UCSD Cut From Japanese Book-Funding Program

UC San Diego, in the midst of developing an academic program in Pacific Rim studies, has been cut from a federal program to buy scholarly Japanese books and journals--ironically, after the university successfully lobbied for the continued funding of the program for 12 other universities.

A UCSD professor contends the university was snubbed by the program after he denounced its directors for wanting to cut funds to all 13 universities that were beneficiaries of the Japanese book-buying program.

About two weeks ago, the other 12 universities around the country--including UCLA and UC Berkeley--learned that they would get about $15,000 each this year to buy Japanese books. But UCSD--the 13th and most recent of the beneficiaries of the program--was dropped from the list.

“I complained loudly about the cuts. I was the whistle blower. Unfortunately, they can’t get at me, but they’re punishing the university,” said Chalmers Johnson, a professor of political science in the UCSD Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies.

Johnson said he had heard rumblings that UCSD would be cut from the program, but he didn’t learn for sure until Tuesday, when a librarian from a different campus gave him the news.

John Makin, chairman of the Washington-based Japan-United States Friendship Commission, said Wednesday that the fledgling Japanese collection of books at UCSD did not warrant continued funding and that even the other 12 universities receiving funds to buy Japanese books would be cut off next year when the commission restructures its objectives.

UCSD has about 10,000 Japanese volumes--about 25% of which have been purchased with commission funds over the past three years. UCLA, by comparison, has about 120,000 volumes of Japanese books and journals.

Makin said Johnsons’ complaints that UCSD was snubbed because of the professor’s lobbying efforts were “categorically untrue.”

“If I sound annoyed, it’s because . . . a lot of people are turned down (for funding) and are disappointed but, unlike Professor Johnson, they don’t go to the newspapers,” Makin said.

“UCSD’s Pacific Rim studies is not the issue. It’s an issue of our resources and past funding patterns. The commission is not in a position to build up UCSD’s Japanese collection, and this will be our last set of grants for anybody, at least until we re-examine our policy.”

UCSD joined the commission’s program in 1988, a year after the university established its graduate program in Pacific Rim studies. At the same time, Johnson, who had taught at UC Berkeley and joined UCSD to help establish the new program, became a director of the Friendship Commission.

The commission was established by Congress in 1975 to administer a $36-million trust fund endowed by Japanese repayments to the United States for American aid after World War II and for public facilities that had been constructed by the United States on Okinawa.

Key among the commission’s programs was to fund the purchase of books and journals published in Japan that reflect contemporary thinking and policy-making reasoning on such matters as the economy, international commerce and trade, politics, industry and technology, lifestyle and the arts.

Scholars and researchers in this country valued the volumes that were purchased by Friendship Commission funds because they offered insight into Japan not otherwise available in this country. Most Japanese books that provide the most detailed and candid reflection of that nation’s policies and reasonings are not translated into English.

In past years, the commission has granted hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to the 13 universities. But in recent months the commission has reconsidered its funding priorities and said it wanted instead to help finance technology to enhance the exchange of Japanese volumes among those universities that already have established large collections.

To that end, the commission initially said it would fund no Japanese book acquisitions this year. In April--after UCSD’s Johnson publicly complained about the cutoff of funds--commission directors decided to “ease the pain” by funding acquisitions for the 12 largest university collections at about half of last year’s level, Makin said.

But because its collection paled in comparison, UCSD was dropped altogether, he said.

“We decided to make one final transition grant for the major collections, one last grant to the major libraries to ease the pain of reduced funding. Frankly, UCSD was not among the major collections. Theirs is one-tenth the size of a typical, major collection like at UCLA, Stanford or Harvard,” Makin said.

Funding decisions are made by the appointed board of directors of the commission. Johnson is no longer on the board.

James Cheng, who heads UCLA’s East Asian Library at UCLA, said the commission’s decision to drop UCSD was a loss to his university--and scholars and researchers throughout Southern California.

“Our two campuses had formed the Southern California Library Consortium, so each could specialize in certain areas (of Japanese study) and avoid duplication,” Cheng said. “At UCLA we are concentrating on Japanese modern history, education, anthropology, economics as an academic discipline, and the law. UCSD was concentrating on international relations, government statistics, company reports and histories, economics, trade and government policy.

“UCSD’s collection is very, very valuable for the understanding of Japan. We are upset and puzzled why they didn’t get funding.”

George Soete, associate librarian for collections at UCSD, agreed with Makin that “we couldn’t cut the mustard” if the collection’s size was the primary criterion.

“But I’m still quite disappointed. Those funds mean a lot to us. It’s not just that we won’t be getting $16,000 or $17,000 this year. It was our largest single source of institutional funding and it was a source of regular funding.”

UCSD’s collection included Japanese trade journals for its semiconductor industry, chemical associations, foreign trade and financing.

Makin, of the commission, said he hoped UCSD “would be a beneficiary of an enhanced sharing arrangement with UCLA.”

“The simple fact is, the ability to maintain a very good collection of Japanese literature is something you can’t have at 100 universities around the country,” Makin said. “Some librarians have been very understanding of that but others have asked, ‘What have you done for us lately?’ ”

UCSD’s Johnson said the books purchased with commission funds were critical to the graduate school program on Pacific Rim studies. “We’re writing articles on Japanese foreign investments in California, on the nature of Japanese technological development, and you can’t do it unless you read these kinds of journals.”