UB Historians Contribute Entries to Encyclopedia On Japan

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Is Japan likely to develop nuclear weaponry after the year 2000? What role does the government play in present-day Japanese education? How does Japan manage its unskilled foreign labor force?

Two UB scholars of East Asian history -- David Abosh, recently retired associate professor of history, and Tom Burkman, director of Asian studies and adjunct associate professor of history -- address such issues in a new reference publication titled "Modern Japan: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture and Nationalism" (Garland 1998).

Abosch, an expert on modern Japan, published an entry on Kato Hiroyuki, the Japanese educator and author who gave direction to the newly established system of higher education during the first three decades of the Meiji era.

Before coming to UB in 1969, Abosch taught history at Northern Illinois University, Oklahoma State University, University of Colorado and Wesleyan University. He holds master's and doctoral degrees from the University of California at Berkeley.

He lives in Williamsville.

Burkman published four entries in the encyclopedia: Kagawa Toyohiko, a Japanese Christian evangelist and social reformer; Japan's connection with the League of Nations; Japanese nationalism in World War I, and the Allied occupation of Japan following Japan's surrender in World War II.

In addition to conducting extensive research in Japan, Burkman has published a number of works on Japanese and East Asian diplomatic history and is currently working on a monograph titled, "Japan, the League of Nations, and World Order, 1914-1938."

Burkman, who did his graduate work at the University of Michigan, has received numerous fellowships and institutional grants, including six from the Japan Foundation.

He is a resident of Grand Island.

The encyclopedia covers topics from Japan's emergence in the 1850s from a feudal society into the modern world, through empire building in the early 20th century, World War II, postwar recovery and international market building with an overall emphasis on nationalism, the most enduring of Japanese value systems.

James Huffman, editor of the encyclopedia and associate professor of history at Wittenberg University, will give a lecture in February at UB titled "Sensationalism and Nationalism: Lessons from the Meiji Press."

The lecture, part of the history department's Colloquia Series, is being co-sponsored by the history department and the Asian Studies Program.