Deputy Chair, Associate Professor
Jeremy A. Yellen is a historian of modern Japan and an associate professor in the Department of Japanese Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). His main research interest is on the long history of World War II in the Asia-Pacific, and his writings grapple with questions of politics, empire, diplomacy, and international order. Although primarily a political and diplomatic historian, he also makes use of transnational and comparative perspectives to place Japan in global context, and his work often pairs analyses of high policy with developments in the periphery of empire. Other side projects have used literature, poetry, public writings, and storytelling to shed light on the political history of wartime Japan, postwar Japan, and historical memory.
His primary aim as a historian is to advance within English-language studies of Japan what may be thought of as a new political history. This is a style that (in the context of empire) pairs high policy with developments among colonial actors in the imperial periphery; it is also a style that (in the context of politics) foregrounds connections between high politics and culture and society. This focus on crafting a new political history of Japan led to his first two books, The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War (Cornell University Press, 2019) and Japan at War, 1914-1952 (Routledge, 2025), and informs his research and teaching at CUHK.
Educational Background
Ph.D. History, Harvard University (2012)
Contact
Email : jyellen@cuhk.edu.hk
Research Interests
Modern Japan; Japanese Empire; Empire and Imperialism; Decolonization; Transnational History; War Studies; War Termination; Political History; International Relations
Personal Website