George H. Kerr facts for kids

George H. Kerr (born November 7, 1911 – died August 27, 1992) was an important American diplomat, author, and professor. In Taiwan, he was also known by his Chinese names, 葛超智 or 柯喬治.

Kerr wrote many books and papers about Taiwan in the 1930s and 1940s. He covered how Taiwan changed from being ruled by Japan during World War II to being ruled by China after the war. He also wrote about the Taiwanese rebellion in 1947 and how the United States dealt with Taiwan. His work also included information about Okinawa and the Ryūkyū Islands after World War II.

Early Life and Education

George H. Kerr was born in Pennsylvania, USA. He studied in Japan from 1935 to 1937. After that, he worked as an English teacher in Taihoku, which was then part of Japanese Taiwan, from 1937 to 1940.

Military Service During WWII

During the Pacific War, Kerr joined the United States Navy Reserve as a lieutenant. He became an expert on Taiwan for the U.S. Navy. He helped train officers who would govern areas after the war.

From 1942 to 1943, Kerr worked as an analyst for the U.S. Department of War, focusing on Taiwan (which was then called Formosa). Later, from 1944 to 1946, he directed the Formosa Research Unit at the Naval School of Military Government and Administration. This school was for the U.S. Navy at Columbia University in New York.

Diplomatic Work in Asia

After World War II ended, Kerr went back to Taiwan in 1945. He worked as an assistant naval attaché. He was there when the new Chinese Governor-General Chen Yi arrived for Japan's surrender of Taiwan on October 25, 1945. This day is now known as Retrocession Day.

Kerr was an official civil affairs officer for the U.S. Navy Attache's Office. He was part of the U.S. embassy in China, based in Chongqing. Later, he became a Foreign Service officer and vice-consul in Taipei. He wrote down what he saw during the February 28 Incident in 1947, a major event in Taiwan's history.

In the early 1950s, Kerr finally got to visit Okinawa. He was asked by the military to write a history of the Ryūkyū Islands. The goal was to help people remember the unique identity of the Ryūkyūan people. With a team of researchers, Kerr found many historical documents in Japan. He used this information to write Okinawa: Kingdom and Province (1953). This book was also published in Japanese as Ryūkyū no rekishi (1955). He later updated his research and published a new book, Okinawa: The History of an Island People, in 1958.

Academic and Research Career

George Kerr also had a career in academics. He was a lecturer at the University of Washington from 1947 to 1949. He also taught at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley in 1949 and 1950. For the next five years, he worked as a research associate at the Hoover Institution.

Some of Kerr's important papers are kept at the Okinawa Prefectural Archives. Others can be found at the libraries of Stanford, Taipei, and the Ryudai.

Later Life and Key Books

Kerr wrote many books about Taiwan. He strongly supported the idea of Taiwan independence from China. This made him unpopular with both Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong. For example, Chiang Kai-shek complained about Kerr, which led to Kerr losing his job at Stanford University. Kerr also started writing a long book about 19th-century Hawaii. His life's work focused on the history of important areas in the Pacific Ocean.

He wrote many books and articles about Japan, Okinawa, and Taiwan. Some of his famous works include:

• Formosa: Licensed Revolution and the Home Rule Movement, 1895-1945
• Formosa Betrayed (1965)
• Okinawa: The History of an Island People (1958)
• The Taiwan Confrontation Crisis (1986)

Formosa Betrayed was a very important book. It described Taiwan's change from Japanese rule to the rule of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party. George Kerr was working for the American Foreign Service in Taiwan during this time. He saw the KMT take over and what happened afterward. Formosa Betrayed strongly criticized the Nationalist government and argued for Taiwanese independence. The book was reprinted in 1976 and again in 1992. You can now read it online.

Okinawa: The History of an Island People tells the story of Okinawa from its earliest legends up to the Battle of Okinawa. It is a long book, but easy to read. Eleven years before he passed away, Kerr said that 13,000 copies of the book had been sold. The book was out of print for a while, but the original publisher, Tuttle, reprinted it in 2000. They added a new introduction and an extra section by Okinawa history expert Mitsugu Sakihara.

George H. Kerr passed away at the age of 80 on August 27, 1992, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Selected Works

• Kerr, George H. (2000). Okinawa, the History of an Island People. Afterword by Mitsugu Sakihara. Tokyo: Tuttle. ISBN 9780804820875.
• Kerr, George H. (1986). The Taiwan confrontation crisis. Washington, D.C.: Formosan Association for Public Affairs. OCLC 15681913.
• Kerr, George H. (1974). Formosa: Licensed Revolution and the Home Rule Movement, 1895-1945. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 9780824803230. OCLC 1174316.
• Kerr, George H. (1965). Formosa Betrayed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 242620. OL5948105M.
• Kerr, George H.; Higa, Shuncho (1961). Bibliography of the Ryukyus. Nishihara, Okinawa: University of the Ryukyus. OCLC 8973627.
• Kerr, George H. (1959). Science Information Services in Japan, a Brief Survey. Tokyo. OCLC 22194372.
• Kerr, George H. (1958). Okinawa: the History of an Island People. Tokyo: C. E. Tuttle Co.. OCLC 468346635.
• Kerr, George H. (1953). Ryukyu Kingdom and Province before 1945. Washington: Pacific Science Board, National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council (US). OCLC 5455582. https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Q5IrAAAAYAAJ.
• Kerr, George H. (1952). The Ryūkyū Islands: A Preliminary Checklist of Reference Materials Arranged Alphabetically. Higa Shuncho and others. National Research Council (U.S.). Pacific Science Board.. OCLC 79293918.
• (April 21, 1947) Memorandum on the Situation in Taiwan

. American Embassy, Nanking, China. Docket Telegram No. 689. Report. reprinted in United States relations with China, with special reference to the period 1944-1949, based on the files of the Department of State. Far Eastern Series. Compiled by Dean Acheson. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off.. August 1949. pp. 923–938. OCLC 664471448. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.31951d01115459w?urlappend=%3Bseq=969.