John Whitney Hall
John Whitney Hall ( September 13, 1916 in Tokyo *, † October 31, 1997 in Tucson, Arizona) was an American historian and Japanese studies. He was a professor at Yale University (A. Whitney Griswold Professor of Japanese History).
Hall was born the son of a missionary couple in Tokyo and spent his youth in Japan. To visit the high school he went to the USA, attended the Phillips Academy and studied at Amherst College with a bachelor 's degree in 1938, after which he was at the College Dōshisha University in Kyoto until 1941 an English teacher and representative of Amherst. During World War II he worked for the Naval Intelligence to Japan. In 1950 he was at Harvard University with Edwin O. Reischauer (also a son of a missionary ) PhD in Japanese Studies. From 1948 he was at the University of Michigan, where he was an assistant professor in 1952, associate professor in 1955 and 1959, Professor of History. He was there from 1957 to 1961 director of the Center for Japanese Studies and common in Japan, where his university maintained a research center in Okayama. Hall studied the files of the leading princely families of ancient Japan. In 1961 he became a professor at Yale. He was chairman of the Council on East Asian Studies and from 1966 to 1970 Master of Morse College. From 1973 to 1976 he was faced with the history department and from 1971 to 1974 the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature. In 1983, he went into retirement. It dealt mainly with the Japan from the 17th to 19th century (before the opening to the West ) and the Kamakura period.
He was president of the Association of Asian Studies, 1976 to 1980 was Chairman of the American- Japanese Friendship Committee and worked closely with the Japan Foundation, the japanologische studies in the U.S. supported financially. From 1968 to 1980 he was chairman of the United States - Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange. From 1956 to 1968 he was associate editor of the American Historical Review.
Hall was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure in Japan. He had a large collection of Japanese art and was mountaineer who climbed very much in Japan.
Writings
- The Japanese Empire ( = fishing world history. Band 20). 1968 ( translated by Ingrid Schuster ). English edition: Japan: From Prehistory to Modern Times. Delacorte Press, New York 1970.