is a Japanese non-fiction writer and a member of the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals. Her father, Tsuneo Ikeda, was a sports journalist and businessman who started Baseball Magazine (BBM) and his mother’s family founded Kudō Shashin-kan in

Ryōgoku is a district in Sumida, Tokyo. It is surrounded by various districts in Sumida, Chūō, and Taitō wards: Yokoami, Midori, Chitose, Higashi Nihonbashi, and Yanagibashi. History In 1659, the Ryōgoku Bridge was built, spanning the Sumida ...

. Because her parents divorced, she took the family name of Kudō. Her older sister Akiko was the wife of

Chiharu Igaya is a former Olympic alpine ski racer and silver medalist from Japan. He competed in three Winter Olympics (1952, 1956, 1960). Ski racing Born in Tomari, Kunashiri ( ja), Hokkaidō, Igaya attended college in the United States at Dartmouth i ...

and her younger brother Tetsuo Ikeda is president of Baseball Magazine (BB

Life and career

After graduating from Otsuma High School for Girls, she entered

Charles University in Prague Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the oldest universities in the world in continuous operation, the oldest university north of the ...

and then dropped ou

Her first marriage ended quickly and then, in 1973, she fell in love with Kinya Tsuruta who was a professor at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

. She came to

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

but Tsuruta’s divorce proceedings with his ex-wife lasted five years. During that period, she wrote a biography of

Toshiko Tamura was an early modern feminist novelist who wrote during the late Meiji era, Taishō era, and early Shōwa era. She wrote under the pen-names Roei (露英), Child Bird (鳥の子, ''Tori no ko''), Toshiko Suzuki (鈴木俊子, ''Suzuki Toshiko'' ...

together with her friend Susan Phillips which was published as ''Bankūba no ai: Tamura Toshiko to Suzuki Etsu'' ("Vancouver Love: Tamura Toshiko and Suzuki Etsu"). After that she started her career as a non-fiction writer. In 1991, her book ''Kudō Shashin-kan no Shōwa'' won the Kodansha Prize for Non-fiction. After divorcing Tsuruta, she married Yasuo Katō, who had been a department head at

Shueisha is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Shueisha is the largest publishing company in Japan. It was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The ...

. At first she mainly wrote about women who moved overseas, but after writing about topics related to

sumo is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by th ...

and

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

she moved on to critical biographies of men of letters from her father’s home prefecture of Niigata including

Nishiwaki Junzaburō Nishiwaki can refer to: * Nishiwaki, Hyōgo, Japan ** Nishiwakishi Station * Junzaburō Nishiwaki (1894–1982), Japanese writer * Michiko Nishiwaki (born 1957), Japanese actress * Takatoshi Nishiwaki is a Japanese politician and the current ...

Yaichi Aizu was a Japanese poet, calligrapher and historian. Biography Yaichi was born in the Furumachi area of Niigata, Niigata, and was a professor emeritus of ancient Chinese and Japanese art at Waseda University. His focus was mostly on Buddhist art o ...

, and Kumaichi Horiguchi and his son Daigaku Horiguchi, and then to biographies of

Lafcadio Hearn was a Greek-born Irish and Japanese writer, translator, and teacher who introduced the culture and literature of Japan to the Western world. His writings offered unprecedented insight into Japanese culture, especially his collections of legend ...

and imperial family members. She also dealt with the issue of sex among the elderly in her book ''Keraku''. She says that she is prone to feel and experience daily "strange events" similar to those in

kaidan is a Japanese language, Japanese word consisting of two kanji: 怪 (''kai'') meaning "strange, mysterious, rare, or bewitching apparition" and 談 (''dan'') meaning "talk" or "recited narrative". Overall meaning and usage In its broadest sense ...

which she recorded and published in ''Hibi Kore Kaidan''. She is a conservative who for a time served as vice-president of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform and has recently written a biography of

Isoroku Yamamoto was a Marshal Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II. He commanded the fleet from 1939 until his death in 1943, overseeing the start of the Pacific War in 1941 and J ...

and engaged in debates about Tokyo Governor

Shintarō Ishihara was a Japanese politician and writer, who served as the Governor of Tokyo from 1999 to 2012. Being the former leader of the radical right Sunrise Party, later merged with Toru Hashimoto's Japan Restoration Party out of which he split his f ...

. She contributed to a volume opposing changes to Japan’s imperial succession laws and she supports the controversial film '' The Truth about Nanjing''. In 2009, Sankei Books published her book ''Kantō Daishinsai ‘Chōsenjin Gyakusatsu’ No Shinjitsu'' () in which she concludes that there was no massacre of Koreans during the Great Kantō earthquake but rather there was a legitimate security operation undertaken to prevent groups taking advantage of the chaos to activate a plot to assassinate Prince Regent Hirohito.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kudo, Miyoko Japanese historical negationists Japanese non-fiction writers Japanese anti-communists Writers from Tokyo Activists from Tokyo 1950 births Living people Charles University alumni Kantō Massacre deniers Nanjing Massacre deniers