Ian Buruma

Author of “Year Zero: A History of 1945”

Ian Buruma was born in the Netherlands, in 1951, to a Dutch father and English mother. Though educated in both Holland and Japan, he has spent a great portion of his life in Asia.

He is the author of several books, including “God’s Dust: A Modern Asian Journey” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1988), “The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Japan and Germany” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1995), “Anglomania: A European Love Affair” (Random House, 1999), “Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of its Enemies” (Penguin, 2004), and “Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents” (Penguin, 2010).

His most recent book is Year Zero: A History of 1945 (Penguin, 2013), a survey of Asia and Europe at the end of World War II.

Mr. Buruma is also a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, New York Times Magazine, New Yorker, Project Syndicate as well as other publications in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

Since 2003, he has been the Henry R. Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights and Journalism at Bard College, in New York

Photo by Michael Childers, courtesy of ianburuma.com