Personal Background

I was born in the city of Plymouth, Southwest England (UK) in 1961. On leaving school in 1977 at the age of 16, I embarked on and completed a two-year City and Guilds course in Hotel and Catering at the Plymouth College of Further Education (CFE). This was followed by a couple of years as a silver/gueridon service waiter for hire. In 1980, I joined Virgin Records (Retail Ltd.), rising to the position of Assistant Manager of the Plymouth Branch. During this time I became interested in the sword-drawing art of Iaidou. I quit my job at Virgin Records in late-1987 to take a trip to Japan, in large part to investigate this art further. 

Although the trip did not quite work out as planned, it did stimulate an interest in Japan. On returning to England in early-1988, I determined to follow in a friend’s footsteps (a kanji nutcase and still, today, a guy that specializes in Japanese law and translates Japanese novels for fun) and undertake Japanese language studies at undergraduate level. As a mature student without the necessary qualifications to jump straight into university (I could have done better at school! "John seems to have gone off the boil," one of my history teachers once wrote about me in a school report), I  took ‘A’ (advanced) Levels in Government and Politics and in Film Studies at Plymouth CFE. To financially support myself in this endeavour (and hopefully what would follow) I got a job as a domestic assistant at a local psychiatric hospital.

Things panned out as hoped for, and a somewhat unlikely (to me, at least) career in education unfolded. I obtained a B.A. in Modern History and Japanese Studies from the University of Sheffield, northern England, in 1993. Sometime in early-1992, I encountered the name “Okinawa” for the first time. So hooked did I become that I directed my final dissertation towards Okinawa and the three large powers it was in alignment with or subject to throughout its history. At the Department of History I was lucky enough to be able to study under Dr. Gordon Daniels, a scholar of Japan and, particularly in terms of my research interests, WWII and the postwar US occupation. I have not since encountered any academic who kept his office in such a state of book and journal article chaos but who could recount minute details from documents faster than Deep Blue.

Later in 1993, I was accepted into an M.A. program in International Relations at the International University of Japan, Niigata Prefecture, graduating in 1995. Here, I was able to study Japanese history with Chushichi Tsuzuki and Japan-US relations and Japan’s diplomatic history and foreign relations with the late Chihiro Hosoya. My supervisor was Yasushi Kosugi, a specialist in Islamic and middle eastern studies. Here, I also took a class in theories of international relations with one of Okinawa and Japan's most prominent scholars of political science, Seigen Miyazato. Taking this class swiftly led me to understand that theories of international relations and me don't play well together. Also at IUJ I met island economy specialist Hiroshi Kakazu. His insight into the Okinawan economy would profoundly influence my discipline shift after graduating from IUJ. My final IUJ thesis, titled Island of Military Bases: A Contemporary Political History of Okinawa, was submitted on 15th May 1995. Those familiar with the flow of Okinawa's history will note the significance. Shortly thereafter, I created the Contemporary Okinawa Website, uploading most of my M.A. thesis as its core text.

After six months as a kenkyusei (research student), I was accepted into a Ph.D. program at the Graduate School of International Development (GSID), the University of Nagoya, in April 1996, continuing my research into Okinawa but from a different perspective. My doctoral dissertation, entitled Managing a Wild Horse with a Rotten Rope: A Socioeconomic History of Kin Town and Okinawa was submitted to the GSID on 31st January 2002, and I was awarded my doctorate on 6th March 2002.

My research interests in the years since 2002 have moved away from postwar and contemporary themes almost exclusively back into all of the earlier periods in Okinawa's history. Although base-related issues chop and change and veer in and out of the headlines I figured that I had devoted enough time and effort to the subject. Life, I still feel, is too short for me to devote my research to just one time period when there are so many others of interest. Becoming a jack of all trades rather than a master of any one in particular is consistent with the way my brain works.

I also got the chance to teach Ryukyu-Okinawan history at the Ryugakusei Center (International Student Center), the University of the Ryukyus, in 2006, I think (the now-retired Professor Tsuneo Oshiro was instrumental in getting me this opportunity), and needed to devote considerable research to develop an all-embracing history course. From April 2008, along with the Ryukyu-Okinawa History and Culture of Okinawa course that I taught at the Ryudai Ryugakusei Center was added a Part II course there and a history course offered through the Tourism Department. A Part II course is also now offered at the Tourism Department. There was talk of a Part III history course coming into being in 2011 but the Tourism Department budget would not stretch at that point. It finally came about in October 2012. I would think I must be one of the few people currently residing on the planet earth who teaches three 15-week (each class 90-minutes in length) courses in Ryukyu-Okinawan history covering the full gamut through from ancient to contemporary.

Because of parental illness I (we) returned to the UK in April 2015. I'm currently working as a teaching assistant within special educational needs in secondary schools. No Okinawa-related jobs here in the UK, unfortunately.