Autumn 2008 Newsletter

With an eye toward current events, Harmon made contributions to program development. “My most fulfilling work was adding a Native American speaker program to the agenda. In September 2007, the United Nations passed a Resolution on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was supported by the Japanese delegation. Considering the increased awareness of indigenous peoples around the world, I felt it was important to provide programming that highlights the Native American population,” Harmon added.

The experiences of Leithem and Harmon demonstrate how the dedication of University of Washington alumni and
the motivation of students combine to produce unique opportunities for Japan Studies students to work and live in Japan. Internships such as these, through both individuals and organizations, provide a bridge between the academic and the professional worlds and afford the chance to put learning into action.

Student Awards

Rebekah Harmon, MAIS Candidate Japan Studies 2008 – Anonymous Donor Internship Award. Harmon was awarded an internship from the Department of State to work in the Cultural Affairs Division of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo in summer 2008.

Cindy Huang, MA Candidate Art History 2009 – Blakemore Foundation Scholarship to participate in Exploration Seminar: Japanese Buddhist Temples, Past and Present led by UW Professor Cynthea Bogel in Kyoto, Japan, in summer 2008.

Samuel Lederer, MAIS Candidate Japan Studies 2010 – FLAS Fellowship 2008-2009.

Jessica Leithem, BA Candidate Japan Studies 2009 – George M. Beckmann Memorial Scholarship, Ayako Betty Murakami Scholarship, Anonymous Donor Internship Award. Leithem’s internship was with Representative Takashi Shinohara of the Democratic Party of Japan in spring 2008.

Raeanna Kaylin Pierce Mason, BA Japanese 2008 – Henry S. Tatsumi Scholarship 2007-2008.

Catherine Roche, PhD Candidate Art History – Blakemore Foundation Internship in Japanese and Korean Art, Seattle Art Museum, 2008-2009.

Holly Strasser, MA Candidate Art History 2010 – Blakemore Foundation Scholarship to participate in Exploration Seminar: Japanese Buddhist Temples, Past and Present led by UW Professor Cynthea Bogel in Kyoto, Japan, in summer 2008.

Ryan Zielonka, MAIS Candidate Japan Studies 2009 – Tamaki Grant in Japan Studies. Anonymous Donor Internship Award, Eleanor Hadley Scholarship, FLAS Fellow, Zielonka attended Waseda University’s Intensive Japanese Language Program in summer 2008.

Doctoral Candidates: 

Robert Hoppens, PhD Candidate History plans to defend his thesis, “Japanese Nationalism and
Sino-Japanese Relations 1971-1979” in spring 2009. 

Hiro Sasada, PhD Candidate Political Science, successfully defended his dissertation in September 2008. His thesis was titled “Institutions, Interests, and Ideas: The Evolution of Developmental State Systems in Manchuria, Wartime Japan, and Postwar Japan.”

Michael Strausz, PhD Political Science 2007, joined Texas Christian University as assistant professor.

Emi Tamaki, PhD Candidate Sociology

Faculty News

Marie Anchordoguy delivered a talk about Japan’s model of economic development at a conference on “Beyond Borders: Asia on the World Stage” in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in August 2008.  She also published an article titled “Alfred Chandler and Business History in Japan,” in Business History Review (Summer 2008).

Andrea Arai is co-authoring a forthcoming book with UW Anthropology Professor Ann Anagnost titled “Global Futures in East Asia.” The book explores the effects of globalization and how a loss of certainty about personal and national futures plays out in the arenas of education, labor, militarization, and technology in East Asia. In February 2008, she delivered a lecture titled “Disciplining Hearts and Minds: The Local and Global Contexts of Patriotism and Militarization in Post-Recessionary Japan” at Stanford Univerity.

Paul Atkins published an article titled “Chigo in the Medieval Japanese Imagination” in The Journal of Asian Studies (August 2008). Employing historical records and fictional narratives, the article examines the depiction of chigo, adolescent boys attached to Buddhist temples and aristocratic houses whose subsistence was provided in exchange for personal services.  He also presented a paper at the conference “Gatherings Beneath the Dai: Seasonal Topics in Hyakushu and Utaawase,” held at Columbia University in March 2008. 

Cynthea Bogel is on sabbatical Autumn Quarter, conducting research in Kyoto and Seattle. She is writing a book on Edo-period woodblock prints (ukiyoe) with support from the Japan Endowment and the Northeast Asian Council of the Association for Asian Studies. In September, she led the UW Exploration Seminar “Japanese Buddhist Temples: Past and Present” with 15 UW students; they studied temples, icons, and Buddhism in Kyoto, Nara, and on Mt. Koya. 

Ted Mack’s article “Pure Art as Mass Culture: Industrialized Publishing and ‘Modern Japanese Literature’” was published in Books in Numbers (Harvard-Yenching Library, 2007). Mack also gave a lecture titled “Para-colonial Literature: Japanese-Language Literature in Brazil” at Stanford University in March 2008.

Amy Snyder Ohta co-edited the book Japanese Applied Linguistics: Discourse and Social Perspectives (Continuum, 2008), in which she authored a chapter titled “Laughter and Second Language Acquisition: A Study of Japanese Foreign Language Classes.” She delivered the keynote address at the annual conference of the Washington Association of Teachers of Japanese in Shoreline on February 9, 2008.

Ken Tadashi Oshima is Visiting Assistant Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design for Autumn 2008. His recent publications include “Postulating the Potential of Prefab: The Case of Japan,” in Home Delivery (Museum of Modern Art, 2008), and “Beyond Borders: Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA,” in conjunction with the November 2007 – March 2008 exhibition he curated at the UW’s Henry Art Gallery. His recent lectures include: “19th Century Design Trajectories: England, America, and Japan” at the Words for Design International Conference, in Norwich, England (July 2008); “Dynamics of Domesticity,” at UCLA (May 2008); and “Tokyo Trajectories,” at the University of British Columbia (March 2008).

Kenneth Pyle delivered the keynote address in March 2008 in Tokyo at a convocation marking the 150th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and the United States.

Robert Pekkanen received the 2007 Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize for his book Japan’s Dual Civil Society (Stanford University Press, 2006). This autumn, he went on a U.S. State Department-sponsored lecture tour of U.S. consulates in Japan. 

Saadia Pekkanen’s book, Japan’s Aggressive Legalism: Law and Foreign Trade Politics Beyond the WTO, was published by Stanford University Press in March 2008. Her book explores how law has interacted with concrete interests to transform Japan’s foreign trade politics and create an aggressive legalism that is active on a global scale.

David Spafford completed a forthcoming article titled “An Apology of Betrayal: Political and Narrative Strategies in a Late Medieval Memoir.” Spafford presented a paper “Literary Irony and Non-Literary Personas in Late Medieval Japan” at the annual MLA conference held in Chicago in December 2007. He is currently at work on his first book, a still-untitled rewriting of his dissertation, “War and Territorial Imagination in Late Medieval Japan.” He is also involved in the organization of a workshop on “Japan’s Long Sixteenth Century,” to be held at the University of Southern California in December.  

Veronica Taylor was Visiting Professor at the Center for Asian Legal Exchange (CALE) at Nagoya University and Visiting Researcher at the University of Tokyo during 2007 – 2008. She also presented lectures at Kobe, Nagoya, and Waseda Universities. She currently serves as chair of the Japan Foundation American Advisory Committee.

Michio Tsutsui co-authored A Dictionary of Advanced Grammar (The Japan Times, 2008). This is the third installment of the highly acclaimed Japanese grammar dictionary series that he co-wrote with Seiichi Makino.

Program Highlights

Alumni Highlight – Theresa Mudrock

Earlier this year, Theresa Mudrock, MA Japan Studies 1987, history librarian in the Reference and Research Services Division of UW Libraries, received the first-ever UW Distinguished Librarian Award. The award recognizes Ms. Mudrock for her exhibit, Interrupted Lives, which brought to light the experiences of many of the 449 UW Japanese American students forced to leave the university during 1941-42. The U.S. government considered them, along with all Japanese Americans, a security threat after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and they were forced into relocation camps away from the West Coast.

Mudrock’s research began in 1996 as a historical web site on the Camp Harmony, “assembly center.” Demonstrating the new capabilities of research via the Internet, her project was recognized as one of the early “Yahoo Sites of the Week.” As a UW alumna, she wondered what part the university was playing at the time of the relocations. She discovered through research of unique materials held at UW libraries that administration and faculty led efforts assisted students caught in the relocation. By raising funds, testifying before congress, writing editorials for local papers, and joining the American Friends Organization, the university community helped move many students to other universities so that they could finish their degrees. A UW assistant dean was given special military leave to help direct the effort.

In addition to researching records, photos, and correspondence there was translation and transcribing. “At that time, it was pre-PDF technology, so I had to transcribe much of the documentation” not just translate it, explains Mudrock.

Mudrock’s years of research gained notice. The Columns magazine of the UW Alumni Association and other publications began highlighting the history of the internment and the UW Japanese American students. Volunteers, particularly from the Nikkei Alumni Association, joined forces to ascertain the current whereabouts of students. Through interviews, surveys, and questionnaires, two-thirds of the relocated students were found.

In 2007, Mudrock’s research spurred UW’s Board of Regents to pass a resolution granting honorary degrees to students affected by the relocation, and on May 18, 2008 it culminated in a graduation ceremony for surviving students, and family members of those students who had passed away. Mudrock acknowledged, “We’re still finding people due to the publicity [of the ceremony]. What surprised me were the students’ enthusiasm, the excitement and community effort. In a way it paralleled the activities and enthusiasm in 1942 on campus and in the community.”

Looking back at the journey from Japan Studies through Library Science Mudrock expressed appreciation of her professors for being good mentors and admitted that “You don’t always know where your degree will lead.”

Donor Highlight: Beckmann Slides

Janet Beckmann, former UW dean of Nursing and energetic supporter of life long learning, has graciously donated a sizable collection of slides from Japan to the Japan Studies Program. The collection contains images collected and used by her late husband, George Beckmann, during his tenure as a professor of East Asian studies at the UW.

Most slides are photos taken by G. Beckmann himself and include art work, Buddhist sculpture, architecture, and cultural artifacts. Many of the photos could not be taken today due to restrictions by museums. Slides will be reviewed and digitized for archival purposes. We are grateful to Janet for this gift as part of the legacy George has left the university, not only as a professor and director of what is now the Jackson School of International Studies, but also as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and UW provost.

East Asia Resource Center Japan Programs

The mission of the East Asia Resource Center is to help American K-12 teachers learn and teach about East Asia. Programs about Japan in 2008 included a new summer quarter course co-sponsored by Japan Studies and the EARC. Teachers joined undergraduates in a course about 20^th century Japan and then attended additional sessions addressing ways to use that information in their own classrooms.

Teachers were privileged to have two opportunities to participate in EARC study tours to Japan this year. One tour marked the 45^th anniversary of the Washington-Hyogo sister-state relationship. Fourteen American teachers spent three weeks in Japan, including an official visit to Hyogo, on a program established in 1992 by the EARC and the Hyogo Business and Cultural Association. Among the highlights was a seminar in Tokyo with Japan Program Chair Robert Pekkanen.

The second 2008 study tour was designed for alumni of National Consortium for Teaching about Asia seminars. Since co-founding NCTA in 1998, the EARC has provided these 30-hour seminars to 1305 teachers from six Northwest states. The 2008 tour took sixteen teachers to Japan and Korea for three weeks. Both study tours were made possible by generous funding from the Freeman Foundation. Learn more about the EARC at jsis.washington.edu/earc.