Character and Life
A very popular and dynamic personality, he later became a diplomat and was sent from the Japanese embassy in London to Iraq where he was killed by unknown assailants with his colleague Masamori Inoue and their Iraqi driver when their car was ambushed on November 29, 2003. He was promoted posthumously to ambassador in recognition of his work by the Japanese foreign ministry (Gaimusho).
Katsuhiko Oku made a point of visiting many countries and finding out what the local people wanted. He saw it as the first duty of a diplomat.
Since 2004 an Oku Memorial Trophy has been contested annually in Richmond, London by the Kew Occasionals club (founded by Katsu Oku's good friend Reg Clark) and some Japanese teams. (See RFU's official newspaper Touchline, February 2007 issue).
Read more about this topic: Katsuhiko Oku
Famous quotes containing the words character and, character and/or life:
“A person of definite character and purpose who comprehends our way of thought is sure to exert power over us. He cannot altogether be resisted; because, if he understands us, he can make us understand him, through the word, the look, or other symbol, which both of us connect with the common sentiment or idea; and thus by communicating an impulse he can move the will.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)
“We imagined that the sun shining on their bare heads had stamped a liberal and public character on their most private thoughts.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We have had many harbingers and forerunners; but of a purely spiritual life, history has afforded no example. I mean we have yet no man who has leaned entirely on his character, and eaten angels’ food; who, trusting to his sentiments, found life made of miracles; who, working for universal aims, found himself fed, he knew not how; clothed, sheltered, and weaponed, he knew not how, and yet it was done by his own hands.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)