Akira Iriye
Encyclopedia
is an historian of American diplomatic history especially United States-East Asian relations, and international issues. He is the only Japanese citizen ever to serve as President of the American Historical Association
, and has also served as president for the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
. In 2005, he was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star, one of Japan's highest civilian honors. He was also awarded Japan's Yoshida Shigeru Prize for best book in public history.
, Japan
in 1934. He received a B.A. from Haverford College
in 1957, and a Ph.D. in History from Harvard in 1961. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship
in 1974. Iriye began as an Instructor and Lecturer in history at Harvard, then taught at the University of California at Santa Cruz, the University of Rochester
, and the University of Chicago
before accepting an appointment as Professor of History at Harvard University
in 1989, where he became Charles Warren Professor of American History in 1991. He was Director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies
from 1991 through 1995.
Since retiring in 2005, he has taught at Waseda University
, Ritsumeikan University
, and the University of Illinois as a guest professor.
, a war which he experienced first hand as a child. His first book, After Imperialism: The Search for a New Order in the Far East, 1921–1931, based on his PhD thesis, made use of the multi-archival and multi-lingual research which characterizes his scholarship. The book presents the argument that the collapse of the "diplomacy of imperialism" after Treaty of Versailles
left a vacuum in the East Asian international system, a theme also explored in his 1972 Pacific Estrangement: Japanese and American Expansion, 1897- 1911. But his 1981 Power and Culture: the Japanese-American War, 1941-1945 explained in more optimistic terms the almost instantaneous transition in 1945 from racial all out war to alliance in terms of underlying cultural parallels between the two countries.
Across the Pacific: An Inner History of American-East Asian Relations, first published in 1965, surveys nearly two centuries of interaction, but is more than a synthesis of scholarship in the field; it looks at how the thinking elites and policymakers in the three countries interacted, a theme explored in the conference volume Mutual Images: Essays in American-Japanese Relations (1975).
This approach used but moved beyond traditional diplomatic history by incorporating cultural perspectives, shown also in his work on the Cold War, including The Cold War in Asia, (1974) and the co-edited conference volumes The Origins of the Cold War in Asia (1977) and The Great Powers in East Asia, 1953-1960 (1990).
However the focus of his thought was moving in new directions and beyond East Asia. In his presidential address to the American Historical Association in 1988, "The Internationalization of History," Iriye pointed out that "at one level, this will necessitate the establishment of closer ties between the American and overseas historical communities. At another level, the effort will entail the search for historical themes and conceptions that are meaningful across national boundaries. At still another level, each historian will have to become more conscious of how his or her scholarship may translate in other parts of the world." http://www.historians.org/info/AHA_History/airiye.htm
In his 1997 Cultural Internationalism and World Order and the 2002 Global Community: The Role of International Organizations in the Making of the Contemporary World he looked at the growth of NGOs and global consciousness rather than diplomacy, and called for new levels of thought and analysis.
/WorldCat
encompasses roughly 100+ works in 300+ publications in 5 languages and 17,000+ library holdings.
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association is the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States. Founded in 1884, the association promotes historical studies, the teaching of history, and the preservation of and access to historical materials...
, and has also served as president for the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations is the leading learned society for the academic study of the history of United States foreign policy....
. In 2005, he was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star, one of Japan's highest civilian honors. He was also awarded Japan's Yoshida Shigeru Prize for best book in public history.
Biography
Akira Iriye was born in TokyoTokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in 1934. He received a B.A. from Haverford College
Haverford College
Haverford College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States, a suburb of Philadelphia...
in 1957, and a Ph.D. in History from Harvard in 1961. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
in 1974. Iriye began as an Instructor and Lecturer in history at Harvard, then taught at the University of California at Santa Cruz, the University of Rochester
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester is a private, nonsectarian, research university in Rochester, New York, United States. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The university has six schools and various interdisciplinary programs.The...
, and the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
before accepting an appointment as Professor of History at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1989, where he became Charles Warren Professor of American History in 1991. He was Director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies
Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies
Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University is a research center focusing on Japan. It provides a forum for stimulating scholarly and public interest....
from 1991 through 1995.
Since retiring in 2005, he has taught at Waseda University
Waseda University
, abbreviated as , is one of the most prestigious private universities in Japan and Asia. Its main campuses are located in the northern part of Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as Tokyo Senmon Gakko, the institution was renamed "Waseda University" in 1902. It is known for its liberal climate...
, Ritsumeikan University
Ritsumeikan University
Ritsumeikan University has a growing reputation as one of the main private universities of Japan. It is part of a group of prestigious private universities in the Kansai area, called "Kan -Kan -Dou -Ritsu "...
, and the University of Illinois as a guest professor.
Career and scholarship
The focus of his research and thinking first turned to the United States, China, and Japan's interactions in the period leading up to the Pacific WarPacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
, a war which he experienced first hand as a child. His first book, After Imperialism: The Search for a New Order in the Far East, 1921–1931, based on his PhD thesis, made use of the multi-archival and multi-lingual research which characterizes his scholarship. The book presents the argument that the collapse of the "diplomacy of imperialism" after Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
left a vacuum in the East Asian international system, a theme also explored in his 1972 Pacific Estrangement: Japanese and American Expansion, 1897- 1911. But his 1981 Power and Culture: the Japanese-American War, 1941-1945 explained in more optimistic terms the almost instantaneous transition in 1945 from racial all out war to alliance in terms of underlying cultural parallels between the two countries.
Across the Pacific: An Inner History of American-East Asian Relations, first published in 1965, surveys nearly two centuries of interaction, but is more than a synthesis of scholarship in the field; it looks at how the thinking elites and policymakers in the three countries interacted, a theme explored in the conference volume Mutual Images: Essays in American-Japanese Relations (1975).
This approach used but moved beyond traditional diplomatic history by incorporating cultural perspectives, shown also in his work on the Cold War, including The Cold War in Asia, (1974) and the co-edited conference volumes The Origins of the Cold War in Asia (1977) and The Great Powers in East Asia, 1953-1960 (1990).
However the focus of his thought was moving in new directions and beyond East Asia. In his presidential address to the American Historical Association in 1988, "The Internationalization of History," Iriye pointed out that "at one level, this will necessitate the establishment of closer ties between the American and overseas historical communities. At another level, the effort will entail the search for historical themes and conceptions that are meaningful across national boundaries. At still another level, each historian will have to become more conscious of how his or her scholarship may translate in other parts of the world." http://www.historians.org/info/AHA_History/airiye.htm
In his 1997 Cultural Internationalism and World Order and the 2002 Global Community: The Role of International Organizations in the Making of the Contemporary World he looked at the growth of NGOs and global consciousness rather than diplomacy, and called for new levels of thought and analysis.
Selected works
In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Akira Iriye, OCLCOCLC
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is "a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs"...
/WorldCat
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...
encompasses roughly 100+ works in 300+ publications in 5 languages and 17,000+ library holdings.
- After Imperialism: The Search for a New Order in the Far East, 1921–1931 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965). Reprinted: (Chicago: Imprint Publications, 1990).
- Across the Pacific: An Inner History of American-East Asian Relations (Chicago: Harcourt, Brace, 1967). Reprinted: Chicago: Imprint, 1992.
- Pacific Estrangement: Japanese and American Expansion, 1897-1911 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972; reprinted (Chicago: Imprint Publications, 1994).).
- Priscilla Clapp Akira Iriye, eds., Mutual Images: Essays in American-Japanese Relations (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975).
- Yonosuke Nagai Akira Iriye, eds., The Origins of the Cold War in Asia (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977).
- Power and Culture: The Japanese-American War, 1941-1945 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981).
- The Origins of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific (London; New York: Longman, 1987).
- "The Internationalization of History," American Historical Association Presidential Address, 1988 http://www.historians.org/info/AHA_History/airiye.htm
- Akira Iriye Warren I. Cohen, eds., The United States and Japan in the Postwar World (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1989).
- Warren I. Cohen Akira Iriye, eds., The Great Powers in East Asia, 1953-1960 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990).
- Fifty Years of Japanese-American Relations (in Japanese, 1991)
- Akira Iriye, Michael J. Barnhart eds., "Above the Mushroom Clouds: Fiftieth Anniversary Perspectives," Journal of American-East Asian Relations 4.2 (Summer 1995): 89-179.
- The Globalizing of America (1993)
- Cultural Internationalism and World Order (1997).
- Global Community: The Role of International Organizations in the Making of the Contemporary World (2002)
- Holt World History: The Human Journey (200).
- China and Japan in the Global Setting (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992)
See also
- Kodansha Encyclopedia of JapanKodansha Encyclopedia of JapanThe Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan is a comprehensive English-language encyclopedia first published in 1983 that covers a broad range of topics on Japan....
- American Historical AssociationAmerican Historical AssociationThe American Historical Association is the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States. Founded in 1884, the association promotes historical studies, the teaching of history, and the preservation of and access to historical materials...
- Jinan IncidentJinan IncidentThe Jinan Incident or May 3rd Tragedy , was an armed conflict between the Japanese Army allied with Northern Chinese warlords against the Kuomintang's southern army in Jinan, the capital of Shandong in 1928 during the Kuomintang's Northern Expedition.-Background:During the Northern Expedition,...
- List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 1974