Mikiso “Miki” Hane (January 16, 1922 – December 8, 2003) was a
Japanese American
are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian Americans, Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 United States census, 2000 census, they have declined in ...
professor of history at
Knox College, where he taught for over 40 years. He wrote and translated over a dozen books, wrote many articles, and was appointed a member of the
National Council on the Humanities in 1991. He was born in California, lived in Japan during his teenage years, and was
interned
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...
in Arizona during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. He taught soldiers Japanese at
Yale
Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...
, then studied there, where he attained a bachelors in 1952, a masters in 1953, and doctorate degree in 1957. He studied in Japan and Germany, then taught at the
University of Toledo
The University of Toledo (UToledo or UT) is a Public university, public research university in Toledo, Ohio, United States. It is the northernmost campus of the University System of Ohio. The university also operates a Health Science campus, ...
and studied in India before coming to Knox College in 1961. He lived in
Galesburg for the rest of his life, and both wrote and taught up until his death.
Early life and education
Hane was born in
Hollister, California
Hollister is a city in and the county seat of San Benito County, located in the Central Coast region of California, United States. With a 2020 United States census population of 41,678, Hollister is one of the most populous cities in the M ...
on January 16, 1922.
[Mikiso Hane, Curriculum Vitae, Oct, 1994, Mikiso Hane Box, Faculty Series, Special Collections and Archives, Henry M. Seymour Library, Knox College, Galesburg, IL.] While in Hollister, his family worked as
tenant farmer
A tenant farmer is a farmer or farmworker who resides and works on land owned by a landlord, while tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and ma ...
s. He had three brothers and two sisters. Hane attended Fairhaven Grammar School, a two-room elementary school in Hollister, California, during the 1930s, where he learned basic American history. He later likened this history, which mostly concerned topics such as
George Washington's cherry tree and
Columbus’ discovery of America, to both myth and the “
great man
The great man theory is an approach to the study of history popularised in the 19th century according to which history can be largely explained by the impact of ''great men'', or heroes: highly influential and unique individuals who, due to th ...
” theory of
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the V ...
.
At 10, in 1933, he was sent to Japan by his family, where he lived in a ‘small peasant village’ near
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...
with his uncle. His parents sent Hane back with the hope to join him later after their retirement.
He worked as a vegetable farmer to provide for the family. Hane discussed his early life experience of living in poverty to the
Journal Star, describing “the sense that you can’t look forward.”
[Pam Adams, "Japanese historian destroys stereotypes." Journal Star, 27 Apr, 1989. 11.] In school, he continued to learn myths “designed to indoctrinate the youngsters,”
[Mikiso Hane, The Last Lecture, Mortar Board, 1992. 2.] this time about the history of Japan, including topics such as the founding of Japan by the
Sun Goddess and the daring heroics of
General Nogi. Despite this “‘theological’ view of history,”
[Mikiso Hane, The Last Lecture, Mortar Board, 1992. 3.] his stern teacher motivated Hane’s interest in history. Hane reports that he was kicked out of this school after he organized the other students into purposefully dragging out a game of tug-o-war to annoy the widely disliked physical education teacher. He was only allowed to return after his aunt and uncle begged the principal “on their hands and knees” to forgive him.
Later, after Japan invaded China, Hane was worried that Japan might go to war with the United States, and so he asked his parents if they would let him return before such a war began. He returned to Hollister in 1940 and a teacher at the elementary school there tutored him in English.
[“Oral History Interview with Mikiso Hane,” interview by Gregory Kupsky, May 31, 2002, transcript, Internment (during WWII) folder, Mikiso Hane Box, Faculty Series, Special Collections and Archives, Henry M. Seymour Library, Knox College, Galesburg, IL. 12.]
Internment during WWII
After the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. At the tim ...
and
Executive Order 9066
Executive Order 9066 was a President of the United States, United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. "This order authorized the fo ...
was signed, Hane was forced to live in internment camps along with 120,000 Japanese-Americans. He shared in an interview with
Quad-City Times
The ''Quad-City Times'' is a daily morning newspaper based in Davenport, Iowa, and circulated throughout the Quad Cities metropolitan area, including Davenport, Bettendorf and Scott County in Iowa; and Moline, East Moline, Rock Island, an ...
that he was “frightened” he would be punished “for the crimes of my race”. He recalled many rumors surrounding what would be done to the people in the internment camp: “... they were going to put us on trains, take us to camps and machine gun us down … We didn’t know what to do. Two Japanese-American girls in a neighboring community were taken away and raped.”
[Scott Reeder, “I was frightened I would be punished.” Quad-City Times, 8 Dec 1991.] Hane said that he burnt all letters, books, and other documents he possessed written in Japanese for fear of being arrested. This was 6 months before his family was ordered to report to a government
detention camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
in
Poston, Arizona
Poston is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in La Paz County, Arizona, United States, in the Parker Valley. The population was 285 at the 2010 census, down from 389 in 2000.
During World War II, Poston was the si ...
, in the hot
Sonoran desert
The Sonoran Desert () is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the Southwestern United States (in Arizona and California). It ...
, in May 1942. They, along with 20,000 other Japanese in this camp, lived in old Army barracks stationed in the desert battered by sandstorms. If they did not profess loyalty to the United States, they would be sent to a “high-pressure concentration camp” in
Tule Lake, California
Tulelake ( ) is a city in northeastern Siskiyou County, California, United States. The town is named after nearby Tule Lake. Its population is 902 as of the 2020 census, down from 1,010 from the 2010 census.
Tulelake peace officers are authoriz ...
. According to Hane, the worst part of his own experience was a lack of privacy. Hane took the job as a dishwasher in the camp's kitchen and received $16 per month.
Despite the difficult conditions of the hot, surveilled, impoverished camp, Hane was able to attend impromptu classes taught in the style of Socrates by a philosophy student interned in the camp.
[Mikiso Hane, The Last Lecture, Mortar Board, 1992. 3-4.]
By 1943, it had become possible for people to leave the camp if they were getting jobs in inland states. Hane signed up for a job in the U.S. military, as he feared being declared a liar, given that he had already professed loyalty to the United States. Government officials deemed Hane as an “enemy alien, potentially dangerous” because his return to the U.S. was not long before his detainment. Hane disagreed, referring to himself as a “physical coward” and not a threat to the country. By 1943, Hane got an interview for a job tutoring soldiers in the Japanese language program at Yale, which led to his release from the internment camp. He went to Chicago to be interviewed for the position. He was then hired and sent to New Haven, Connecticut to start his professional career at $600 per year for this part-time Japanese teacher role. It was at this time when he found a passion for history after going to lectures at Yale.
[Lewis, Cynthia. “A Passion for the Past: “History Speaking”.” Knox Magazine, September 2001.] He reports reading many classic historical fiction novels at this time, such as ''Native Son'' and ''Grapes of Wrath''.
Despite the challenges he had gone through, Hane considered the camp as having one positive impact on his life, that it allowed him the opportunity to go to college and work as a professor instead of staying a vegetable farmer.
Education at Yale
After World War II ended, Hane began a bachelor's degree at Yale. He gravitated towards history courses and was taught by
Bernard Knox
Bernard MacGregor Walker Knox (November 24, 1914 – July 22, 2010Wolfgang Saxon ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2010.) was an English classicist, author, and critic who became an American citizen. He was the first director of the Cente ...
,
Robert Lopez
Robert “Bobby” Lopez (born February 23, 1975) is an American songwriter for musicals and playwright, best known for co-creating '' The Book of Mormon'' and '' Avenue Q'', and for co-writing the songs featured in the Disney animated films '' ...
, and
Samuel Bemis
Dr. Samuel A. Bemis (1793–1881) was one of the earliest photographers in the United States. A small number of his daguerreotypes have survived.
Biography
Bemis was a Boston dentist when in April 1840 he acquired an early camera and beca ...
. In 1947, he had kidney problems and took a year off of work. He soon met Rose Kanemoto, who was working as a doctor's assistant. They married in 1948.
[“Mikiso Hane: 1922-2003”, Memorial Service folder, Mikiso Hane Box, Faculty Series, Special Collections and Archives, Henry M. Seymour Library, Knox College, Galesburg, IL.] They had two daughters, named Laurie and Jennifer. He earned his B.A. in 1952 and went on to finish a master's degree in 1953. In graduate school, he took courses with
Professor Vernadsky,
Hajo Holborn
Hajo Holborn (; 18 May 1902, Berlin – 20 June 1969, Bonn) was a German-American historian and specialist in modern German history. He was designated a Sterling Professor of History at Yale University in 1959, the highest academic rank offered ...
, and Franklin Le van Baumer, who inspired Hane to write a dissertation on the influence of
English liberalism on
Meiji Japan
The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...
in the 1868-1890 period.
During 1957 and 1958, Hane was a
Fulbright research fellow
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...
at
Tokyo University
The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...
, assigned to
Masao Maruyama. Just after
Sputnik
Sputnik 1 (, , ''Satellite 1''), sometimes referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space progra ...
was launched, one of his friends who was in the air force told him to travel on the
Siberian railway
Krasnoyarsk Railway () is a subsidiary of the Russian Railways headquartered in Krasnoyarsk and serving the south of Siberia.
Main information
Its mainline is a link in the Trans-Siberian Railway crossing the Krasnoyarsk Krai and Khakassia. It i ...
and take photos of the various train stops, and so, doubting this plan, he visited the Soviet Embassy in Tokyo, where he was immediately dismissed. Later, when working at Knox College, an
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
agent called him out of his office to ask him why he had gone to the Soviet Union, and Hane cleared up the confusion, explaining that he had just gone to the embassy to ask a question about traveling to Siberia. In 1958 and 1959, he became a student at the
University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...
, Germany, in the field of language, to study concepts which he would use while translating one of Maruyama's works. Hane earned his BA (1952), M.A (1953), and Ph.D. (1957) from Yale.
Academic career
From 1959 to 1961, Hane was an assistant professor of history at the University of Toledo. While working there, Hane explained, he found that “the best way to learn history is to teach it.”
He primarily taught
Western civilization
Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompasses the social no ...
classes there. In the summer of 1963, he studied
Indian civilization at the
University of Mysore
The University of Mysore is a public state university in Mysore, Karnataka, India. The university was founded during the reign of Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV and the premiership of Sir M. Visvesvaraya. The university is recognised by t ...
on a Fulbright grant.
From 1961 to 1966, he was an assistant professor of history at Knox College. Hane taught some courses on Japanese studies in a collaborative program with nearby
Monmouth College
Monmouth College is a Private college, private Presbyterian Church (USA), Presbyterian Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Monmouth, Illinois. It enrolls 727 students in Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science de ...
. While teaching Western Civ, Hane was required to give a lecture in Knox's Beecher Chapel on Renaissance Art to all 250 freshman students taking it. He later wrote, jokingly, “I believe it was my lecture on Renaissance Art that led the faculty to drop the Western Civ requirement and tear down Beecher Chapel”. In 1963, Hane gave a faculty seminar lecture on “The Japanese Language and the Japanese Mode of Thought.” After some difficulties deciding what to write, Hane decided to write about peasants, as he saw himself as a peasant, having lived in Japan, California, and Arizona as one. In September 1966, he was promoted to associate professor of history. In 1972, he became a professor of history.
In 1976, Hane was promoted to Szold Distinguished Service Professor of History, an endowed professorship. At this time, Hane's wife, Rose Hane, was the secretary of the Knox College Library. From 1980 until 1983, Hane was a member of the Teaching Division of the
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world, claiming over 10,000 members. Founded in 1884, AHA works to protect academic free ...
. In 1982, he translated ''Emperor Hirohito and his Chief Aide-de-Camp, The Honjo Diary, 1933-1936''. While at Knox, he taught a wide variety of history courses at Knox including Japanese, Chinese, Indian, and Russian history along with the traditional Western civilization sequence. He wrote many books about Japanese history. Some focused on its modern history through the experiences of peasants and women, as found in their own diaries and documents. Other writings concerned Japanese thought in comparison with other historical developments, including English liberalism and
German nationalism
German nationalism () is an ideological notion that promotes the unity of Germans and of the Germanosphere into one unified nation-state. German nationalism also emphasizes and takes pride in the patriotism and national identity of Germans as ...
.
Hane's textbooks, especially the two renowned titles ''
Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan'' and ''Peasants, Rebels, Women, and Outcastes: The Underside of Modern Japan'' were different from the types of works on Japanese history then in vogue. Hane's writings do not romanticize or rely on stereotypes which position emperors and samurai as any more central to Japan's history than peasants and rebellious women.
Hane's intention was to stay true to his roots, specializing his research on what he knew well:
... you’re better off working on and writing about something that you are really steeped in … I was born a peasant, grew up in Hollister as a peasant, carried honey buckets around in a Japanese village as a peasant, slept with scorpions in Arizona as a peasant. I finally decided that my misbegotten hope of gliding about in the rarified sphere of intellectual history was a self-deluding ego trip and that one can’t escape one’s roots. Peasant I was born, peasant I was raised, peasant I remained.
However, Hane's work faced criticism by some of his Japanese friends, saying that he needed to concentrate on “the real Japan” which includes the stereotypical “flower arranging, tea ceremonies, art” rather than peasants. He was even described as a “third-rate Marxist, male radical historian.”
In 1985, he won a Burlington Northern Foundation Faculty Achievement Award, and from 1985 until 1988, he was a member of the board of directors and Northeast Asia council of the
Association for Asian Studies
The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is a scholarly, non-political and non-profit professional association focusing on Asia and the study of Asia. It is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States.
The Association provides members with an Ann ...
. From 1987 to 1988, Hane was president of the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs. He gave a lecture at Knox on his experiences during his internment in WWII on February 22, 1991. Later, he won Senate confirmation as a member of the National Council on the Humanities, after being nominated by
President Bush, on March 25, 1991.
[“Knox Professor remembered for his guts, martinis,” News Clippings - 1990 and on folder, Mikiso Hane Box, Faculty Series, Special Collections and Archives, Henry M. Seymour Library, Knox College, Galesburg, IL.] In 1992, Hane retired from Knox as
emeritus professor
''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus".
In some c ...
, and he continued teaching three courses per year and writing books until his death.
He was awarded an
Honorary degree
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
, doctor of humane letters, by Knox College in 1997. In 2003, the Asian Studies Association created the Mikiso Hane Undergraduate Research Prize in Asian Studies in honor of Hane's scholarship. After retirement, Knox College created another prize in his name, the Mikiso Hane East Asian Studies Prize.
During his academic career, he spoke at other colleges and the First United Presbyterian Church. He appeared on local newspapers numerous times in celebration of his nomination to the 26-member National Council on the Humanities, an interview of his memory of the WWII internment camp, and generally for his academic contribution to Knox College. Titles that featured articles about Mikiso Hane included Galesburg's
The Register-Mail
''The Register-Mail'' is an American daily newspaper published in Galesburg, Illinois. The paper was owned by the Pritchard family from 1896 to 1989, when it was sold to the '' Journal Star''. Copley Press bought both papers for $174.5 million. I ...
, the Quad-City Times, The Galesburg Post, the Knoxville Journal, Peoria's Journal Star, The
Dispatch and Rock Island Argus, The Knox Student, and the school's magazines.
He delivered a ‘final lecture’ called “Learning History: A Bewildering Journey from Hollister to Galesburg” on May 21, 1992, for
Mortar Board
Mortar Board is an American national honor society for college juniors and seniors. It was established in 1918 in Syracuse, New York through the merger of four local women's organizations from four institutions. It started admitting men in 1975 ...
’s Last Lecture Series. In 2002, discussing what lessons he had learned from his life experiences, Hane explained,
… if you write about things that are linked to your personal life, it makes more sense to you. It becomes more meaningful to you, so that if you learn, say, from history, you could start from yourself and you could extend that … that will give you a better sense of “Why study history?” That there is a linkage in human life.
Later life
Hane died at 81 on December 8, 2003, in
OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria, likely from cancer.
A memorial service was held for him at Knox College on February 14, 2004.
[“Memorial service for Professor Mikiso Hane”, Memorial service folder, Mikiso Hane Box, Faculty Series, Special Collections and Archives, Henry M. Seymour Library, Knox College, Galesburg, IL.]
Books
* Mikiso Hane and Kunio Odaka, ''Economic Organization of the Li Tribes of Hainan Island''. Connecticut: New Haven, Yale University, Southeast Asia Studies, 1950.
* Mikiso Hane, ''Japan: A Historical Survey''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1972.
* Mikiso Hane, ''The World of Mankind, Cultures in Transition''. Follett Publishing Co., 1973.
* Maruyama Masao, ''Kindai Nihon Seiji Shisoshi Kenkyu (Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan)''. trans. Mikiso Hane. Tokyo and Princeton: Tokyo and Princeton University presses, 1974.
* ''Emperor Hirohito and His Chief Aide-de-Camp: the Honjo Diary, 1933-36''. Introduction and trans. Mikiso Hane. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1982.
* Mikiso Hane, ''Peasants, Rebels, and Outcastes: The Underside of Modern Japan''. New York: Pantheon Books, 1982.
* Mikiso Hane, ''Peasants, Rebels, Women, and Outcastes: The Underside of Modern Japan'', 2nd Ed. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2003.
* Mikiso Hane, ''Modern Japan: A Historical Survey.'' Boulder: Westview Press, 1986.
* Mikiso Hane, ''
Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan.'' University of California Press and Pantheon Books, 1988.
* Mikiso Hane, ''Premodern Japan: A Historical Survey.'' Boulder: Westview Press, 1990.
* Mikiso Hane, ''Germany and Japan: Comparative Developments.'' Illinois: Knox College, 1993.
* Kumazawa Makoto, ''Nihon no Rodoshazo (Image of Japanese Workers).'' trans. Mikiso Hane. Colorado: Westview Press, 1995.
* Irokawa Daikichi, ''Showashi to Tenno (Showa History and the Emperor).'' trans. Mikiso Hane. Free Press, 1995.
* Mikiso Hane, ''Eastern Phoenix: Japan since 1945.'' Colorado: Westview Press, 1996.
* Mikiso Hane, ''Japan: A Short History.'' Oxford: Oneworld, 2000.
Hane wrote the introduction to the English version of ''
The Prison Memoirs of a Japanese Woman'', by
Kaneko Fumiko.
[ - Cited: p. 551.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hane, Mikiso
1922 births
2003 deaths
People from Hollister, California
Japanese-American internees
Yale University alumni
Knox College (Illinois) faculty
American academics of Japanese descent
Historians of the United States
American writers of Japanese descent