of modernity.

The visit of Hiro Aida was made possible by a grant to Northwood University from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership.