USC.edu

Benjamin Uchiyama

Associate Professor of History
Pronouns He / Him / His Email buchiyam@usc.edu Office SOS 282 Office Phone (213) 740-1671

Research & Practice Areas

Modern Japan, Cultural History, World War II, Occupation Period

Education

  • Ph.D. History, University of Southern California, 2013
  • M.A. Regional Studies-East Asia, Harvard University, 2005
  • B.A. History and Political Science, University of California, Davis, 2001

  • Tenure Track Appointments

    • Associate Professor of History, University of Southern California, 2022 –
    • Assistant Professor of History, University of Southern California, 2017 – 2022
    • Assistant Professor of History, University of Kansas, 2013 – 2017

  • Summary Statement of Research Interests

    Japanese mass culture and national mobilization in wartime; social history of the Japanese home front; politics and culture of occupied Japan; postwar cultural politics. Currently working on a cultural history of defeated Japan.

    Research Specialties

    Modern Japan, Cultural History, World War II, Occupation Period

  • Book

    • Uchiyama, B. (2019). Japan’s Carnival War: Mass Culture on the Home Front, 1937-1945. Cambridge University Press. Winner of the 2021 John Whitney Hall Book Prize. Japanese edition: 『日本のカーニバル戦争：総力戦下の大衆文化、1937－1945』 Nihon no kānibaru sensō: Sōryokusenka no taishū bunka, 1937-1945 (Misuzu Shobō, 2022), translated by Fuse Yukiko. https://www.msz.co.jp/book/detail/09523/. Publisher Web Address

    Journal Article

    • Uchiyama, B. (2022). “The ‘Oh, Mistake’ Incident and Juvenile Delinquency in Defeated Japan”. Journal of Contemporary History. Vol. 57 (1), pp. 90-110. Journal Web Address
    • Uchiyama, B. (2017). “The Munitions Worker as Trickster in Wartime Japan”. The Journal of Asian Studies. Vol. 76 (3), pp. 655-674. PubMed Web Address Journal Web Address
    • 20th Century Japan Research Award, Nathan and Jeanette Miller Center for Historical Studies, University of Maryland Libraries, 2023
    • John Whitney Hall Book Prize, Association for Asian Studies, 2021
    • Choice Outstanding Academic Title for Japan’s Carnival War, 2019
    • Fulbright Grant for Research in Japan, 2017
    • Faculty Service Award, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Kansas, 2015
    • New Faculty General Research Fund, University of Kansas, 2014
    • Esterline Prize for Best Graduate Student Paper, Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast Conference, Pomona, CA, 2011
    • Fulbright-IIE Grant for Dissertation Research in Japan, 2008 – 2009
    • Social Science Research Council, International Dissertation Research Fellowship, 2008 – 2009
    • Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, 2006-2007
    • Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, 2005-2006
    • College Merit Award (five-year fellowship package), University of Southern California, 2005
    • Honorable Mention, Joseph Fletcher Memorial Award for Excellence in the Writing of the A.M. Thesis, Committee on Regional Studies – East Asia, Harvard University, 2005
    • Noma-Reischauer Prize for Best Graduate Student Paper, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and Kōdansha Publishing, Ltd., 2005
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