Occupation: The Legacy of the Asiatic Pacific War

How the Asia Pacific War Shaped the Twenty-First Century

Richard B. Frank is an internationally recognized leading authority on the Asia-Pacific War. He published his first book Guadalcanal in 1990. His second work, Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, appeared in 1999 and has been called one of the six best books in English about World War II. Both Random House books won awards and became main selections of the History Book Club. In 2007, he completed MacArthur as part of the Palgrave Great Generals series. Besides his numerous appearances on television and radio, he was a consultant for the epic HBO miniseries, “The Pacific.” He serves on the Board of Presidential Councilors of the National World War II Museum, including a term as head of that body. The first volume of his trilogy on the Asia Pacific War 1937-1945, Tower of Skulls, published in March 2020, was a finalist for the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History 2021.

Japan's Occupation of China: Impact, Memory, and Geopolitics

Dr. Xiaobing Li is a professor of the Department of History and Geography and the Don Betz Endowed Chair in International Studies at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO). He is the Executive Editor of the Chinese Historical Review and editorial board member of The Journal of Military History and Journal of Chinese Military History. Xiaobing was born in Beijing, China, and served in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the early 1970s. After his graduation from Nankai University, Tianjin, with a BA degree in 1982, he worked at the Institute of American Studies, China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing. He enrolled in the graduate study program at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Pittsburgh, PA, and received his MA in history in 1985 and PhD in history in 1991 from CMU.

Dr. Li taught at Phillips University, OK, from 1991-1993 before he joined the faculty at UCO. He also serves as adjunct professor at Norwich University since 2008 and Oklahoma City University from 1997-2012. He taught Chinese Military History, Non-Western Military History, Modern China and Japan, East Asian Civilizations, and other Asian history classes. He gave lectures at the Summer Seminar in Military History at West Point, the U.S. Military Academy. His research interests include World War II, Cold War, and modern Chinese military history.

Japanese Propaganda and Filipino Counterpropaganda during the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines, 1941-1945

Ricardo Trota Jose is a professor of history at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history at U.P., and his Ph.D. from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. He specializes in military and diplomatic history, with focus on the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. He has published widely in various journals and books. Among his major publications are The Philippine Army, 1935-1942 (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1992) and Volume 7 (on the Japanese occupation of the Philippines) of the multi-volume Kasaysayan set (Reader’s Digest, 1998). He co-edited, with Japanese colleagues, The Philippines Under Japan: Occupation Policy and Reaction (1999). His latest work is on the Philippine guerrilla resistance movement in Mindanao and Sulu (Guerrilla Days in the Philippine South, co-authored with Cesar Pobre, 2022)

Imperial Japan's Wartime Policy of Rape and Privilege: The Comfort Women

Mindy L. Kotler is founder and director of Asia Policy Point (APP), a membership nonprofit research center in Washington, DC studying the U.S. policy relationship with Japan and Northeast Asia. Her focus is the connection between history and Asian regional security. She writes on the politics and policy implications of Comfort Women, prisoners of war of Imperial Japan, and historical memory in Asia. She advised Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA) in his drafting and defense of the 2007 Comfort Women resolution, H.Res 121. She was also part of a team that garnered an apology from the Japanese Government in 2009 to the American POWs of Japan. Ms. Kotler received her M.A. in International Relations from Yale University and her B.A. in Government and History with High Honors in Chinese History from Smith College. Ms. Kotler is editor-in-chief of the Asia Policy Calendar, a weekly electronic newsletter previewing the news, resources, and programs concerning U.S. relations with Asia. She works closely with members of Congress on issues of history and foreign policy with Japan.

Recent projects include: providing a descriptive chart and analysis of the Kishida Cabinet members; drafting legislation to award the men and women engaged in the early defensive battles of WWII in the Pacific with a Congressional Gold Medal (rejected by members of congress); and researching the Asian Americans who were POWs of Imperial Japan