Edwin O. Reischauer

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Edwin O. Reischauer, 1961

Edwin Oldfather Reischauer (born October 15, 1910 in Tokyo ; † September 1, 1990 ) was an American Japanese scholar and founder of the McCune-Reischauer transcription for the Korean language .

Life

Edwin O. Reischauer was born in Tokyo as a US citizen . He graduated from America School of Japan in 1927 and graduated from Oberlin College in the United States in 1931 . Then he began studying early Japanese and Chinese history under Serge Elisseeff at Harvard University . He then continued his education for five years in Paris, Tōkyō, Kyoto and Beijing. He wrote his doctoral thesis on the trips to China by the Japanese monk Ennin and then worked at Harvard University. Along with the chian historian John King Fairbank (1901-1991), he pioneered the introduction of East Asian studies into university curricula.

From 1941 to 1945 Reischauer worked in the Department of War, the Department of State and the US Army. President Kennedy appointed him ambassador to Tokyo in 1961, a position he held until 1966. He tried, as he said, to end the "interrupted dialogue" between the two countries and paved the way for the return of Okinawa to Japan. After completing his work as ambassador, he returned to Harvard University.

Together with George M. McCune , he developed the McCune-Reischauer transcription for the Korean language . In 1957 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1973 to the American Philosophical Society . 1967 awarded him the Keio University , the honorary doctorate .

Reischauer was director of the Harvard Yenching Institute and president of the Department of Far Eastern Languages . He founded the Japan Institute at Harvard University, which was renamed the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies in 1985 in his honor .

Reischauer's publications include "Japan, Past and Present" (1946, rev. 1963), "Japan: The Story of an Nation" (1970, rev. 1981), "The Japanese" (1977) and "My Life between Japan and America "(1986).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Member History: Edwin O. Reischauer. American Philosophical Society, accessed December 21, 2018 .

literature

  • S. Noma (Ed.): Reischauer, Edwin Oldfather . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 1251.

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Reischauer, Edwin O.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reischauer, Edwin Oldfather (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Japanologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Tokyo
DATE OF DEATH September 1, 1990