Mikiso Hane

Background

Mikiso Hane was born on January 16, 1922, in Hollister, California, United States. He was the son of Japanese immigrant parents Ichitaro and Hifuyo (Taoka) Hane.

Education

From the time Hane was ten until he was eighteen he lived in and was educated in Japan. He returned to America just before World War II, only to find himself interned in a government camp in Arizona because of his Japanese ancestry. Mikiso received a Bachelor of Arts (1952), a Master of Arts (1953), and a Doctor of Philosophy (1957) from Yale University.

Career

Mikiso Hane taught Japanese at Yale University. He also worked for Asian studies journal. He then taught history at the University of Toledo for two years before joining the Knox College faculty in 1961 as an assistant professor. Hane became a full professor at Knox in 1972 and was named Szold Distinguished Service Professor of History in 1975. Although he retired in 1992, Hane continued teaching at Knox until just a month before his death.

During his career, Hane taught not only Japanese history, but also history of China, Russia, and India. As an author, he was most often praised for his studies of the lives of women and the underclass in Japan before World War II, for which work he conducted numerous interviews to collect oral history.

Among his published works are Cultures in Transition (1973), Peasants, Rebels, and Outcasts: The Underside of Modern Japan (1982), Premodern Japan: A Historical Survey (1991; revised as Modern Japan: A Historical Survey, (1986), The Age of Hirohito (1995), and Japan: A Short Cultural History (2000); he also translated Masao Maruyama's Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan (1974) and translated and edited Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan (1988).

Achievements

• Mikiso Hane is widely recognized as Szold Distinguished Service Professor of History at Knox College and has written extensively on Japan for over twenty-five years. n recognition of Hane's contributions to history and the understanding of Japanese culture and society, the Mikiso Hane East Asian Studies Prize was named in his honor by Knox College in 1992, and in 2003 the Mikiso Hane Undergraduate Research Prize in Asian Studies was created by the Midwest Conference of Asian Studies. In 1991, furthermore, Hane was named to the National Council on the Humanities by President George H. Bush. He has been listed as a noteworthy history educator by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

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  • Japan: A Short History

    (What is shogun? Who were the samurai and what is the warr...)

    2000
  • Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan

    (In this book, for the first time, we can hear the startli...)

    1988
  • Premodern Japan: A Historical Survey

    (Japanese historian Louis Perez brings Mikiso Hane's rich ...)

    1991
  • Modern Japan: A Historical Survey

    (Integrating political events with cultural, economic, and...)

    1986
  • Eastern Phoenix: Japan Since 1945

    (It has been fifty years since Japan admitted defeat and a...)

    1996
  • Peasants, Rebels, Women, and Outcastes: The Underside of Modern Japan 1982
  • Portraits Of The Japanese Workplace: Labor Movements, Workers, And Managers 1996

Religion

Hane was a Buddhist.

Membership

Mikiso Hane was a member of the Association for Asian Studies, American Historical Association, Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, and National Council on Humanities.

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  Association for Asian Studies , United States

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  American Historical Association , United States

Connections

Mikiso married Rose Michiko Kanemoto on September 19, 1948. The couple had two children: Laurie Shizue and Jennifer Kazuko.

Father:

Ichitaro Hane

Mother:

Hifuyo (Taoka) Hane

Daughter:

Jennifer Kazuko Hane

Daughter:

Laurie Shizue Hane

Wife:

Rose Michiko Kanemoto