RESUME   SHELDON H. HARRIS

 

EMAIL:      [email protected]

 

EDUCATION:  A.B.cum laude, CUNY;   A.M., Harvard University;

            Ph.D., Columbia University

 

CURRENT PROFESSIONAL STATUS:  emeritus Professor of History, California

State University, Northridge, Ca 91330

 

CONNECTIONS WITH MODERN CHINA AND JAPAN:

 

I have lived and lectured in China beginning in 1979.  I returned to China for extended periods in 1981, 1984, 1985, 1989, 1991 and 1998.  I participated in a major symposium on Sino-Japanese relations at Northeast Normal University, Changchun, September 22-28, 1998.  In addition, I have lectured at many universities in China including Shaanxi Teachers University, Shandong University, Sichuan University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Shanghai Teachers College, Northeast Normal University, Harbin Teachers University and Harbin Institute of Technology.

 

In China, I conducted research in many parts of the country, including Northeast China and Inner Mongolia.  The results of my efforts were four published articles and my book, FACTORIES OF DEATH, JAPANESE BIOLOGICAL WARFARE 1932-1945, AND THE AMERICAN COVER-UP(Routledge: London and New York, Hard Cover, 1994, Paperback, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999).  FACTORIES OF DEATH was selected by CHOICE magazine as one of the Outstanding Scholarly Books of 1995.  It was awarded the California State University Scholarly Publication Award in 1995.  It is the March 1998 selection of The Military Book Club. It was published in Japanese translation in July 1999 by Kashiwa Shobo Publishers in Tokyo.

 

OTHER SCHOLARLY ACHIEVEMENTS:

 

I recently completed a lengthy chapter for a book, MEDICAL MILITARY ETHICS, sponsored by the United States Army Office of The Surgeon General.  The chapter deals with Japanese medical atrocities in China, and is to be part of a nineteen volume series of MEDICAL MILITARY HISTORY.  The ethics volume is scheduled for publication in late 1999. Two other essays are to be published in 1999 in studies concerned with biological warfare and the War in The Pacific. One essay, on Japanese biolgical warfare, is included in a volume underwritten by S.I.P.R.I., and is to be published by Oxford University Press in August 1999.  The editors of the volume are the American Historian, John Moon, and the German Bio-ethics Historian, Erhard Geissler.  The second essay deals with the American cover-up of the Japanese medical atrocities.  This essay is to be published by Kluwer,in England, and is in a collection of essays on The War In The Pacific.  The editor is the eminent Australian Historian, Roy Macleod.

 

Two other essays are included in a volume on reporting war crimes. Pulitzer Prize winning NEWSDAY reporter, Roy Gutman, edited this volume.  Titled CRIMES OF WAR, WHAT THE PUBLIC SHOULD KNOW (W.W.Norton Publisher), was published in July 1999 to outstanding initial critical reviews.

 

PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS OF SINO-JAPANESE CONTROVERSIES

 

I have appeared on Dateline NBC, Australian television, Korean television, Japanese television, and British television in connection with my studies of Japanese use of humans in bio-warfare experiments.  CNN's IMPACT program is working on a segment on bio-warfare that utilizes material from my book.  In mid-April 1998, I taped a segment on plague as a potential bio-warfare weapon for the DISCOVERY CHANNEL. The program was shown in October 1998.  I was interviewed on June 4, 1998, by Mrs. Fuyuko Nishisato for a segment to be shown on the Tokyo Broadcasting System's network sometime later this summer.  In addition, I have been recruited by the BBC as a consultant for a six-part documentary series on Science and War.  The series was shown in Great Britain in December 1998 and elsewhere in 1999.  The History Channel in the United States televised a one hour program on Unit 731 on March 7, 1999(Unit 731: Nightmare in Manchuria).  I was interviewed for the program and have been employed as a consultant for the documentary.

 

I have discussed my book on numerous radio talk shows and have given public lectures at a number of universities in the United States and abroad. The History Channel will broadcast another one hour documentary in October 1999 that features an interview in which I discuss Japanese chemical warfare developments in China during WWII.  I will be a featured speaker at an international forum on Japanese wartime atrocities in December 1999. The forum will be held in Tokyo from December 10-12, and then will be repeated the following week in either Beijing or Shanghai.  Finally, I was a panelist on the history of bio-warfare at the annual convention of The Association of Politics and Life Sciences, which met in Boston, September 3-5, 1998.

 

In mid-June and early July 1998, I along with ten Japanese lawyers and physicians, toured five North American cities in connection with a photographic exhibit of Japanese wartime atrocities.  The participants in the tour conducted public discussions concerning the atrocities, as well as their lawsuit against the Japanese government which seeks compensation for the atrocity victims, and a public apology by the government for its past violations of human rights.

 

On August 16, 1998, I participated as a panelist in a historic teleconference between Los Angeles and Tokyo which was sponsored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and The Global Alliance. Panelists, and eye witnesses who committed war crimes in China and elsewhere in Asia, discussed the responsibility of Japanese militarists for endorsing or committing crimes against humanity during the second World War.  The discussions covered many topics, including the continuing denial by Japanese governments of responsibility for the crimes committed by their predecessors.  This teleconference received extensive media coverage in both Japan and in the United States.

 

On May 23, 1999, I was the featured speaker at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Makiguchi Series in Los Angeles.  I discussed the issue of Japanese biological and chemical warfare research that employed humans in scientific experiments during WWII.  The History Channel program Unit 731: Nightmare In Manchuria, was shown to the audience attending my lecture.  Following the lecture, I led an audience discussion of the material covered in the documentary.

 

Currently, I am working with California Assemblyman, Shoji Honda, to draft a resolution to be introduced into the California Legislature that condemns Japan for its refusal to apologize for wartime atrocities, as well as its adamant denial of compensation to its victims.  I am also working with several other advisors to U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein(Democrat, California) to draft a Congressional Resolution requiring the U.S. Government to declassify all documents in its archives that relate to Japanese wartime atrocities.  Senator Feinstein intends to introduce her Resolution into the Senate sometime this Fall.

 

 

July 1999