When the Rockets Came: Japanese Launch Facilities and the 'Fishing Problem' in Southern Japan, 1960s-1990s

Research Talk Series, Fall 2020

Speaker: Subodhana Wijeyeratne, Writer and Researcher living and working in Tokyo, Japan

Produced by the Harvard University Asia Center

Subodhana Wijeyeratne is a writer and researcher living and working in Tokyo, Japan. His dissertation, Red Sun Rising: Individuals. Institutions, and Infrastructure in Japan's Space Program, 1920-2003, charts the origins and development of Japanese rocketry and space research in the 20th century. His broader interests include the impact of technological change on social relations, on material life, and on perceptions of the world. He is a past recipient of the Noma-Reischauer Award for his piece ”Death Rays to Diesel Engines, Technology Seizure and Collaboration in Occupied Japan, 1945-1952”. His latest piece, “A Race to War: Japanese Public Intellectuals and Racial Explanations of the Russo-Japanese War,” was published in The Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus on 1st October 2020. He is also a published author of fiction. His short story “They Meet in the Wall” won a 2018 Mariner Award, and his first novel, The Slixes, was published in September 2019. You can follow his latest news on his website, subowijeyeratne.com.