Hazard, Benjamin H. (1919-2011)
Date Updated
10-10-2019
Department
History
Academic Rank
Professor
Year Retired from SJSU
1983
Educational Background
UC, Berkeley, History, 1967 Ph.D.
UC, Berkeley, History, 1958 MA
UC, Berkeley, Oriental Languages, 1947 AB
University of Michigan, Japanese Language Course, 1942‑43
UCLA, Chemistry (1937‑1942 Entered Army)
Teaching Experience
San Jose State University, Professor, 1970-1983
San Jose State University, Assoc. Professor, 1967-1970
San Jose State University, Asst. Professor, 1963-1967
UC, Santa Barbara, Lecturer, 1962-1963
UC, Berkeley Extension, Instructor, 1961-1962
UC, Berkeley, Teaching Assistant, 1958-1960
Administrative and Professional Experience
United Army, Intelligence Officer, Saipan, Leyte, Okinawa, occupation of Korea 1942‑1946 to 1st lieutenant.
Occupation of Japan, Korean War 1948‑1952 to Captain.
United States Army Reserve: Intelligence Officer, Intelligence Unit Commander, 1953‑1979 to Colonel.
Selected Publications
Korean Studies Guide, with others, University California Press, 1954.
A History of Korea by Takashi Hatada, translated and edited by Warren W. Smith, Jr., and Benjamin H. Hazard, Clio Press, 1969.
"The Formative Years of the Wako. 1223‑1263," Monumenta Nipponica, XXII, No. 3‑4 (June 1967), 260‑277.
"The Creation of the Korean Navy During the Koryo Period," Transactions of the Korean Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, XLVIII (1973), 10‑28.
"The Wako and Korean Responses," Papers in Honor of Professor Woodbridge
Bingham: A Festschrift for His Seventy‑fifth Birthday, Chinese Material Center, Inc., 1976, pp. 15‑28.
Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, Tokyo, 1993, 9 volumes. (Entries are all signed, unlike most).
Iai Sword drawing and cutting on the draw), 3: 253.
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Kendo (Japanese fencing), 4: 195‑196.
Korea and Japan, Premodern Relations (to 1875), 4: 276‑279.
Kyudo (Japanese Archery), 4: 340.
Naginata (glaive, a Japanese polearm of the traditional martial arts), 5: 308.
Wako (Japanese pirates who pillaged the coasts of East Asia from the 13th century into the 17th century), 8: 220‑221.
Grant: American Council of Learned Societies grant for research in Japan and Korea, 1969‑1970.
Files
Personal Commentary
Chemistry was my major at UCLA. I took two years of Japanese in night school. UCLA added Japanese in the spring semester of 1941 and I took another two years of Japanese. Pearl Harbor would change my life. In December of 1942, I was within two weeks of graduating in chemistry, when two majors from the War Department visited UCLA looking for students of non‑Japanese ancestry with some competency in Japanese to enter Army Intelligence. I was asked to volunteer. I was sent to the University of Michigan for six months of intensive Japanese, followed by six months of intensive military Japanese. When I was discharged in 1946, I realized that to continue in chemistry was out of the question, so I applied to Berkeley to major in Oriental languages. I was given three years credit in Japanese by examination and received my degree in one year. I returned to active duty in 1948 and was assigned to GHQ in Tokyo. When I was discharged in 1952, I had collected in Japan and Korea most of the primary sources for my MA thesis and doctoral dissertation.
Date Completed: 10/96
Adapted from: Biographies of Retired Faculty San Jose State University 1997: A Project of the Emeritus Faculty Association of San Jose State University. San Jose, CA: The University, 1997.