A Japanese Student at UNC During World War I

Kevin Cherry received his MA in History at UNC in 1993, before going on to earn a Ph.D. in Library Science at UNC. He is now deputy secretary of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and director of the Office of Archives, History and Parks. Cherry read the article in the Fall 2016 newsletter on Howard K. Beale and the Japanese-American student Shizuku Hiyashi that Beale helped bring to Carolina. Cherry wrote to tell us about a student from Japan at UNC, Kameichi Kato, one of perhaps twenty Japanese students at UNC, c. 1910-1922, according to Professor Heidi Kim of the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UNC. Cherry told us that Kato was a friend of Thomas Wolfe and worked for a number of Japanese firms in the United States before returning to Japan. While at Carolina, Kato wrote a long, very interesting essay on Japan and China for the North Carolina Magazine in 1917. Our thanks to Kevin Cherry for revealing to us this interesting figure from UNC history.