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Michiko Kanba

Japanese writer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ11543684
Source-derived summary

Michiko Kanba (Japanese: 樺 美智子; November 8, 1937 – June 15, 1960) was a Japanese communist, University of Tokyo undergraduate and Zengakuren activist. She died in clashes between demonstrators and police at the South Gate of the National Diet Building in central Tokyo at the height of the 1960 Anpo Protests against the US–Japan Security Treaty.

Activism and writing

Michiko Kanba was born in Tokyo. Her father was Toshio Kanba, a sociologist and professor at Chuo University. Kanba was raised in a middle-class Christian household and entered the University of Tokyo in 1957, joining the Japan Communist Party in November of that year. After that, she became a leader in the New Left organization "The Bund" and participated in the massive Anpo protests against the revisions of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan.

Kanba was one of the 76 student activists who were arrested at a January 26, 1960 sit-in at Haneda Airport. She also participated in protests around the Diet Building. She was killed just inside the South Gate of the National Diet Building after a group of students broke into the gate and clashed with riot police. An autopsy later determined that she died from chest compression and intracranial bleeding.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Michiko Kanba” is japanese writer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Michiko, Kanba and Japanese, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1937, 1960, 1957—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1937-11-08. For this dossier, Michiko, Kanba and Japanese is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “japanese writer” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11543684. VIAF identifies the subject as 45738774. The Library of Congress control number is n85162612. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1937, 1960 and 1957.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Michiko Kanba”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Michiko Kanba primary sources, Michiko Kanba archive and Michiko research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Michiko Kanba”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Michiko Kanba” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.