KCG Founder

ACCUMU Vol.1 1989 Published by KCG Kyoto Computer Gakuin
A SELF-MADE MAN

by Sumio Makino

Shigeo Hasegawa always dreamed of founding an ideal school, a utopia. He wanted Kyoto School of Computer Science to be a different "world" in Japan and that it should be the hub where those who have a strong interest in computers -- the potential revolutionizers of human history -- can get together in order to realize their goals.

Mr. Hasegawa devoted himself to founding such a unique school of his own vision. For him, this vision was the single, driving force. The late Mr. Hasegawa, founder and first president of KSCS, was self-made and self-educated.

It goes without saying that each student gets something different from education at school. It could be said that the students themselves decide what they get. However, especially in Japan, students listen passively to lectures and tend to accept what they are told without question simply because they are made by prominent professors. This is what is called instilling, or cramming. Mr. Hasegawa though took a different approach in educating youth. He held fast to his principle that it is the students themselves who will judge and decide to accept or reject what they have heard.

During his lifetime, the honored founder gave me chances to learn many things from him. I remember him talking, with his body thrust forward, about the teachings of ancient Greek sages, or about Soshi, the ancient Chinese sage, or at other times quoting from Buddhist Scripture and sages of all ages and countries. I can still hear him speaking to me and it makes me feel that his remarks have indeed become flesh and blood, sorted out and filtered carefully through his mind. It is as if there were someone, among art collectors, who believes in his own eye to judge beauty ignoring all popular judgments to establish his own world. He must have read widely in the same way as Buddhists read the sacred texts.

He held that education should be self-taught. He regarded self-help as the most important aspect of education. He felt strongly enough about this philosophy of education to demand the same from students, faculty and the staff.

Mr. Hasegawa often used the terms "of the government" and "of the people." He sensed the confusion often made between the two with his keenly developed sense. For him government and the people could never mingle together just as oil and water cannot. He conceived that these two should definitely be separated. And, he always criticized the present situation of Japan from this aspect. In this "soft-headed," or conformist society of Japan, the people will easily be confused into thinking that they are the government. Or again, they are ready to side with the government. They will persistently model themselves after the government . Mr. Hasegawa absolutely rejected this way of easily depending on authority. He hated it and even liked to use the words "nongovernmental" and "private."

The founder of KSCS often said, "I want to educate the young people who are not able to enter colleges for whatever reasons and those who do not go to universities of their own will. I want very much to send these young students out to stand abreast with college graduates or with those more educated. It is such young people who paid money to found KSCS. Every one of the students who are now studying here should try his/her best to develop this school as his/her own school. I am only assisting them to fulfil their goal."

Shigeo Hasegawa always dreamed of founding an ideal school, a utopia. I still remember him saying repeatedly with pleasure, "Many professo rs from Kyoto University come to KSCS to lecture and often they are divided among two or three factions due to their political creeds. But, I asked them to forget about such differences when they are on our campus and they willingly agreed to my proposition." He wanted Kyoto School of Computer Science to be a different "world" in Japan and that it should be the hub where those who have a strong interest in computers -- the potential revolutionizers of human history -- can get together in order to realize their goals. In this manner, Mr. Hasegawa devoted himself to founding such a unique school of his own vision. For him, this vision was the single, driving force.

It is very regrettable that the founder did not publish his ideas. However, KSCS itself is to us the embodiment of his ideas. It is very befitting for Mr. Hasegawa, who took great interest in cybernetics in his youth and recognized the potential of computers to revolutionize human history and laid the foundation of education in the spirit of self-help, that this school reflects his ideals.

Sumio Makino

Principal, Rakuhoku Campus of KSCS

Graduated Doctorate Course in Literature at Kyoto University