FUKUOKA -- A diary and other materials that belonged to a Japanese researcher who resided in Berlin during the rise of the Nazi regime have been uncovered here, shedding light on school education and other issues there at the time.

The records were left behind by Hitoshi Kojima (1895-1996), a professor emeritus at Kyushu Imperial University (present-day Kyushu University). They were collected by Mitsuharu Nishimoto, 67, head director of the Fukuoka-based history research group "Motto Jibun no Machi o Shiro" (Learn more about your town).

About five years ago, Nishimoto spotted travel pamphlets from various countries that Kojima had left behind at a secondhand bookstore, sparking his search for further materials.

According to the Kyushu University Archives, Kojima graduated from Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo) in 1918 and became an assistant professor at Kyushu Imperial University in 1923, working in the Faculty of Agriculture. In 1932, he traveled to Germany as an overseas researcher for the Ministry of Education to study plant cell physiology. He also stayed in Italy and the United States before returning to Japan in 1935.

The travel pamphlets were from Kojima's time overseas from 1932, and in the process of collecting further materials, Nishimoto also found his diary. In one part, the date Aug. 23, 1933 was written in colored pencil. This was shortly after Adolf Hitler's government took power in late January that same year.

In his writings, Kojima noted the spread of the Hitler administration's influence in education. Movie theaters prioritized the screening of propaganda films about the Nazis and Hitler, and Kojima wrote, "Teachers suspend classes at elementary schools and take students to go and see them."

At schools, he reported, students were encouraged to join the Nazi youth organization Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth). He also noticed that Jewish teachers were being removed and wrote, "Recently, it seems they have probed into the race relations of students' parents and others."

Nishimoto commented, "Going to Europe back then may well have seemed like going to the moon today. (Kojima) collected a lot of material during his stay, and closely observed the local situation. I hope people will learn that there was such a figure in Fukuoka."

(Japanese original by Norihisa Ueda, Kyushu Business News Department)