Greg Robinson
@GregGreg Robinson, a native New Yorker, is Professor of History at l'Université du Québec À Montréal, a French-language institution in Montreal, Canada. He is the author of the books By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans (Harvard University Press, 2001), A Tragedy of Democracy; Japanese Confinement in North America (Columbia University Press, 2009), After Camp: Portraits in Postwar Japanese Life and Politics (University of California Press, 2012), Pacific Citizens: Larry and Guyo Tajiri and Japanese American Journalism in the World War II Era (University of Illinois Press, 2012), and The Great Unknown: Japanese American Sketches (University Press of Colorado, 2016), as well as coeditor of the anthology Miné Okubo: Following Her Own Road (University of Washington Press, 2008). Robinson is also coeditor of the volume John Okada - The Life & Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy (University of Washington Press, 2018).
His historical column “The Great Unknown and the Unknown Great,” is a well-known feature of the Nichi Bei Weekly newspaper. Robinson’s latest book is an anthology of his Nichi Bei columns and stories published on Discover Nikkei, The Unsung Great: Portraits of Extraordinary Japanese Americans (University of Washington Press, 2020). It was recognized with an Association for Asian American Studies Book Award for Outstanding Achievement in History Honorable Mention in 2022. He can be reached at robinson.greg@uqam.ca.
Updated March 2022
Stories from This Author
Part 3: Aiko Tashiro—Writer, Musician, and Activist
Dec. 11, 2023 • Greg Robinson
Among the five accomplished children of Aijiro Tashiro, daughter Aiko was perhaps the one who had the most disparate and far-flung career, as musician, journalist, and activist. Aiko Susanna Tashiro was born on July 2, 1911 in New Haven, Connecticut. As a girl, she moved with the rest of the family to Seattle, where she graduated Broadway High School in 1927. Later that year, she enrolled at Keuka College, a women’s college in upstate New York (where she was apparently …
Beyond Shogun: James Clavell's Japanese American History
Nov. 14, 2023 • Greg Robinson
The late author and screenwriter James Clavell is best remembered these days for his series of bestselling novels set in Asia, most notably the 1975 epic Shogun. A sprawling fictionalized account of the origins of the Tokugawa regime, it recounted the adventures of John Blackthorne, an English mariner shipwrecked in Japan. In 1980, Shogun was adapted into a hit television miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain and Toshiro Mifune, with Clavell serving as executive producer. Shogun helped introduce a generation of white …
Part 2: Ken Tashiro—Journalist
Oct. 20, 2023 • Greg Robinson
Read Part 1 >> Aijiro and Nao Tashiro had five children who had distinctive (and distinct) careers. Today I will speak of the eldest child of the family, Kenji Munn Tashiro, known as Ken. I will go on to explore the particular contributions of the other Tashiro children in separate columns. Ken Tashiro was born in Waterbury, Connecticut on April 17, 1906. The news of his birth was widely publicized in the mainstream press, as it was reportedly the first birth …
Part 1: Aijiro Tashiro—The Founder
Oct. 13, 2023 • Greg Robinson
One aspect of Japanese American history that I have been fascinated to uncover is that of family dynasties—the sagas of clans with multiple members who made outstanding commercial, scientific or artistic contributions. One such clan is the Tajiris, a family whose members included the journalists Larry Tajiri and his wife Guyo; the sculptor Shinkichi Tajiri; the photographer Vince Tajiri; and the writer/newspaperwoman Yoshiko Tajiri Roberts, as well as their multiple generations of creative descendants (such as the artists Giotta and …
The Readmission: Toyohiko Kagawa’s 1950 US Tour
Sept. 14, 2023 • Bo Tao , Greg Robinson
Some time ago, we did a column for Discover Nikkei on the Japanese evangelist and social reformer Toyohiko Kagawa. During his lifetime, Kagawa was renowned as a prolific writer—he authored some 150 books—and apostle of Christian socialism. Because of the spiritual dimension he brought to his leadership of movements for social and economic justice in the pre-World War II period, his American missionary associates often referred to him as the “Gandhi of Japan”—though when Kagawa actually met Mahatma Gandhi in …
Artist and Documentarian: The Life of Kango Takamura
Aug. 28, 2023 • Jonathan van Harmelen , Greg Robinson
What images come to mind when we think of the wartime experience of Japanese Americans? For many, the photographs produced by Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams or Toyo Miyatake come to mind, with their unique portrayals of the human condition. Yet equally powerful and moving are the representations of the incarceration experience produced by the diverse crew of visual artists who worked in camp, including such figures as Miné Okubo and Chiura Obata. One artist who created striking images of confinement …
Layle Lane: Black Woman Educator and Defender of Japanese Americans
Aug. 10, 2023 • Greg Robinson
One crucial aspect of Nikkei history that has not received due recognition from community chroniclers is the close relations between Japanese Americans and blacks, and especially the disproportionate support that African Americans offered Nisei during the World War II period. In past columns, I have discussed the efforts of such outstanding figures as Hugh Macbeth, Loren Miller, and Howard Thurman to defend the rights of Japanese Americans. The activism of Black women was less visible, but arguably even more impressive, given …
Sadakichi Hartmann and Nisei Writers: An Early Mentor and Inspiration
July 27, 2023 • Greg Robinson
Floyd Cheung, my brilliant friend and sometime collaborator, is a devoted scholar of Asian American literature. I was intrigued recently when I came across his essay on the poet, art critic and onetime “King of Bohemia” Sadakichi Hartmann—a piece written in conjunction with the release of a volume of Hartmann’s poems edited by Floyd. In his essay, Floyd refers to Hartmann as a “missing link”: a groundbreaking modernist who helped bring Japanese poetic forms into English and to inspire poets …
Madame Sojin and Eddie Sojin: The Lives of Chie and Edo Mita
July 13, 2023 • Greg Robinson
In the first half of this segment, I traced the career of Hollywood silent film actor Sojin Kamiyama. In the second half, I would like to flesh out aspects of the intriguing (and largely unknown) careers of Sojin’s wife Uraji Yamakawa and their son Edo Heihachi Mita [Kamiyama], who combined acting with work in other creative fields. The woman who would gain fame as Uraji Yamakawa was born in Tokyo in 1885, the daughter of Morikazu and Komatsu Mita. Her birth …
Sojin Kamiyama: The Man they called Sôjin
July 12, 2023 • Greg Robinson
Among all the Japanese actors who graced Hollywood screens in the silent and early sound eras, perhaps none had such a charismatic and powerful presence as Sojin (Kamiyama). Though he spent only a relatively short time in the United States, and never attained the level of stardom of his contemporary Sessue Hayakawa, his work attracted attention and won him fans on both sides of the Pacific. Sojin Kamiyama was born Tadashi (AKA Tei) Mita in Sendai, Japan, on January 30, …
