September 2026 update:
I am resurrecting this long-dormant website upon my retirement from working for the State of California for the past 14 years. I created the site for job-search purposes prior to moving home to Sacramento from Japan in 2008. Continued employment in academia was the initial goal, but that proved to be not in the cards.
Before joining the public sector in 2012, I worked as a Japanese-English technical translator for NEC Electronics America in Roseville, California. There was also a brief, ill-fated stint as a life insurance field agent for the Knights of Columbus.
I worked for seven different departments as a state civil servant, mostly in policy and operations. Positions included Voter Services Manager in the Elections Divisions of the California Secretary of State’s Office, where I did not observe any electoral shenanigans. I was also the first dedicated Policy Manager at the California High-Speed Rail Authority, although the work was basically policy documentation control. I enjoyed editing licensure exams for the Department of Consumer Affairs, for professionals ranging from geophysicists to cemetery brokers.
As a retiree, I’ll return to being an independent researcher of the history of forced labor in wartime Japan and its 21st-century legacy, and of the generally receding global trend toward repairing historical injustices. It may be interesting to look at current reparations efforts for slavery in the United States and elsewhere.
I received my Ph.D. in Political Science in 2007 from Kyushu University, a national institution in Fukuoka, Japan. The dissertation described Japan’s use of forced labor during the Asia Pacific War and analyzed the reparations movements for Korean, Chinese and Allied POW victims.
My articles in The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus beginning in 2005 provided the fullest descriptions in English of forced labor and redress activities involving Korean and Chinese workers. My research contributed to Japanese Prime Minister Aso Taro’s admission in 2007 that Allied POWs worked at Aso Mining during the war.
I have spoken by invitation about my research at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, Stanford University and George Washington University. (I had a book contract with a university press to update and rework my dissertation for a general audience — but again, not in the cards.)
I have been interviewed regarding forced labor redress by broadcast media including Al Jazeera, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Korean Broadcasting System, National Public Radio and radio stations in Seoul and Busan. I have been interviewed by print media including the Associated Press, The Economist, Financial Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, Reuters, Voice of America and Yonhap News Agency.
My articles about Japan’s wartime past have appeared in American Legion Magazine, Far Eastern Economic Review, The Japan Times, South China Morning Post, The Straits Times, YaleGlobal Online and elsewhere.
July 2015 interview starting at 4:00 on Al Jazeera English about UNESCO World Heritage status for Japan’s Meiji Era industrial sites linked to forced labor during WWII. YouTube
I lived in Fukuoka for 11 years, teaching English and related subjects as an Assistant Professor at Kurume Institute of Technology and Fukuoka Jo Gakuin University. Courses taught included Japan and America, Politics and Society, American Culture, Mass Media, Debate, and English for Science and Technology.
I wrote academic articles for university journals and presented papers at regional, national and international conferences. I served on the editorial committee and steering committee for the Kyushu-Okinawa Chapter of the Japan Association of College English Teachers (JACET).
For five years I was an Editorial Coordinator for The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. Besides contributing articles and Japanese-English translations to the publication, I refereed, edited and wrote introductions for manuscripts submitted by other researchers.
Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, June 2006
My first two years in Japan in the early 1990s were spent in a scenic fishing village in Shimokita, Aomori Prefecture, where I taught English at junior high schools through the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program.
Before that I worked as a reporter and editor for two weekly newspapers in northeastern California, the Feather River Bulletin in Quincy and the Lassen County Times in Susanville, receiving statewide and regional writing awards. As a freelance writer I have contributed dozens of non-fiction articles to magazines, newspapers and online publications in various countries.
Photo from “Ima koso Shinshi ni Torikume: Kyosei renko sosho no yukue ha” (Now is the Time for Sincere Action: The future of forced labor lawsuits). Feature article by Shigekawa Eisuke introducing my research in the Nishinippon Shimbun (860,000 circulation). May 26, 2006. PDF