More Than You Probably Wanted to Know . . .
Bill Tsutsui is an award-winning historian and teacher, frequent public speaker and media commentator, and a seasoned academic administrator with a record of innovation. Born in New York City and raised in Texas, he holds degrees from Harvard (A.B. 1985), Oxford (M.Litt. 1988), and Princeton (M.A. 1990, Ph.D. 1995) universities. He began his academic career at the University of Kansas, where over 17 years on the faculty
he served as acting director of KU’s Center for East Asian Studies, chair of the Department of History, and associate dean for international studies in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. From 2010 to 2014, he was dean of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences and professor in the Clements Department of History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. In June 2014, he assumed the presidency of Hendrix College, a top-tier national liberal arts college founded in 1876 and located in Conway, Arkansas. He is currently Professor Emeritus of History at Hendrix. During the 2020 to 2021 academic year, he was the Edwin O. Reischauer Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and the Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations at Harvard University. On July 1, 2021, Bill became President/CEO and Professor of History at Ottawa University, a private comprehensive university with residential campuses in Kansas and Arizona and adult, graduate, and professional programs offered through campuses in Kansas, Arizona, and Wisconsin and online globally.
On July 1, 2022, he was named Ottawa University's Chancellor.
Bill is the author of Manufacturing Ideology: Scientific Management in Twentieth-Century Japan, Banking Policy in Japan: American Efforts at Reform During the Occupation, Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters, and Japanese Popular Culture and Globalization, as well as numerous essays on modern Japanese history. He has also edited Banking in Japan, In Godzilla's Footsteps: Japanese Pop Culture Icons on the Global Stage (with Michiko Ito), A Companion to Japanese History, and The East Asian Olympiads, 1934-2008: Building Bodies and Nations in Japan, Korea, and China (with Michael Baskett). He has received Fulbright, ACLS, and Marshall fellowships, and was awarded the Newcomen Society Award for Excellence in Business History in 1998, the John Whitney Hall Prize of the Association for Asian Studies in 2000, the William Rockhill Nelson Prize for Non-Fiction in 2005, and the inaugural Bridges to Friendship Award from the Japan America Society of Greater Austin in 2015.
Bill’s research and teaching focus on the business, environmental, and cultural history of twentieth-century Japan. His current projects include studies of the environmental impact of World War II on Japan, the Japanese fishing industry, and the history of the phrase “Made in Japan.” He has taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses on the history of East Asia, modern Japan, and the Pacific War, as well as two award-winning online courses. While at the University of Kansas, he was a faculty fellow at the Center for Teaching Excellence,
received a 2001 William T. Kemper Award for Teaching Excellence, and won the Steeples Faculty Award for service to the people of Kansas and the Woodyard International Educator Award. Since 2000 he has written and administered individual and institutional grants
totaling over $5.5 million from a variety of external funders.
An outspoken supporter of the public humanities, Bill is a past president of the Kansas State Historical Society, former program committee chair of the Kansas Humanities Council, former chair of the Northeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies, and a former member of the board of the World Affairs Council of Dallas-Fort Worth. He chaired the board of the Federation of State Humanities Councils
from 2017 to 2019. He currently serves on the boards of the US-Japan Council and the US-Japan Bridging Foundation. In 2020 he was appointed to the Japan-United States Friendship Commission and the United States-Japan Conference on Cultural & Educational Interchange (CULCON). A former chair of the Editorial Board and member of the board of directors of the Association for Asian Studies, he was awarded the Award for Distinguished Service to the AAS in 2023. He previously served on the Division III Presidents Council of the NCAA, the boards of EIIA (a national non-profit insurance provider for colleges and universities) and the Conway Chamber of Commerce, and was a member of the Accountability Committee of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. In 2018, he participated in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC) hosted by the Secretary of Defense, the oldest and most prestigious public liaison program in the Department of Defense.
Bill has a longstanding commitment to professional development for K-12 educators, world language education in the schools, and curriculum development in international education and social studies. He chaired the Kansas Committee for International Education in the Schools, directed the Kansas Consortium for Teaching about Asia, and was co-project director on a $661,000 Teaching American History grant from the U.S. Department of Education. In 2013 he served on the Blue Ribbon Commission on Education of the Dallas Independent School District.
As part of his strong personal and professional interest in diversity issues, he has served as the chair of the Diversity Committee
of the American Society for Environmental History, was a member of the 2011 Japanese-American Leadership Delegation, and has given numerous talks to public, corporate, and school audiences for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. He served for four years on the
NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee.
Bill has been married for 33 years to Dr. Marjorie Swann, a professor of English at Ottawa Univerity and an expert on seventeenth-century British literature. They have two cats and a dog, and enjoy walking, reading, and playing the New York Times “Spelling Bee” daily.
he served as acting director of KU’s Center for East Asian Studies, chair of the Department of History, and associate dean for international studies in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. From 2010 to 2014, he was dean of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences and professor in the Clements Department of History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. In June 2014, he assumed the presidency of Hendrix College, a top-tier national liberal arts college founded in 1876 and located in Conway, Arkansas. He is currently Professor Emeritus of History at Hendrix. During the 2020 to 2021 academic year, he was the Edwin O. Reischauer Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and the Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations at Harvard University. On July 1, 2021, Bill became President/CEO and Professor of History at Ottawa University, a private comprehensive university with residential campuses in Kansas and Arizona and adult, graduate, and professional programs offered through campuses in Kansas, Arizona, and Wisconsin and online globally.
On July 1, 2022, he was named Ottawa University's Chancellor.
Bill is the author of Manufacturing Ideology: Scientific Management in Twentieth-Century Japan, Banking Policy in Japan: American Efforts at Reform During the Occupation, Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters, and Japanese Popular Culture and Globalization, as well as numerous essays on modern Japanese history. He has also edited Banking in Japan, In Godzilla's Footsteps: Japanese Pop Culture Icons on the Global Stage (with Michiko Ito), A Companion to Japanese History, and The East Asian Olympiads, 1934-2008: Building Bodies and Nations in Japan, Korea, and China (with Michael Baskett). He has received Fulbright, ACLS, and Marshall fellowships, and was awarded the Newcomen Society Award for Excellence in Business History in 1998, the John Whitney Hall Prize of the Association for Asian Studies in 2000, the William Rockhill Nelson Prize for Non-Fiction in 2005, and the inaugural Bridges to Friendship Award from the Japan America Society of Greater Austin in 2015.
Bill’s research and teaching focus on the business, environmental, and cultural history of twentieth-century Japan. His current projects include studies of the environmental impact of World War II on Japan, the Japanese fishing industry, and the history of the phrase “Made in Japan.” He has taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses on the history of East Asia, modern Japan, and the Pacific War, as well as two award-winning online courses. While at the University of Kansas, he was a faculty fellow at the Center for Teaching Excellence,
received a 2001 William T. Kemper Award for Teaching Excellence, and won the Steeples Faculty Award for service to the people of Kansas and the Woodyard International Educator Award. Since 2000 he has written and administered individual and institutional grants
totaling over $5.5 million from a variety of external funders.
An outspoken supporter of the public humanities, Bill is a past president of the Kansas State Historical Society, former program committee chair of the Kansas Humanities Council, former chair of the Northeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies, and a former member of the board of the World Affairs Council of Dallas-Fort Worth. He chaired the board of the Federation of State Humanities Councils
from 2017 to 2019. He currently serves on the boards of the US-Japan Council and the US-Japan Bridging Foundation. In 2020 he was appointed to the Japan-United States Friendship Commission and the United States-Japan Conference on Cultural & Educational Interchange (CULCON). A former chair of the Editorial Board and member of the board of directors of the Association for Asian Studies, he was awarded the Award for Distinguished Service to the AAS in 2023. He previously served on the Division III Presidents Council of the NCAA, the boards of EIIA (a national non-profit insurance provider for colleges and universities) and the Conway Chamber of Commerce, and was a member of the Accountability Committee of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. In 2018, he participated in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC) hosted by the Secretary of Defense, the oldest and most prestigious public liaison program in the Department of Defense.
Bill has a longstanding commitment to professional development for K-12 educators, world language education in the schools, and curriculum development in international education and social studies. He chaired the Kansas Committee for International Education in the Schools, directed the Kansas Consortium for Teaching about Asia, and was co-project director on a $661,000 Teaching American History grant from the U.S. Department of Education. In 2013 he served on the Blue Ribbon Commission on Education of the Dallas Independent School District.
As part of his strong personal and professional interest in diversity issues, he has served as the chair of the Diversity Committee
of the American Society for Environmental History, was a member of the 2011 Japanese-American Leadership Delegation, and has given numerous talks to public, corporate, and school audiences for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. He served for four years on the
NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee.
Bill has been married for 33 years to Dr. Marjorie Swann, a professor of English at Ottawa Univerity and an expert on seventeenth-century British literature. They have two cats and a dog, and enjoy walking, reading, and playing the New York Times “Spelling Bee” daily.
Hendrix inauguration, with one heck of a cake, 2015
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As a member of the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference, 2018
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Marjorie and Bill, 2014
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