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April 9, 2003

Speaker to discuss U.S. foreign relations

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Author and historian Ivan Hall will present "Why Do Americans Not Understand Japan: Lessons for American Policy in Iraq" at 7:30 p.m. Thursday (4/10) in the Krannert Auditorium at Purdue University.

The Asian Studies Program and the Department of Political Science are sponsoring the lecture, which is free and open to the public.

"Events in Iraq remind us of both the importance and difficulty for Americans to understand what drives society and politics in other countries," said Mark Tilton, professor of political science. "Dr. Hall will argue that the United States has failed to understand Japan because we project our own American vision of politics, economics and social change."

Hall will discuss his new book, "Bamboozled: How America Loses the Intellectual Game with Japan and Its Implications for Our Future in Asia."

Hall earned a bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1954, his master's from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1958 and his doctorate in Japanese history from Harvard in 1969.

He has written many books, including a cultural biography of Japan's first envoy to the United States. During the 1950s, he served as an interpreter with Army intelligence and as the associate director of the U.S. government's Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission from 1977 to 1984.

"Dr. Hall can help us think about how the lessons from America's experience with Japan can inform policy toward Iraq from his career spanning academia, as well as military and diplomatic service, and experience in Japan and Muslim worlds," Tilton said.

CONTACT: Tilton, (765) 494-4176, tilton@polsci.purdue.edu.

Writer: Amy Patterson-Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu


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