Shunsuke Tsurumi (1922-2015) was a Japanese-leading philosopher, cultural and intellectual historian, sociologist, critic, editor and social activist. He was born and raised in Tokyo. In 1942, after obtaining a bachelor's degree with honours in philosophy from Harvard University, he was repatriated to Japan. Then in 1943, he was posted to Java, where he worked as a navy intelligence officer. After the war, in collaboration with Maruyama Masao and others, Tsurumi established the journal Shis¿ no kagaku (Science of thought, 1946-1996). He was also one of the key figures in the pacifist movement Beheiren (The Citizen's League for Peace in Vietnam, 1965-1974). Between the late 1940s and 1970, Tsurumi taught at Kyoto University, Tokyo Institute of Technology and D¿shisha University. He authored An Intellectual History of Wartime Japan (1986) and A Cultural History of Postwar Japan 1945-1980 (1987), both of which were based on lectures given at McGill University, Montreal, as well as numerous publications in Japanese, some of which are collected in Tsurumi Shunsuke sh¿ (1991-1992, 12 volumes) and Tsurumi Shunsuke sh¿ zoku (second series, 2000-2001, 5 volumes).