John W. Dower | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1938-06-21)June 21, 1938 (age 86) Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author and historian |
| Language | English |
| Education | Amherst College Harvard University |
| Notable works | War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War (1986) Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (1999) |
| Notable awards |
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John W. Dower (born June 21, 1938, inProvidence,Rhode Island[1]) is an American author and historian. His 1999 bookEmbracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II won the U.S.National Book Award for Nonfiction,[2] thePulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction,[3] theBancroft Prize, theLos Angeles Times Book Prize, theMark Lynton History Prize,[4] and theJohn K. Fairbank Prize of theAmerican Historical Association.[5]
Dower earned abachelor's degree in American Studies fromAmherst College in 1959, and aPhD in History and Far Eastern Languages fromHarvard University in 1972, where he studied underAlbert M. Craig. He expanded his doctoraldissertation, a biography of former Japanese Prime MinisterShigeru Yoshida, into the bookEmpire and Aftermath. His other books include a selection of writings byE. Herbert Norman and a study of mutual images during World War II entitledWar Without Mercy.
Dower was the executive producer of theAcademy Award-nominated documentaryHellfire: A Journey from Hiroshima, and was a member of theCommittee of Concerned Asian Scholars, sitting on the editorial board of its journal withNoam Chomsky, andHerbert Bix. He has taught at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison and theUniversity of California, San Diego, and is a Ford International Professor of History, Emeritus, atMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
"Visualizing Cultures", a course that Dower has taught at MIT since 2003, with Shigeru Miyagawa, discusses how images shape American and Japanese societies. The Visualizing Cultures website features some 18 scholars in over 40 units based on digitized image sets from the visual record. The project was recognized by MIT with the "Class of 1960 Innovation in Education Award" in 2004 and in 2005, theNational Endowment for the Humanities selected VC for inclusion on "EDSITEment" as an online resource for education in the humanities. The curriculum on the website for the Canton Trade unit won the 2011 "Franklin R. Buchanan prize from the Association of Asian Studies for best curricular materials concerning Asia."[6]
The first Visualizing Cultures unit, "Black Ships & Samurai," written by John Dower, juxtaposed the visual record from the two sides of the 1853–1854 encounter when Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States arrived in Japan aboard the "Black Ships" (steam powered gunboats) to force that long-secluded country to open its borders to the outside world.[7]
In April 2006, theOpenCourseWare website of "Visualizing Cultures" was announced on the main page of the MIT website,[8] causing a stir among some Chinese students at MIT that found the material offensive.[9] The material included woodblock prints produced in Japan aspropaganda during theChinese-Japanese War of 1894–1895 that portrayed Japanese soldiers beheading "violent Chinese soldiers." The Japanese-born Miyagawa received death threats.[10] In response, the authors temporarily removed the course from OpenCourseWare and released a statement,[11] as did the MIT Administration.[12] After a week, the course authors agreed to include additional context in controversial sections, and put the course back online.[13]
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