Naze Todai wa Otoko darake nanoka [Why is the University of Tokyo full of men?] (Shueisha shinsho,2024).
90% of professors and 80% of students are male at the University of Tokyo. It is an outlier among the top institutions of higher education in the world today. The book explores this significance from historical and international comparative perspectives. It provides an overview of the university before 1945 and the post-war period and compares it with the process of Princeton University's decision to become a co-educational institution. By doing so, the book reveals how profoundly masculine values are embedded in the institution and argues the need to solve this problem to create a more global university and society.
Understanding AI in Society: How Technology Exerts Power ,Yuko Itatsu and Ai Hisano eds., （University of Tokyo Press, 2023).
The book, written mainly by UTokyo's B'AI Global Forum members, investigates various aspects of the relationship between AI and society. Yaguchi's article ("AI and Historical Testimony at History Museums") discusses the attempt to use AI to enable the holograms of the Holocaust survivors to provide accounts of the past at the Sydney Jewish Museum.
Unpredictable Agents: The Making of Japan’s Americanists during the Cold War and Beyond , Mari Yoshihara, ed., (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2021)
The book explores different encounters by Japan's Americanisits during the Cold War and beyond and shows how seemingly a "binary" relationship between the U.S. and Japan comprises multifaceted encounters. Although their paths were inextricably conditioned by the politics of the Cold War, they came to focus on the U.S. for a variety of reasons by following very different trajectories. Yaguchi's essay focuses on his Christian (Mennonite) upbringing and how he came to understand through the lens of church activities.
『現代アメリカ講義』
Gendai Amerika Kogi [Lectures on American Society Today] (Tokyo: The University of Tokyo Press, 2020).
Based on a series of lectures offered at the University of Tokyo by some of Japan's leading scholars on the United States, this edited book introduces multiple aspects of today's American society through the lens of race, gender, and other critical factors. It discusses anti-intellectualism, sports, and the media, among others, to provide a layered understanding of the United States to the general readers in Japan.
Beyond Pearl Harbor: A Pacific History, Beth Bailey and David Farber, eds., (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2019).
Based on a workshop held in 2016 on the occasion of the 75th year anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the book reevaluates the Japanese attack within a broader transnational history. In addition to histories of the U.S., Japan, and the Pacific, the book includes essays that incorporate perspectives from China, the Philippines, Australia and others. Yaguchi's essay analyzes the shift in memories of Pearl Harbor in Japan by tracing the number of references to the incident in the major Japanese newspapers.
Lon Kurashige and Madeline Hsu, eds., Pacific America: Histories of Transpacific Crossings, Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2017).
Based on a special issue of Pacific Historical Review (2014) “Conversations on Transpacific History.” Yaguchi’s essay explores the image of Japanese Americans in post-WWII Japan through analyzing a photo booklet entitled Nikkei Amerikajin—Hawai no [Nikkei Americans, in Hawaii], compiled by the photojournalist Yonosuke Natori.
『戦渦を記念する グアム・サイパンの歴史と記憶』
This is a Japanese translation of Keith Camacho, Cultures of Commemoration: The Politics of War, Memory and History in the Mariana Islands (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2011) by Akira Nishimura and Yasuki Machi published by Iwanami Shoten in 2016. The book received Ohira Masayoshi Award in Japan. Yaguchi writes an afterward to this translated version, introducing Camacho to the Japanese audience.
『奇妙なアメリカ－神と正義のミュージアム』
Kimyo na Amerika [American Oddities] (Shinchosha, 2014).
This book introduces and analyzes the state of today’s American culture by focusing on several museums, including Crystal Bridges, Bishop Museum, and Creation Museum (San Diego), among others. It is based on close observation of exhibits of these museums, framed by theories from contemporary museum studies/cultural studies.
『憧れのハワイ―日本人のハワイ観』
Akogare no Hawai [Longings for Hawai'i ] (Chuo Koron Shinsha, 2011).
This book provides an overview of shifting images of Hawai‘i in Japan from the late nineteenth century to today, including the Japanese imagination of the islands during WWII. Based on analyses of various texts on Hawai‘i published over the course of more than a century, the book critiques the construction of the Japanese imaginary that enabled many in Japan to define the islands in their own terms. The book received Joseph Roggendorf Award, given to notable scholarly works that investigate the dynamics of Japan’s intercultural/national relationships.
『ハワイ王国物語―カメハメハからクヒオまで』
Hawai Okoku Monogatari [Stories from Hawaiian Kingom] (Tokyo: Icarus Shuppan, 2011).
The book offers an introduction to the notable figures in the history of Hawaiian Kingdom, primarily for hula practitioners in Japan who often perform hula about Hawaiian royalty. It discusses 15 figures, including King Kamehameha, Bernice Bishop, Queen Liliuokalani and Prince Jonah Kuhio.
『真珠湾を語る−歴史、記憶、教育』
Hawai/Shinjuwan no Kioku [Hawai‘i and Memories of Pearl Harbor] with Takeo Morimo and Kyoko Nakayama (Tokyo, Akashi Shoten, 2007).
The book discusses the politics of Pearl Harbor memories as well as practical lessons for teaching about the attack to secondary school students in Japan. It is based on a series of NEH workshops that were held in Honolulu for US and Japanese secondary school teachers on Pearl Harbor. The book combines theoretical essays by scholars such as Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Lisa Yoneyama, Geoffrey White, and Yuma Totani with concrete lesson plans by the past participants of the workshops.
Jenichiro Oyabe, A Japanese Robinson Crusoe, Greg Robinson and Yujin Yaguchi, eds., (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2009).
Jenichiro Oyabe was a Japanese man who traveled to the United States in the end of the nineteenth century and studied at Hampton Institute and Howard University. His claim was that he attended these schools to learn about “how to educate the Ainu,” the indigenous population of northern Japan. The book is a republication of his autobiography, originally published in 1898. Robinson and Yaguchi provide an extended discussion of the significance of his work in its introduction.
『ハワイ・真珠湾の記憶』
Hawai/Shinjuwan no Kioku [Hawai‘i and Memories of Pearl Harbor] with Takeo Morimo and Kyoko Nakayama (Tokyo, Akashi Shoten, 2007)
The book is an introduction to the culture and history of Hawai‘i, with a particular focus on Pearl Harbor. Its primary audience is secondary school students. Now in its third printing, it has been read by many young people and their families traveling to Hawai‘i
“War Memories Across the Pacific: Japanese Visitors at the Arizona Memorial” Marc Gallicchio, ed., The Unpredictability of the Past (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007) 234-252.
“In The Unpredictability of the Past, an international group of historians examines how collective memories of the Asia-Pacific War continue to affect relations among China, Japan, and the United States. The contributors are primarily concerned with the history of international relations broadly conceived to encompass not only governments but also nongovernmental groups and organizations that influence the interactions of peoples across the Pacific” (quoted from amazon website). Yaguchi’s essay focuses on Japanese visitor experiences at the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial.
『現代アメリカのキーワード』
Gendai Amerika no Keyword [Keywords of Contemporary US] co-edited with Mari Yoshihara (Tokyo: Chuko Shinsho, 2006).
This book is a collection of 81 essays discussing keywords of contemporary America, especially after 9/11. Many of the keywords are highly relevant to understanding U.S. society and culture but are not well known to the Japanese public. Scholars, activists, artists, and other professionals from the United States and Japan contribute to the volume by providing general information as well as critical discussions about the keywords, ranging from “the Abu Ghraib scandal,” “prison industrial complex,” “Christian right,” and “gated communities” to “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” “Dr. Phil,” and “Martha Stewart.”
『ハワイとフラの歴史物語』
Hawai to Hura no Rekishi Monogatari [Stories of Hawai‘i and Hula] (Tokyo: Icarus Shuppan, 2005).
This book introduces the history of Hawai‘i from the perspective of hula, primarily for hula practitioners in Japan. It emphasizes the critical importance of the history of colonialism in the islands so that the Japanese performers may gain a more nuanced the “paradise” they wish to perform.
『ハワイの歴史と文化－悲劇と誇りのモザイク』
Hawai no Rekisho to Bunka [History and Culture of Hawai‘i] (Tokyo: Chuko Shinsho, 2002).
This book introduces the history and culture of Hawai‘i using four themes—immigration, Native Hawaiian history and colonization of the islands, war and military, and tourism. Now in its fifth printing, it has become a standard introduction to Hawa‘i in Japan.
