Steve Rabson (born May 7, 1943) is an American

Japanologist Japanese studies ( Japanese: ) or Japan studies (sometimes Japanology in Europe), is a sub-field of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on Japan. It incorporates fields such as the study of Japanes ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

and professor emeritus of East Asian Studies at Brown University.

Career

Rabson's research has focused on modern Japanese literature, especially works depicting war, its aftermath, and the experiences of women and minorities. He is regarded as an expert on

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

, subject of several of his books, and has spoken of wartime rape there to the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. He is also a '' Japan Focus'' associate. As a U.S. Army draftee he was stationed in Okinawa in 1967-68.

Selected works

In an overview of writings by and about Rabson, OCLC/

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

lists roughly 11 works in 17 publications in 2 languages and 360+ library holdings. * ''The poetry of Kaneko Mitsuharu,'' 1979 * ''Okinawa : two postwar novellas by Tatsuhiro Oshiro,'' (Institute of East Asian Studies,

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, 1989, reprinted 1996) * '' Shimazaki Tōson on war,'' 1991 * ''Yosano Akiko on War : To Give One's Life or Not : A Question of Which War,'' April 1991 * ''Righteous Cause or Tragic Folly: Changing Views of War in Modern Japanese Poetry,'' (Center for Japanese Studies,

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, 1998) * ''Southern exposure: modern Japanese literature from Okinawa'', co-edited with Michael Molasky (

University of Hawaii Press A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

, 2000) * ''Edo senryū on waka and women,'' 2003 * ''The Okinawan Diaspora in Japan: Crossing the Borders Within'' (University of Hawaii Press, 2012) * ''

Kpop K-pop (), short for Korean popular music, is a form of popular music originating in South Korea as part of South Korean culture. It includes styles and genres from around the world, such as pop, hip hop, R&B, experimental, rock, jazz, gos ...

Crash Course: Beyond Gangnam Style'', Dr Steve Rabson with Alexandra Swords * ''Islands of Resistance: Japanese Literature from Okinawa'', co-edited with Davinder Bhowmik (forthcoming from University of Hawaii Press, 2015)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rabson, Steve Living people 1943 births American Japanologists Brown University faculty