Donald Keene

Donald Lawrence Keene (June 18, 1922 – February 24, 2019), also known as , was an American and Japanese scholar, teacher, writer, translator and Japan studies expert.
Keene's contributions to the understanding of Japanese culture were recognized by the Japanese government in 2002 and in 2008. In 2012, Keene became a Japanese citizen and he explained, 
Early life.
Keene was born in Brooklyn in New York City. He received a Bachelor's degree from Columbia in 1942. He studied Japanese language at the U.S. Navy Japanese Language School. After World War II, he returned to Columbia where he earned a master's degree in 1947.
He earned a Ph.D. from Columbia in 1951. In this period, Ryūsaku Tsunoda became his mentor.
Career.
Starting in 1955, Keene was a professor at Columbia University for over fifty years. He retired from Columbia after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. He became a Japanese citizen under the name "Kīn Donarudo".
His first visit to Japan was during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.
Death.
Keene died on February 24, 2019 in Tokyo from heart failure, aged 96.
Selected works.
In an overview of writings by and about Keene, OCLC/WorldCat lists roughly 600+ works in 1,400+ publications in 16 languages and 39,000+ library holdings.