Takashi Yoshida

Photo of Takashi Yoshida
Takashi Yoshida
Professor of History
Office: 
(269) 387-4635
Location: 
4422 Friedmann Hall, Mail Stop 5334
Mailing address: 
Department of History
Western Michigan University
1903 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5334 USA
Education: 
  • Ph.D., History, Columbia University, 2001
  • M.I.A., International Affairs, Columbia University, 1992
  • B.A., Political Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1989
  • B.A., Law, Aoyama Gakuin University (Japan), 1988
Research interests: 
  • Early Modern and Modern Japan
  • WWII and Memory in East Asia
  • Nationalism
Bio: 

Takashi Yoshida is Professor of History and Director of the Michitoshi Soga Japan Center at Western Michigan University.
Courses he teaches include:
 

  • HIST 3030: World History since 1500 
  • HIST 3100: Japanese Civilization
  • HIST 3764: Modern Japan
  • HIST 3790: WWII in American and Japanese History
  • HIST 4825: Japanese History through Film and Literature
  • HIST 5850: WWII and Memory in Postwar Japan

In the past years, his research has focused on war and memory in the Pacific. In his first book, he examined how the perceptions of the Nanjing Massacre evolved in history writing and public memory in Japan, China, and the United States from 1937 to the present. In his second, book, he examined various pacifism movements among ordinary citizens in postwar Japan and war/peace museums in China, Japan, and South Korea.  Both studies were sponsored by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute of Columbia University.