Ozaki was born in what is now the town of
Shirakawa, Gifu, and a descendant of a samurai family. His family relocated to
Taiwan when he was a youth, and he grew up in
Taipei. Growing up in Taiwan left Ozaki with a deep respect and affection for
Chinese culture; he was very fond of the island where he had spent his childhood. Ozaki's father worked for the Japanese colonial government and taught his son that as Japan was the most advanced of the Asian nations it had a special "
civilizing mission" - not only in Taiwan, but in all of Asia. Ozaki was brought up bilingual, and had an education steeped in the classics of both Japanese and Chinese literature in order to better understand China. He returned to Japan in 1922, and enrolled in the Legal department of
Tokyo Imperial University. He reached a turning point in the aftermath of the
1923 Great Kantō earthquake, wherein extreme right-wing groups engaged in
vigilante killings of ethnic Koreans and left-wingers with impunity, amidst rumors that these groups were looting. Ozaki was greatly upset at the way that the government tolerated these killings It was a great shock to him to hear Chinese demonstrators shout "Expel Japan!" and "Boycott Japanese goods!". In 1932, Ozaki covered the
First Battle of Shanghai, and was shocked to see Japanese soldiers execute Chinese POWs on the streets of Shanghai on the grounds that Chinese were mere "ants", not human beings, an event that deeply traumatized him. After his return to Japan, he moved back to Tokyo in 1934 where he linked up with Sorge. By writing books and articles Ozaki established himself as an expert in Sino-Japanese relations. Thus he was recruited by
Ryūnosuke Gotō in 1937 to join the
Shōwa Kenkyūkai, a
think tank established by
Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe. From 1938, he was invited by Konoe to become a member of his inner circle, or "Breakfast Club", of select members with whom he would confer on current events each week over breakfast. Ozaki, therefore, was in a position to participate in the making of decisions he was supposed to uncover. ==Post-war legacy==