Barak Kushner (バラク・クシュナー) (顧若鵬)

Biography

Barak Kushner is a Professor of East Asian History at the University of Cambridge and served as Co-Chair of the Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies (2021-2024). His scholarship crosses geographical and disciplinary boundaries and has advanced our understanding of war, empire, propaganda, and cultural exchange in modern East Asia. Kushner began his career as a high school teacher of social studies in Chicago. Later, he travelled to Iwate, Japan where he taught English, lived in a Buddhist temple, and attended Japanese elementary school, studying Japanese along with other students ages 6-12. He moved to Yokohama and Tokyo, at times studying at Rikkyo University and Tokyo University. After completing courses in advanced Japanese, he taught western history at Shenyang Teacher's University in the north of China where he also started studying Chinese and began research in Chinese history. After returning to the U.S., he attended graduate school at Princeton University, did more Chinese language training in Taipei, Taiwan and then received a PhD in history.

AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR
Kushner's single-authored monographs have shaped scholarly conversations and captured international attention:

The Geography of Injustice: East Asia's Battle between Memory and History (Cornell University Press, 2024) - a deep investigation of historical reckoning in the region
Men to Devils, Devils to Men: Japanese War Crimes and Chinese Justice (Harvard University Press, 2015) - Winner of the American Historical Association's 2016 John K. Fairbank Prize
Slurp! A Culinary and Social History of Ramen - Japan's Favorite Noodle Soup (Brill, 2012) - Awarded the 2013 Sophie Coe Prize for Food History
The Thought War - Japanese Imperial Propaganda (Hawaii, 2006)

His work has global impact, and his scholarship has also been translated into Japanese, traditional Chinese, and mainland Chinese editions, reaching audiences across East Asia.

TRANSFORMATIVE RESEARCH LEADERSHIP
From 2013 to 2019, Kushner directed a groundbreaking £1.2 million European Research Council project: "The Dissolution of the Japanese Empire and the Struggle for Legitimacy in Postwar East Asia, 1945-1965." This ambitious initiative coordinated numerous postdoctoral researchers and PhD students, producing three co-edited volumes that have helped to define how we understand imperial collapse in East Asia:

The Dismantling of Japan's Empire in East Asia (Routledge, 2017)
Overcoming Empire in Post-Imperial East Asia (Bloomsbury, 2020)
In the Ruins of the Japanese Empire (Hong Kong University Press, 2020)

COLLABORATIVE SCHOLARSHIP & TRANSLATION PROJECTS
Professor Kushner has managed significant collaborative projects that bridge academic and public understanding:

Co-edited the groundbreaking volume Examining Japan's Lost Decades with former Asahi Newspaper editor-in-chief, Funabashi Yoichi. Kushner assisted in the management of this two-year research initiative at the Asia Pacific Initiative think tank in Tokyo, overseeing both the research team and editorial process.
Led an ambitious translation project (Japanese to English) with six graduate students to produce Media, Propaganda and Politics in 20th-Century Japan—a critical examination of the complex relationship between media, history, and political power in modern Japan.

MEDIA PRESENCE & GLOBAL RECOGNITION
Kushner is a sought-after voice in international media:

Television: Host and narrator in three episodes of an award-winning 2020 Chinese documentary television series on war crimes trials in China. Asia-Pacific War Crimes Trials《亚太战争审判》is available in English and Chinese versions
Popular Culture: Featured guest on the beloved Japanese television variety show『世界ふしぎ発見』(The World's Amazing Discoveries!) in their special 追跡! 世界を駆け巡るRAMEN, episode, bringing his ramen expertise to mainstream Japanese audiences
Radio: Featured expert on BBC's prestigious programs including In Our Time and The Forum
Print Media: Profiled in major Japanese newspapers and magazines including Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, and more
Documentaries: Consultant for NHK's acclaimed Tokyo Trial docudrama series and featured expert in international documentaries by the Discovery Channel, History Channel, and broadcasts in France and China

GLOBAL ACADEMIC CITIZEN
Professor Kushner's contributions have been acknowledged through prestigious visiting appointments worldwide:

Visiting Professor at Waseda University (2019-2023, 2025)
Visiting Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (2019-2020)
Guest Professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University (2020-2023)
Visiting Professor at Osaka University (2017)

ACADEMIC AWARDS AND GRANTS
Professor Kushner's academic contributions have been recognized through numerous awards and fellowships, including but not limited to:

2024-2025 Japan Foundation Fellowship
Visiting Fellowship to the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, 2019-2020
2019 Nakasone Yasuhiro Award for Excellence (Japan)
2013-2019 European Research Council award for a 6-year project
Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Grant (Taiwan) for digital humanities research (2018-2023)
Toshiba Foundation Grant for media and history research (2014-2017)
British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship (2012-2013)
Abe Fellowship for Cold War legal history research (2008-2010)

INTERNATIONAL SPEAKER
Kushner has delivered invited lectures at over 50 prestigious institutions across five continents, including Stanford, Columbia, Hong Kong University, the Sorbonne, Tel Aviv University, Tokyo University, and many more.

**A full list of achievements, publications, awards and presentations can be referenced in full on his CV.

Documentary TV Shows

"In Deep with Ramen," a television documentary.

A television documentary concerning the history of ramen and why it has become so popular across Japan and the globe. It aired in Japanese and English versions.

Asia-Pacific War Crimes Trials Television Documentary Series （亚太战争审判）

A Chinese television documentary in English and Chinese investigating the war crimes trials of the Japanese.

Book

The Geography of Injustice: East Asia's Battle Between Memory and History

This book argues that the war crimes tribunals in East Asia formed and cemented national divides that persist into the present day.

Men to Devils, Devils to Men: Japanese War Crimes and Chinese Justice

This book examines how factions of Nationalists and Communists within China structured the war crimes trials in ways meant to strengthen their competing claims to political rule. On the international stage, both China and Japan propagandized the tribunals, promoting or blocking them for their own advantage.

Slurp! A Social and Culinary History of Ramen - Japan’s Favorite Noodle Soup

The Thought War-- Japanese Imperial Propaganda

The only English language book to delve solely into Japanese wartime propaganda history.

Academic Journal Article

“Justice in the Time of Cholera,” Asia-Pacific Journal/Japan Focus, Volume 22 | Issue 3 | Number 3, March 2024, p. 1-11.

Numerous complex issues concerning the history of Japanese war crimes cloud the trials that adjudicated justice in postwar East Asia. Discrepancies between fact and fiction, or facts that can be proven in a court of law, result in a situation that even today renders what actually happened during the creation of empire and the ensuing war in Asia open to interpretation. More than seven decades after the war, disagreements about the justice or injustice of these processes continue to feed political friction in the region.

The Real Manchurian Candidates: Chinese war criminals in the postwar, prisoners of history

〈處理戰後的勝利：國民黨、日本與共產黨對於正義的立場〉

「戦後中国における日本人戦犯裁判の戦い〜正義とその正当性」国際研究教育機構研究年報（学習院大学）第３号2017年, p. 5-17.

「合法性と帝国──台湾を事例とした日中関係における「正義」をめぐる戦い」中国２１, vol. 45, February 2017, p. 81-105.

“Ghosts of the Japanese Imperial Army: The ‘White Group’ (Baituan) and Early Post-war Sino-Japanese Relations”

"Ghosts of the Japanese Imperial Army: The ‘White Group’ (Baituan) and Early Post-war Sino-Japanese Relations,” Past and Present, volume 218, suppl 8 (Transnationalism and Contemporary Global History), (2013), p. 117-150.

“Treacherous Allies: The Cold War in East Asia and American Postwar Anxiety”

Article on John Provoo, Japan and the Cold War in the US

“Pawns of Empire: Postwar Taiwan, Japan and the Dilemma of War Crimes”

Article on postwar BC class Japanese war crimes

“Nationality and Nostalgia: The Manipulation of Memory in Japan, Taiwan, and China since 1990”

How history influences politics and culture in Taiwan, Japan and China

Co-authored with Sato Masaharu, “Digesting Postwar Japanese Media: American Propaganda in Occupied Japan,” Diplomatic History, January 2005, p. 27-48.

Read how America used the Reader's Digest for postwar propaganda in Japan.

“Laughter as Materiel: The Mobilization of Comedy in Japan’s Fifteen-Year War,” volume xxvi, 2 (June 2004), The International History Review, p. 300-330.

Who had fun during World War Two?

“'Negro Propaganda Operations': Japan's short-wave radio information broadcasts for World War II Black Americans”

See my co-authored, award-winning article on Japanese wartime radio propaganda.

“Cannibalizing Japanese Media - The Case of Issei Sagawa”

Article about Japanese media "hero" and crime

Book Chapter

バラク・クシュナー and浅野豊美,「戦争・ホロコストと帝国・植民地支配表像をめぐるメディアの正義と和解〜ヨーロッパとアジアをまたぐ複眼的視座を求めて」in 浅野豊美編集『和解学, volume 6 - 想起する文化をめぐる記憶の軋轢: 本欧州・アジアのメディア比較と歴史的考察』明石書店, 2023, p. 317-349.

「ヨーロッパから見た東アジア歴史問題の起源」、浅野豊美編集『和解学の試み』、明石書店, 2021, p. 259-285.

This is a larger work in Japanese analyzing issues concerning historical reconciliation in East Asia and edited by Professor Asano Toyomi of Waseda University. It is the first volume of a larger series focused on reconciliation studies.

“Anchors of History: The Long Shadow of Imperial Japanese Propaganda”

This chapter tells the unknown story of how anchors from the Qing imperial navy played an ongoing role in the propaganda war between China and Japan.

Kushner delivered a talk for the Hoover Institute on this topic which can be seen here.

〈法律與帝國—對日關係中「正義」的掙扎（1944-1947）〉

“Japan’s war of words with the world: WWII propaganda in the international arena”

“The question of complicity: Japan’s early postures toward war crimes and war responsibility in the aftermath of the Second World War”

“Heroes, victims, and the quest for peace: war monuments and the contradictions of Japan’s post-imperial commemoration”

“Chinese War Crimes Trials of Japanese, 1945-1956: a Historical Summary”

“Empire’s Little Helpers: Juvenile Delinquents and the State in East Asia, 1880-1945”

A different look at empire and juvenile delinquency in the Far East.

“Unwarranted attention: the image of Japan in twentieth century Chinese humour”

Chapter on image of Japan in modern Chinese humor.

“Sweetness and Empire: Sugar Consumption in Imperial Japan”

This research considers some of the ways in which sweets increasingly came to be incorporated into the everyday lives of Japanese people, as an indicator of rising levels of "modernity."

“Going for the Gold - Health and Sports in Japan’s Quest for Modernity”

Overview of Japan's efforts to market and promote the 1940 Olympic games in Tokyo that never took place

“Imperial Cuisines in Taisho Foodways,” in Eric Rath and Stephanie Assmann, eds., Japanese Foodways, Past and Present.

Chapter in edited volume on Taisho era Japanese cuisine

“Planes, Trains and Games: Selling Japan’s War in Asia”

An analysis of Japanese wartime kamishibai and the market for children's propaganda

“Gojira as Japan’s First Postwar Media Event,” in the book, In Godzilla’s Footsteps: Japanese Pop Culture Icons on the Global Stage

My chapter on Godzilla as Japan’s first international popular culture icon.

Co-edited Book

In the Ruins of the Japanese Empire: Imperial Violence, State Destruction, and the Reordering of Modern East Asia

In the Ruins of the Japanese Empire concludes that early East Asian Cold War history needs to be studied within the framework of post-imperial history.

Overcoming Empire in Post-Imperial East Asia: Repatriation, Redress and Rebuilding

In Overcoming Empire in Post-Imperial East Asia: Repatriation, Redress and Rebuilding Barak Kushner and Sherzod Muminov bring together an international team of leading scholars to explore the post-imperial history of the region.

The Dismantling of Japan's Empire in East Asia: Deimperialization, Postwar Legitimation and Imperial Afterlife

This volume brings together the latest in Japanese and Western scholarship on the turbulent years following the end of Japan’s empire in East Asia.

Examining Japan's Lost Decades

To discuss the rebuilding of Japan, the authors argue that it is first essential to critically examine Japan’s ‘Lost Decades’ and this book offers a comprehensive overview of Japan’s recent 20 years of crisis.

Translation

Media, Propaganda and Politics in 20th-Century Japan (with a foreword by Funabashi Yoichi)

This is a book from a major Japanese newspaper looking out over the last eighty years of Japanese history and analyzing the role media plays in the formation of history. The work includes extensive company archival material and key interviews with journalists involved in critical moments of 20th century Japanese history from 1926-1989.