Book Projects

1. The Age of Youth: American Society and the Two World Wars

Forthcoming, Cambridge University Press. By integrating the history of U.S. foreign relations, U.S. social policy, and the history of youth and education, this book project challenges a widely held assumption in U.S. historiography----that American society was only affected by military issues only when the country was officially at war. In particular, it demonstrates how the fluctuations of national security concerns in the first half of the twentieth century influenced American adults' perceptions of young people in their late teens through mid-twenties — the age group deemed most suitable to be soldiers — and how these perceptions affected the lived experience of young people, particularly their educational opportunities. Furthermore, based on bilingual archival research in English and Japanese, this project reveals the bidirectional nature of this dynamic: national security concerns influenced educational policies in the United States from World War I to World War II, which in turn shaped how American authorities in the years after World War II treated young people in other parts of the world.

2. Layers of Imperialism: U.S. Military Expansion and Urban Tourism in Twentieth Century Japan

You typically look at Okinawa when attempting to understand how the U.S. military has affected Japanese society. Or maybe Yokosuka. In fact, the 75-year presence of the U.S. military in Japan has influenced local cultures not only in these and other locations that host military bases, but also in places that appear to have little to do with military affairs. Moreover, the U.S. military has not been the only military or external force shaping local cultures in Japan. Up until World War II, the Japanese military shaped cultures, as did European and American commercial expansion in East Asia since the nineteenth century. Using Kobe as a case study, "Layers of Imperialism" examines how the U.S. military's interactions with Japanese society shaped urban cultures and landscapes by building on this multilayered imperial past. Kobe has rarely been identified with the U.S. or Japanese empires, as it is mostly recognized as a cosmopolitan tourist destination. Nonetheless, a detailed examination of the city's history illustrates how the city, its history, and its people were affected by various military ambitions during the twentieth century. How, then, did Kobe establish itself as a peaceful, cosmopolitan city? Building on multiple fields of historical scholarship, such as race and gender in colonial settings, immigration and labor, and public memory, as well as growing cultural studies literature that investigates the linkages between military bases and tourism, this project illuminates the cultural, racial, and gender dynamics that drove the emergence of a tourist city that built on, but erased, a multifaceted imperialist past. By doing so, it redirects historical scholarship on the U.S. military's connection with host societies, which has focused disproportionately on locations with military bases.