Takashi Fujitani

Takashi Fujitani is a historian of modern Japan and professor emeritus of Japanese history at the University of Toronto. His scholarship focuses on nationalism, colonialism, race, and war memory in modern Japanese history, particularly in the late nineteenth and early-to-mid twentieth centuries. He is known for influential studies of the cultural and political practices through which modern Japan constructed imperial authority and mobilized colonial subjects, most notably his monographs Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan (1996), and Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans during World War II (2011).

Early life

Fujitani was born in Chicago and raised in Berkeley, California as a second-generation Japanese American (nisei). He recalls being highly influenced by black culture as a child, especially the music of R & B, including James Brown.

Academic career

Fujitani earned his PhD in history from the University of California, Berkeley in 1986. Thereafter, Fujitani joined the faculty of the University of California, Santa Cruz, University of California, San Diego, and Doshisha University, where he taught classes on modern Japan, imperialism, and transnational histories of race and empire.

In 2011, Fujitani joined the University of Toronto as Professor of History and the inaugural Dr. David Chu Professor in Asia-Pacific Studies at the Asian Institute, where he worked on interdisciplinary initiatives focused on empire, colonialism, and global history.

Scholarship

Fujitani’s research focuses on the political and cultural history of modern Japan, with particular attention to nationalism, imperialism, and race.