Ikuhiko Hata

Biographical Overview & Key Facts

Subject:

Ikuhiko Hata

Role / Field:

Influential Japanese historian specializing in modern Japan's military and wartime history.

Born:

1932-12-12

Century / Era:

1932s Historical Era

Database Source:

2Day Chrono-Wiki & Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Origins & Early Life

Ikuhiko Hata (秦 郁彦, Hata Ikuhiko; born 12 December 1932) is a Japanese historian. He earned his PhD at the University of Tokyo and has taught history at several universities. He is the author of a number of influential and well-received scholarly works, particularly on topics related to Japan's role in the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. He has written extensively on such controversial subjects as the Nanjing Massacre and the comfort women. He does not believe that comfort women were coerced by the Japanese military to work.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

Fellow historian Edward Drea has called him "the doyen of Japanese military historians". Hata is variously regarded as being a "conservative" historian or a "centrist". Ikuhiko Hata was born on 12 December 1932 in the city of Hōfu in Yamaguchi Prefecture. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1956 and received his PhD there in 1974. He worked as chief historian of the Japanese Ministry of Finance between 1956 and 1976 and during this period from 1963 to 1965 he was also a research assistant at Harvard University.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

After resigning his post at the Finance Ministry Hata served as a visiting professor at Princeton University from 1977 to 1978 and then was a history professor at Takushoku University from 1980 to 1993, at Chiba University from 1994 to 1997, and at Nihon University from 1997 to 2002. Hata has been described by numerous historians as an important scholar on the history of modern Japan. Edward Drea has called him "the doyen of Japanese military historians," and has written that Hata's "published works are models of scholarship, research, accuracy, and judicious interpretation." Joshua A. Fogel, a historian of China at York University, called Hata "an eminent scholar who has for over forty years been writing numerous excellent studies of Japan at war." Masahiro Yamamoto called Hata "a leading Japanese scholar in the field of Japan's modern history." Hata's first history book, Nicchū Sensōshi ("A History of the Second Sino-Japanese War"), was released in 1961; he began the research while completing his bachelor's degree at the University of Tokyo. The work was well-received, described by Chalmers Johnson as "the most thorough study of Japanese policies in China during the 1930s," and by James T.C. Liu as "a welcome and pioneering contribution." Fifty years after its publication, Edward Drea and Tobe Ryoichi called it "a classic account" of the war. Hata's second book, the 1962 work Gun fashizumu undō shi ("A History of the Military Fascist Movement"), was promoted by the historian Shuhei Domon as "a first-rate narrative interpretation based on extensive use of documentary evidence." The Japan Association of International Relations selected Hata to be part of what historian James William Morley described as, a team of "young, objective diplomatic and military historians," given unprecedented access to primary source records in order to write a history of the origins of the Second World War in Asia.

Chronological Milestones & Life Events

1. 1932 (1932-12-12): Birth of Ikuhiko Hata — Influential Japanese historian specializing in modern Japan's military and wartime history.
2. 1956: 1956 Milestone — He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1956 and received his PhD there in 1974.
3. 1961: 1961 Milestone — " Hata's first history book, Nicchū Sensōshi ("A History of the Second Sino-Japanese War"), was released in 1961; he began the research while completing his bachelor's degree at the University of Tokyo.
4. 1962: 1962 Milestone — Hata's second book, the 1962 work Gun fashizumu undō shi ("A History of the Military Fascist Movement"), was promoted by the historian Shuhei Domon as "a first-rate narrative interpretation based on extensive use of documentary evidence.
5. 1977: 1977 Milestone — After resigning his post at the Finance Ministry Hata served as a visiting professor at Princeton University from 1977 to 1978 and then was a history professor at Takushoku University from 1980 to 1993, at Chiba University from 1994 to 1997, and at Nihon University from 1997 to 2002.

Historical Fact-Check Quiz: Ikuhiko Hata

True or False: “Ikuhiko Hata's early work on the Second Sino-Japanese War was highly praised for its comprehensive analysis of Japanese policy in China during the 1930s.”

Answer (TRUE ⭕): Chalmers Johnson specifically described his first book as 'the most thorough study of Japanese policies in China during the 1930s.'

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Frequently Asked Questions about Ikuhiko Hata