East Asia Library - Japanese Collection

The Japanese collection was launched with an intensive acquisition program in Japan during the early postwar years starting in 1945. Between 1945 and 1947, almost 300 boxes of Japanese materials were shipped to Stanford, including some 10,000 books and magazines, as well as newspapers, official documents, etc. One of the renowned special acquisition projects was the Prince Konoya documents on microfilm obtained in 1958. The original focus of the collection centered on the study of international relations, revolution, and the causes and effects of war. The collection is particularly strong in materials on pre-war Japan and its colonial regions in China, Korea, Taiwan, and Manchuria.

With an emphasis on the late 19th and 20th centuries, the collection provides a picture of Japan’s modern transformation, including biographies of prominent personnel, diplomatic studies and records, materials on labor movement and the constitution, military and governmental records. It also holds an extensive archive of prewar left-and right-wing journals and newspapers published in Japanese outside of Japan, mostly in Asia. While maintaining its strengths in international relations, modern military and naval science, Japanese colonial efforts, Japanese constitution, political economy, and modern social conditions and movements, current areas of expansion include pre-modern society, religion and literary arts.

Hoover Archives Holdings on Japan

Reference Contact and Recommending Library Purchases

For reference help with the Japanese collection or to suggest Japanese-language titles for purchase, please contact:

Regan Murphy Kao
East Asia Library
J. Henry Meyer Library Bldg., Room 416
Stanford, CA 94305-6004
(650) 725-3437 voice
(650) 724-2028 fax
E-mail: Regan Murphy Kao