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VICTORIA LYON BESTOR has spent her career working in educational and nonprofit administration and doing research on Japan. She retired after nearly 18 years as executive director of the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources (NCC) in June 2017. Prior to that she held administrative positions at Cornell University, was associate director of the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University from 1987-93, and began her administrative career at Japan Society of New York.
She is co-editor of Doing Fieldwork in Japan, University of Hawai’i Press, 2003, and The Routledge Handbook on Japanese Culture and Society, 2011. Vickey was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Doshisha University in Kyoto in 1997-98 studying the role of Rockefeller philanthropy in the evolution of postwar Japanese civil society and has published several articles on the subject.
In retirement she continues research as an Associate in Research at Harvard’s Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, serves on the board of the American Friends of International House of Japan, and is a member of the advisory council of the ASIANetwork. She loves her garden, and spends as much time as possible with her family Ted and Nick, Lorenzo and Simone.
Victoria Lyon Bestor Interviews Eric Gangloff and Amy Vladeck Heinrich
ERIC GANGLOFF attended The University of Chicago where he received a BA in Japanese in 1965 and PhD in Japanese Literature in 1973. His dissertation focused on the drama of Kinoshita Junji in its social and political context. He published a translation of Kinoshita’s 1970 two-part drama Kami to Hito to no Aida as Between God and Man: A Judgment on War Crimes in 1979.
Gangloff began his academic career as Lecturer, then Assistant Professor at The University of Chicago and later as Associate Professor of Japanese at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He resigned tenure in 1985 and entered US federal service at the Japan-United States Friendship Commission in Washington, DC, an independent federal agency providing grants in support of Japanese studies in the United States and people-to-people exchanges between Japan and the US.
Gangloff was first stationed in the Commission office in Tokyo, which he directed until 1988, when he returned to the main office in Washington. In 1991 he was appointed Executive Director of the Commission and served in that position until his retirement in 2011. Throughout his career at the Commission, Gangloff was concerned foremost with the support of Japanese studies at US universities. Among his primary concerns was the support of Japanese language education and training for Americans, primarily at the university level, and the support of Japanese library collections at US universities – their maintenance, growth and, increasingly, their coordination and collaboration.
Gangloff currently lives at his home in southern Maryland, where he lives with his husband and horses, plus goats, dogs and cats. He maintains an active interest in Japan-US relations and exchanges.
Joint Interview with Amy Vladeck Heinrich
AMY VLADECK HEINRICH received her PhD in Japanese Literature in 1980 from Columbia University, under the guidance of Professor Donald Keene. Following his advice, when researching her dissertation on the poetry of Saitō Mokichi she became a member of the poetry group in Tokyo, Uchūfū, and attended meetings for many years. Her major publications include, as author, Fragments of Rainbows: the Life and Poetry of Saitō Mokichi, 1882-1953 (Columbia University Press, 1983); as editor, Currents in Japanese Culture: Translations and Transformations (Columbia University Press, 1997); as translator with introduction, Memoir of the Forgetting-the-Capital Flower, by Tanizaki Jun’ichirō (Yushodo and Columbia University Press, 2010). She also served as a member on the American Advisory Committee of the Japan Foundation, as acting Director of the Japan-US Friendship Commission, and as a member of CULCON, as well as on various committees at Columbia University. She retired in 2009 after twenty years as Director of the C. V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University.
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Joint Interview with Eric Gangloff
YASUKO MAKINO (牧野泰子) was born in Tokyo in 1937 and received a BA in Psychology from Tokyo Woman’s Christian University. In 1964, Makino moved to the United States and acquired an MA in Teaching English as a Second Language and an MLS in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She was Japanese Cataloger at the East Asian Library there, from 1972 to 1977, and later worked as Coordinator of Technical Services and Japanese Bibliographer at the Asian Library and Associate Professor at the Center for East Asia and Pacific Studies from 1981 to 1991. From 1991 to 1992, Makino was Japanese Cataloger at C.V. Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University, and she served as Japanese Studies Librarian there from 1992 to 1998. She was Japanese Bibliographer and Cataloger at the East Asian Library of Princeton University from 1998 until 2012 when she retired. From 2012, she has been Japanese Bibliographer and Cataloger, Emeritus. Her major publications include: Japan through Children’s Literature: A Critical Bibliography (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985) and A Student Guide to Japanese Sources in the Humanities with Masaei Saito (Michigan papers in Japanese Studies Series, no.24; Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 1994), among others.
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Illustrated Interview with Yasuko Makino
Related Works and References:
English:
Japanese:
NAOMI FUKUDA (1907 - 2007) was born in Japan in 1907. She graduated from Tokyo Women’s Christian College in 1929 with a major in English language. Fukuda assisted Robert Reischauer (brother of Edwin O. Reischauer) with his research, and in 1936, with Reischauer’s help, she obtained a Barbour Scholarship to study at the University of Michigan. She received a BA with Distinction in History from the University of Michigan in 1938 and later both a BA and MA in Library Science. In 1940, Fukuda returned to Japan to work at several university libraries before joining the Research Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1943. In 1948, she worked as Librarian for the GHQ Allied Occupation and acted as interpreter to Robert Downs, Special Consultant on the National Diet Library. From 1953, Fukuda was Librarian at the International House of Japan (I-House). She published surveys, bibliographies, and guides and was generally instrumental in building the field of Japan Studies Librarianship in both Japan and the US. She retired from I-House in 1970 and went on to work at the University of Michigan. In 1982, she received an Award for Special Contribution at the 90th Anniversary of the Japan Library Association, and in 1984, the Japanese Government conferred on her the Order of the Precious Crown, Wisteria. Fukuda died in 2007 in Hawaii.
Related Works and References:
Remembrances by Others (from Journal of East Asian Libraries, No. 145, June 2008):
SACHIE NOGUCHI (野口幸生) grew up in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, and studied at Keio University, where she received a dual undergraduate degree in both Library Science and Japanese Literature. Later, she received an MA in Library Science from McGill University and another in Sociology from the University of British Columbia. She was Japanese Cataloger at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana from 1984-88 and Japanese Bibliographer-Cataloger & Coordinator for the Japan Information Center (JIC) at the University of Pittsburgh from 1988-2004. Noguchi served as Chair of the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources (NCC) from 2001-04 and took on many other roles in the organization, including co-Chair of the MVS (Multi-Volume Sets) committee and co-coordinator of the JAC project. She also initiated NCC’s Librarian Professional Development Committee (now Working Group) and acted as an ongoing consultant for the group. Noguchi was Japanese Studies Librarian at Columbia University from 2004-18, officially retiring in 2019.
In addition to her work with NCC, Noguchi served as chair of the Council on East Asian Library's (CEAL's) Committee on Japanese Materials and as CEAL Treasurer. She also served on CEAL's Executive Committee. In 1999 she organized CEAL’s Japanese Studies Librarian Training Workshop held at Harvard University, which involved about 50 participants and instructors.
Starting in March 1995, Noguchi was the co-director of the Japanese Text Initiative, a collaborative effort between the East Asian Library of the University of Pittsburgh and the Electronic Text Center of the University of Virginia Library to make texts of Japanese literature available on the World Wide Web. This experience became the basis of her doctoral dissertation titled "Assessing Users and Uses of Electronic Text: The Case of the Japanese Text Initiative, Japanese Classics Electronic Text on the World Wide Web." She received her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 2001. Since then, she has written widely in both English and Japanese about, among other topics, the uses of new electronic resources, the various programs of the NCC, and about the status of consortial licensing among academic libraries.
Interview with Sachie Noguchi (with Transcript)
Message from Tara McGowan, NCC Executive Director:
I had the pleasure of video-taping this interview between Sachie Noguchi and her friend Fabiano Rocha in Sachie’s beautiful apartment overlooking the Hudson River. Sachie Noguchi has instructed and inspired many Japan Studies librarians over her long and varied career. As quickly becomes apparent in the interview, she has also led a life full of adventures! For those who know Sachie personally, this interview will evoke many fond memories, and for those who may not have had a chance to work with her, they will learn a lot about the development of the field of Japan Studies librarianship through her experiences.
I must apologize in advance for technical issues that led to some blurring at the outset of the video. The placement of the camera was not ideal because Sachie was in the process of packing to return to Japan, and it was impossible to reposition her chair away from the window. However, I want to assure everyone that the quality of the video improves as the interview progresses, so I encourage you to watch it until the end. Sachie is an inspiration to us all and will be much missed!
Images
Related Works and References:
Journal Articles:
Noguchi, S. (1988). Japanese-Style Management: A Bibliometric Study. Special Libraries, 79(4), 314–321.
Noguchi, S. (2001). Consortial licensing. In case of academic libraries. Journal of Information Processing and Management, 44(5), 309–318. https://doi.org/10.1241/johokanri.44.309
Noguchi, S. (2003). Digital reference services. Journal of Information Processing and Management, 45(10), 696–706. https://doi.org/10.1241/johokanri.45.696
Noguchi, S. (2004). Law school libraries in the United States. Journal of Information Processing and Management, 46(11), 728–740. https://doi.org/10.1241/johokanri.46.728
Noguchi, S. (2005). Disaster preparedness of the Columbia University Libraries. Journal of Information Processing and Management, 48(6), 376–381. https://doi.org/10.1241/johokanri.48.376
Noguchi, S. (2005). 第180回 中枢・衛星? : アメリカにおける大学図書館と日本研究(INFOSTA Forum). The Journal of Information Science and Technology Association, 55(12), 552–552. https://doi.org/10.18919/jkg.55.12_552
Magazine Articles
Noguchi, S. (1988). International conference on scholarly information network. College and Research Libraries News, 49(4), 211.
Noguchi, S. (1988). The first international conference on japanese information. College and Research Libraries News, 49(1), 16.
Noguchi, S. (1989). British library colloquium on resources for japanese studies. College and Research Libraries News, 50(8), 667.
Wei, K. T., & Noguchi, S. (1989). RLIN CJK versus OCLC CJK: The illinois experience. Library Resources & Technical Services, 33(2), 140.
Noguchi, S. (1992). Language barriers and information flow: A bibliometric study of publications on japanese management. (pp. 79) UP of America.
DONALD LAWRENCE KEENE (1922-2019) was born in New York on June 18, 1922. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 1942, where he first encountered Japanese literature in translation. He studied Japanese language at the U.S. Navy Japanese Language School in Colorado and served as an intelligence officer and Navy interpreter in the Pacific during World War II. He returned to Columbia after the war, receiving a master’s degree in 1947 and a PhD in 1949. After studying briefly at Harvard, Keene transferred to Cambridge University, where he was a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge until 1954 and University Lecturer between 1949 and 1955. Keene introduced Japanese literature to English-speaking audiences through his Anthology of Japanese Literature (1955) and Modern Japanese Literature (1956), and, through prolific writing and translation helped to build Japanese studies as an academic discipline in the United States. The Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture was dedicated in his honor at Columbia University in 1986. He was also active in Japan, publishing around 30 books in Japanese. Keene was the first non-Japanese to receive a Yomiuri Literary Prize in 1985 and also the first to receive the “Order of Culture” from the Japanese government in 2008. In 2011, he retired from Columbia University and moved to Japan, acquiring Japanese citizenship. He died on February 24, 2019, in Tokyo at the age of 96.
Lifetime Contributions Award
On November 20, 2012, NCC honored Professor Donald Keene with a Lifetime Contributions Award for his lifelong efforts to enhance Japanese library collections, introduce Japanese authors to global audiences, and improve the field of Japanese studies worldwide. The award was presented at the NCC Summit on Access to Japanese Studies Resources, held at the 14th Library Fair & Forum to Expand International Cooperation in Yokohama, after Professor Keene gave a talk entitled: "My Japanese Studies, Talking with My Librarian" - ライブラリアンと語るわたくしの日本研究 (see below).
PATRICIA STEINHOFF holds an honors BA in Japanese Language and Literature from the University of Michigan (1963) and a PhD in Sociology from Harvard University (1969). She taught at the University of Hawaii from 1968 to 2019 and is currently emeritus professor of sociology. In her 51 years at the University of Hawaii she taught courses on Japanese society, social movements, and sociological theory, and supervised 50 doctoral students. From 1986 to 1994 she also served as the founding director of the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of Hawaii.
After a dissertation on the phenomenon of tenkō in prewar Japan (Patricia G. Steinhoff, 1969, 1991b), she spent ten years doing research on abortion in Hawaii, producing a book (P. G. Steinhoff and Diamond, 1977) and many co-authored articles before returning to Japanese Studies. Her research on postwar social movements in Japan has focused primarily on the Japanese New Left. She has published over eighty articles and book chapters on Japan, edited or co-edited several books in English (Bestor, Steinhoff, & Bestor, 2003; Krauss, Rohlen, & Steinhoff, 1984; P. G. Steinhoff, 2014; Takazawa, 2017), and two books in Japanese (Patricia G. Steinhoff, 1991a; Patricia G. Steinhoff, Ito, & Takahashi, 1996). Her 1991 book on the Red Army factions was subsequently republished in the Iwanami Shinsho Modern Classics Series (P. G. Steinhoff, 2003) and also published in Korean translation from the Iwanami edition (Patricia G. Steinhoff, 2013), but has not been published in English. In addition to studies of the Japanese New Left, she has compiled and published several editions of the Directory of Japan Specialists and Japanese Studies Institutions for the Japan Foundation (The Japan Foundation, 1989, 1995, 2006, 2013a, 2016), along with three monographs analyzing the state of Japanese Studies in the United States (The Japan Foundation, 1996, 2007, 2013b).
Dr. Patricia Steinhoff's Retirement Lecture - "Serendipity and Sociology: Five Decades of Studying Japanese Society"
Tokiko Bazzell's Interview with Dr. Patricia Steinhoff
Related Links:
DR. KRISTINA KADE TROOST served as Japanese Studies Librarian at Duke University from 1990 until 2020 and was Head of the International and Area Studies at Perkins Library at Duke University for two decades from 1998 to 2018. She retired on June 30, 2020.
Prior to coming to Duke, Kris received a BA In Asian Studies from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and a PhD in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University. She began half-time at Duke immediately after completing her dissertation on community formation in medieval Japanese villages; in her first year, she created a free-standing East Asian Collection, long desired by the faculty, and worked to increase the collections budget. By 1993, her job had grown from half-time to full-time, and in time she hired both Chinese and Korean Studies librarians. In the mid-90s, she served on a committee that drew up an interdisciplinary MA program in East Asian Studies, eventually becoming Director of Graduate Studies in 2008 which she did with a one-year interruption until this June. Her interests grew and changed over the course of her thirty-year career; her guide to doing research in Japanese Studies which she developed for a course she taught in the 1990s was used by faculty and graduate students across the US; later her energies were focused on mentoring new librarians in IAS at Duke and other heads of area studies departments — to do this, she jointly founded the group, International and Area Studies Collections in the 21st century. More recently, in the context of increasing emphasis on technology and minorities, she helped to found the Queer Japan Web Archive.
Kris has also been known for her extensive professional contributions. Deeply involved with NCC since its founding in 1992, she was NCC Chair from 1998 to 2001. As chair, she organized a conference, “Japanese Library Resource Sharing in the Next Decade: Collection Building, Technological Innovation and International Cooperation in 2000.” For NCC’s 25th Anniversary celebration, she prepared the following talk about the Founding of the NCC.
Dr. Troost has also been very active in the Council for East Asian Libraries (CEAL), serving on their Executive Committee (2004) and as Vice-President (2006-2008) and as President (2008-2010), on many panels at the AAS (Association for Asian Studies)’ annual meeting and as local arrangements chair for annual meeting of the Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies in 2014. Most recently, she was selected as the inaugural recipient of the CEAL’s Distinguished Service Award, a prestigious award honoring an individual CEAL member who has made significant contributions to library and information services, to East Asian libraries, and to the East Asian studies community.
Victoria Lyon Bestor's Interview with Dr. Kristina Troost
TOKIKO BAZZELL worked as a librarian for Nomura Research Institute (Washington, D.C.) and American University (Washington, D.C.), prior to joining the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Bazzell’s career as a Japan Studies Librarian spans 22 years, and she has served in many key roles, including NCC Chair from 2007 to 2010. In 2021, she received the Nina D.P. Horio Excellence in Librarianship Award.
GINA GOOSBY is a 2020 graduate of Swarthmore College (B.A. in Japanese Studies) with a strong interest in Asian Studies librarianship. Her research interests focus on the diasporic Korean community within Japan from past to present. She is currently in Osaka, Japan, teaching English for the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program.
As part of the NCC 30th Anniversary and 4th Decade Conference, Goosby interviewed Tokiko Bazzell about her career path to becoming a Japan Studies Librarian.
Gina Goosby's Interview with Tokiko Bazzell
