Lane Hirabayashi named as UCLA's first George and Sakaye Aratani Professor of the Japanese American Internment, Redress, and Community

The UCLA Asian American Studies Center and Department are very proud to announce that Professor Lane Ryo Hirabayashi has been appointed as the first George and Sakaye Aratani Professor of the Japanese American Internment, Redress, and Community. The endowed chair is the first and only one of its kind in American higher education. It recognizes and supports the continuing research, teaching, and public activities of a renowned scholar, who specializes in the unjust incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese from the Americas during World War II, their subsequent post-war  campaign to seek redress and a national apology, as well as in the issues, challenges, and trends of the Japanese American community.

Professor Hirabayashi was selected after a year-long international search conducted by professors, staff, and students of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and Department. Hirabayashi said, "Being appointed as the inaugural recipient of the Aratani Chair is like a dream come true for me. Not only will I join a stellar set of colleagues in Asian
American Studies at UCLA, but I can contribute to the long tradition of Japanese American Studies and collaboration with community groups that have been undertaken by so many distinguished UCLA faculty, staff, and students over the years."

The endowed chair was established by George and Sakaye Aratani of Los Angeles, who have been long-time supporters of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. Both are second-generation Japanese Americans, who were interned during World War II and believe strongly that the American public should learn lessons from that unconstitutional tragedy so that it is not repeated. Mr Aratani is the founder and former CEO of Mikasa and Kenwood electronics. Both are active community leaders and philanthropists. They have also established a graduate fellowship and undergraduate summer internship at the Asian American Studies Center, and recently made a commitment to establish a $1 million
endowment to support research and other activities by UCLA faculty, staff, and students that would serve to advance the Japanese American community.

"George and Sakaye Aratani are incredibly special people," said Professor Don Nakanishi, the Director of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. "They have not only benefited countless community groups through their generosity, but also supported major scholarly and other educational activities to enhance public understanding of the Japanese American experience, especially the unjust wartime internment. Their endowed chair, as well as other programs they have established at UCLA, will make it possible for preeminent and committed scholars like Professor Hirabayashi, along with their students, to continue to explore, analyze, share, and apply the Japanese American experience for generations and generations."

Prolific and internationally influential, Professor Hirabayashi received his PhD in socio-cultural anthropology from UC Berkeley, and has had a distinguished career as a faculty member at San Francisco State University, University of Colorado, Boulder, and currently at UC Riverside. He also has received numerous academic awards and grants, including two postdoctoral fellowships at the UCLA Asian American Studies Center in 1981-82 and 1996-7.

Professor Hirabayashi's family is well-known in relation to the wartime incarceration and to the fields of Asian American Studies and Ethnic Studies. His uncle, Gordon, was the principal defendant in one of the major U.S. Supreme Court cases that challenged the government's decision to remove and intern the Japanese Americans (Hirabayashi v. United States 1943). It also was part of the successful coram nobis efforts of the 1980s, which included the cases of Fred Korematsu and Min Yasui. His father, Dr. James Hirabayashi, was the first Dean of the School of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, and an original member of the Japanese American Planning Group at the university, which designed the first curriculum in Japanese American Studies.

Along with major contributions to the development of scholarship on Japanese Americans, especially their World War II experiences, Professor Hirabayashi has been a leading scholar in Asian American Studies, Latin American Studies, Ethnic Studies, and in the comparative study of Japanese migration in the United States, Mexico, and Latin America. He has authored three books -- Cultural Capital: Mountain Zapotec Migrant Associations in Mexico City (1993), Inside an American Concentration Camp: Japanese American Resistance at Poston, Arizona (1995), and The Politics of Fieldwork: Research in an American Concentration Camp (1999) -- edited and co-edited five books and one book-length special issue of the Amerasia Journal, published over thirty articles, as well as numerous book reviews. He is currently completing two book manuscripts, one of which is a reconsideration of Japanese American resettlement after their wartime incarceration.

Professor Hirabayashi has had a strong record as teacher, mentor, and curriculum developer. In 1993-94, he received an "Outstanding Undergraduate Advisor" award at the University of Colorado, Boulder. At UC Riverside, he was entrusted with the primary responsibility of designing and writing a full-length proposal for a new doctoral program in Ethnic Studies.  He consistently receives very positive student evaluations for his teaching.  Students describe himas "outstanding," "an excellent professor," "engaging," "informed and unbiased," and "passionate."

In expressing the wide enthusiasm for Hirabayshi's appointment, Professor Cindy Fan, the chair of the Department of Asian American Studies said, "The faculty, students and staff of the Department of Asian American Studies are very excited that Professor Hirabayashi -- a superstar in Asian American Studies -- is joining UCLA.  His scholarship is ground breaking, interdisciplinary, and transnational. His professional vision will not only fulfill the goals of the endowed chair, but also enhance the undergraduate and graduate curriculum and forge important links between Asian American Studies and other departments as well as the larger community of which UCLA is part."

Professor Hirabayashi has served on several editorial boards for leading journals in the field such as California History, Pan-Japan, Ethnic Studies, and the Amerasia Journal. He is also highly active in organizing and participating in symposia and conferences, and in reviewing manuscripts for major university presses.

Hirabayashi also has worked with numerous community-based organizations including the Center for Japanese American Studies, the Asian American Theater Company, the Little Tokyo People's Rights Organization, the Gardena Pioneer Project, East-West Players, the Japanese Community Youth Council, the Japanese American Graduation Committee of Denver, Colorado and, most recently, the Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles. As a consultant for the Japanese American National Museum of Los Angeles, Professor Hirabayashi has been working on the "Discover Nikkei" website project as well as a curriculum project known as "Enduring Communities," that spans the states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. He has also worked as a consultant with the Riverside Municipal Museum on the preservation of Riverside's historic Harada House.

Professor Hirabayashi's faculty appointment will be in the Department of Asian American Studies, and he will maintain a major leadership role in the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. His appointment will begin on July 1, 2006.