Daqing Yang

Daqing Yang teaches modern Japanese history at the George Washington University in Washington, DC, USA. His research interests include the Japanese empire, science and technology in modern East Asia, and memories and reconciliation after World War II. His book Technology of Empire examines telecommunications networks in the history of Japanese empire-building. His current project is a transnational history of geological knowledge in East Asia during the times of empire, war and revolution, with a focus on explorations of subterranean energy resources in northeastern China (Manchuria) since the mid-nineteenth century. A native of Nanjing, China, he received his PhD at Harvard University. Between 2004–2007 he served as a historian consultant for the Interagency Working Group on Nazi War Crimes and Imperial Japanese Government Documents at the US National Archives. In summertime of 2015–2017, he conducted research on joint historians’ commissions as a visiting researcher at the Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ) in Munich. A recipient of fellowships from the Japan Foundation, ACLS, and SSRC, he has also taught at Harvard, Yonsei, Tokyo, and Waseda Universities.