Asian politics author to give inaugural Goodman lecture on April 14 at KU

LAWRENCE -- Chalmers Johnson, an award-winning author and book editor who is president of the Japan Policy Research Institute in Cardiff, Calif., will speak at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 14, at the Spencer Museum of Art auditorium at the University of Kansas.

Johnson's speech, "The Blowback of September 11," will be the inaugural Grant Goodman Distinguished Lecture in Japanese Studies, sponsored by KU's Center for East Asian Studies with additional support from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Hall Center for the Humanities. The lecture is free and public; a reception will follow.

Johnson's most recent books include "Okinawa: Cold War Island" and "Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire," which won the 2001 American Book Award given by the Before Columbus Foundation. Johnson was chair of the academic advisory committee for the PBS television series "The Pacific Century" and played a prominent role in the PBS "Frontline" documentary "Losing the War with Japan." Both won Emmy awards.

The Japanese press dubbed Johnson the "godfather of revisionism" when an earlier book on Japanese economic development, "MITI and the Japanese Miracle," was published. It is regarded as the foundation for the revisionist school of writers on Japan.

Johnson first visited Japan in 1953 as a U.S. Naval officer and has lived and worked there with his wife, Sheila K. Johnson, an anthropologist, virtually every year since 1961. He has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 1976, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Johnson taught for 30 years at the Berkeley and San Diego campuses of the University of California and held endowed chairs in Asian politics at both campuses. His bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees are in economics and political science, all from the University of California, Berkeley.

Grant Goodman is a retired professor of history at KU, specializing in Japanese history and in Japan's cultural relations with South and Southeast Asia. A lifelong advocate for Asian studies at KU and across the nation, Goodman directed KU's Center for East Asian Studies during its formative years. He has written, edited or co-edited 15 books and more than 60 articles. He has served as a visiting professor at universities throughout Asia and Europe.