Professor Hiro Aida, Japanese translator of The Conservative Mind, tours Michigan colleges and visits the Kirk Center

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.

More From Our Highlights & News

New Edition of Kirk’s “The Politics of Prudence” Forthcoming

The Kirk Center is delighted to announce that a 30th Anniversary Edition of Russell Kirk’s popular book, The Politics of Prudence, is forthcoming from Regnery Publishing with a new introduction by Dr. Michael Federici. An understanding of the classical virtue of...

Writing and the Moral Imagination Workshop

This July, the Kirk Center held its first conference focused on “Writing and the Moral Imagination" for a select group of young professionals. The program brings together two themes central to the life and work of Russell Kirk: character and composition. Participants...

What Do Conservatives Believe?

An evening conversation with Mike Pence and Betsy DeVos On Wednesday, May 31, 2023, The Russell Kirk Center made institutional history by hosting nearly 300 leaders, students and educators, friends and supporters at an event featuring a conversation with former Vice...