George H. Kerr

George (Jack) Henry Kerr (* 7. November 1911 in Pennsylvania ; † 27. August 1992 in Taiwan ) also known as葛超智(or柯喬治), was a diplomat of the United States during the Second World War and in later years an author and academic .

Aside from his publications, he has earned a collection of papers at the Hoover Institution providing information on the political situation in Taiwan in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as Taiwan's transformation from Japanese rule , the rebellion against China, and US foreign policy towards Taiwan . He also collected and archived information about the history, economy and political situation in Okinawa and the Ryūkyū Islands after World War II .

Early life

Kerr was born in Pennsylvania . He studied in Japan from 1935 to 1937 and was an English teacher in Taipei , Taiwan from 1937 to 1940 .

Military career

During the Pacific War worked Kerr with the rank of lieutenant of the United States Naval Reserve for the U. S. Navy as a Taiwan expert and taught future military government officials. Between 1942 and 1943 Kerr was on Formosa (former name for Taiwan) as an analyst and advisor to the United States Department of War and from 1944 to 1946 for the Navy director of the Formosa Research Unit of the Naval School of Military Government and Administration at Columbia University in New York.

Diplomatic career

After the war, Kerr returned to Taiwan in 1945 and accompanied the newly appointed Chinese ruling General Chen Yi as Assistant Naval Attaché until the Japanese abandonment of Taiwan on October 25, 1945 ( Retrocession Day ). George Kerr was present in his official capacity as civil affairs officer in the representation of the US Navy Attache's for the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in Chongqing . He ensured that the English version of the Japanese declaration of surrender, unlike the Chinese translation, did not officially exclude the role of the USA. He then became a diplomat at the US Embassy in China (Taiwan). As an employee of the United States Department of State and Vice Consul in Taipei , he was an eyewitness to the 228 massacre by the mainland Chinese anti-communist Kuomintang of 10,000 to 30,000 Taiwanese people in 1947. He was to write about it later.

Seal of the Ryukyu Kingdom; from the book Okinawa: The History of an Island People by George Kerr

Around the early 1950s, he noticed the desire to visit Okinawa and write a history of the Ryūkyū Islands with a military commission to help them achieve an identity (from Japan and China). A skilled team of scholars and translators combed Japan for sources on Okinawa. Kerr linked this material in the book Okinawa: Kingdom and Province (1953), and in Japanese as Ryūkyū no rekishi (1955). In the meantime, based on new research and criticism, Kerr began revising the first two books and published an edition of Okinawa: The History of an Island People in 1958 . Kerr was very concerned about the factual loss of history of the Ryūkyū. So he pursued his interest in a survey of the islands' cultural assets (1960–63). Experience in Yaeyama and Miyako told him that his perspective on the history of the Ryūkyūs was a little wrong. He drafted another book on Okinawa, which emphasized the far greater influence of the trade relationship with China on the southern Ryūkyūs. But it remained unpublished.

academic career

Kerr was a lecturer at the University of Washington between 1947 and 1949 and at Stanford and Berkeley Universities between 1949 and 1950. For the next five years he was an associate researcher at the influential conservative Hoover Institution .

The public portions of his writings are available in the Okinawa Prefecture Archives at Haebaru, and others in the libraries of Stanford , Taipei and Ryudai Universities .

Next life

Kerr's books on Taiwan are innumerable. He supported the Taiwan independence cause, which made him a deep enemy of both Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong . Due to Chiang's complaint, Kerr lost his job at Stanford University . And while he was undoubtedly an influential political writer and commentator, his respect as a historian of Chinese history is controversial by many sinologists because of his critical positions on China . He also designed a long book about 19th century Hawaii , which completes his life's work in one piece: the history of Pacific Ocean marine frontiers .

Seal of the Chinese Qing Dynasty confirming the king of the Ryukyu; from the book Okinawa: The History of an Island People by George Kerr

He is the author of many books and articles on Japan, Okinawa and Taiwan. Among them: Formosa: Licensed Revolution and the Home Rule Movement, 1895-1945 , Formosa Betrayed (1965), Descriptive Summary: George H. Kerr papers, 1943-1951 , Okinawa: The History of an Island People (1958), and The Taiwan Confrontation Crisis (1986).

• Formosa Betrayed was one of the most influential books on Taiwan 's transition from Japanese colonial rule to the rule of the Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party). George Kerr worked for the American Foreign Service during the transitionand was present during the occupation by the KMT and its successors. Formosa Betrayed was a sharp reckoning with the nationalist government, arguing for Taiwan's independence. The book wasrepublishedby Da Capo Press in 1976. In 1992 an edition was published by Taiwan Publishing Co. The book is now legally available ( see link below ).

• Okinawa: The History of an Island People discovers the legendary past up to the Battle of Okinawa in 542 very legible pages. Eleven years before he died, Kerr wrote that 13,000 copies had been sold. The book was out of print for a long time until Tuttle, the original publisher, reissued it in 2000. A new introduction has been added and an appendix by Okinawa historian Mitsugu Sakihara.

He died at the age of 80 on August 27, 1992 in Honolulu, Hawaii .

Selected Works

• Okinawa, the History of an Island People . Tuttle, Tokyo 2000, ISBN 978-0-8048-2087-5 (Afterword by Mitsugu Sakihara).
• The Taiwan confrontation crisis . Formosan Association for Public Affairs, Washington, DC 1986, OCLC 15681913 .
• Formosa: Licensed Revolution and the Home Rule Movement, 1895-1945 . University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 1974, ISBN 978-0-8248-0323-0 .
• Formosa Betrayed . Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1965, OCLC 242620 .
• George H. Kerr, Shuncho Higa: Bibliography of the Ryukyus . University of the Ryukyus , Nishihara, Okinawa 1961, OCLC 8973627 .
• Science Information Services in Japan, a Brief Survey . Tokyo 1959, OCLC 22194372 .
• Okinawa: the History of an Island People . CE Tuttle Co., Tokyo 1958, OCLC 468346635 .
• Ryukyu Kingdom and Province before 1945 . Pacific Science Board, National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council (US), Washington 1953, OCLC 5455582 .
• George H. Kerr, Higa Shuncho: The Ryūkyū Islands: A Preliminary Checklist of Reference Materials Arranged Alphabetically . National Research Council (US). Pacific Science Board., 1952, OCLC 79293918 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kerr, George H. Biographical Note, Register of George H. Kerr papers, Online archive of California. Hoover Institute.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} "Register of the George H.
3. ↑ "Okinawa: History of an Island People" on tuttlepublishing.com ( memento of the original from April 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
4. ↑ Osamu Shimizu, Andrew Y. Kuroda: Japan and the Ryukyu Islands . In: The Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress . tape 22 , no. 2 , 1965, p. 128–137 : "was issued in only about 50 mimeographed copies as an alphabetical listing by author of both monographs and serials, with a separate section for manuscript material."

Web links

• University of the Ryukyus library (English)
• George H. Kerr collection at Okinawa Prefectural Archives (English)