On a Collision Course

“At last, On a Collision Course provides English-speaking readers with invaluable access to the scholarship of Yasuo Sakata, arguably one of the foremost trailblazers in Japanese American studies. Superbly translated, the volume highlights the contemporary relevance of Sakata’s works published in Japan over a quarter of a century ago. While based on impeccable empirical research, the selected essays offer an in-depth look at how the early Japanese immigrant experience unfolded in the intertwined contexts of US-Japan diplomacy and the local race politics of the American West. Still with ample power to inspire, Sakata’s studies represent migration history writing at its best and are a must-read for anyone interested in transpacific working-class migration and Japanese American history.” —Eiichiro Azuma, associate professor of history and Asian American studies, University of Pennsylvania 

“Yasuo Sakata in On a Collision Course lays out the challenges of researching the Japanese American history: the massive loss of historical archives during the 1906 San Francisco Great Fire and the 1942–5 internment; and the commonplace practice of secondhand citations and historical distortions in the Nikkei communities’ publications in early decades. How could one overcome these problems, if at all? This is a must-read text for those who seek an answer to this question.” —Yuma Totani, professor of history, University of Hawaii, and author of The Tokyo War Crimes Trial 

“This is an exceptionally erudite and timely publication of Yasuo Sakata’s historical studies of migration between Japan and the United States during the Meiji era. Sakata’s research amounts to essential reading on the place of Issei labor and patterns of mobility caught between the expansionist and exclusionist policies of two rising world powers. Appearing for the first time in English translation, with a preface by Kaoru Ueda and critical introduction by Masako Iino, it provides nuanced, multilayered analyses of the archives on both sides of the Pacific instrumental for restoring this vital transnational history.” —Seth Jacobowitz, assistant professor of East Asian languages and literatures, Yale University, and author of Writing Technology in Meiji Japan 

“Yasuo Sakata was a pioneer, approaching early Japanese American studies as a field deserving of scholarly attention from both sides of the Pacific. His insistence on the need for bilingual facility and reliance on trustworthy historical documents and archives was only rarely possible, but it will continue to be a beacon and vision for aspiring scholars in the field. This translated volume is most welcome; it is a major contribution.” —Franklin Odo, John J McCloy Visiting Professor of American Institutions and International Diplomacy, Amherst College 

“Revisiting pioneers’ works always results in ‘new’ findings, perspectives, and surprises. This translated collection of essays written by a pioneer scholar of Japanese American history, Yasuo Sakata, shows us the significance of how historians decipher primary sources, master the languages of research, and pay attention to both micro- and macroperspectives. Scholars who are interested in US-Japan history, immigration history, and Japanese American studies will benefit from reading his valuable essays for better understanding the development of historical research on Japanese immigrants and their descendants in the United States.” —Mariko Iijima, Associate Professor, Sophia University 

Masako Iino is former president, professor emeritus, and a trustee of Tsuda University, Tokyo; and chair of the academic advisory committee, Japanese Overseas Migration Museum.

Yasuo Sakata, a leading scholar of Japanese migration studies in both Japan and the United States, taught at Osaka Gakuin University and served as president of the Japanese Association for Migration Studies.

Kaoru Ueda is the curator of the Japanese Diaspora Collection at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives, where she manages the Japanese Diaspora Initiative and the Hoji Shinbun Digital Collection.