Douglas Lummis

C. Douglas Lummis is a writer, former professor at Tsuda College in Tokyo^[1] and former U.S. Marine.^[2]

Life

Lummis' best-known book, outside Japan, is Radical Democracy.

Lummis was born in 1936 in San Francisco. He attended UC Berkeley on a Navy ROTC contract, and later did three years active duty in the Marines - the last year in Okinawa.^[3] He retired from teaching at Tsuda College in 2000.^[3]

Lummis' writings - many of which concern Japan's relationship to the United States - are extremely critical of US foreign policy.^[2][4] His works include the books Radical Democracy, A New Look at The Chrysanthemum and the Sword and Japan's Radical Constitution.^[3][5] He has also published numerous pieces in journals such as The Nation^[6] and Japan Focus.^[2]

Critical reception

Susan Sontag has called Lummis "one of the most thoughtful, honorable, and relevant intellectuals writing about democratic practice anywhere in the world,"^[3] while Karel van Wolferen has referred to him as an "eminent observer of the American-Japanese vassalage relationship."^[4]

Lummis' ideas have been criticized, however, by the likes of Francis Fukuyama in journals such as Foreign Affairs.^[7]

Bibliography

• Charles Douglas Lummis, Sang-jung Kang, and Toshihito Kayano. Kokka to Aidentiti wo Tou [An Inquiry into the State and Identity] (in Japanese). Iwanami Shoten, 2009.

• Charles Douglas Lummis. Radical Democracy. Cornell University Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-8014-8451-3

References