Back at Columbia: Gerald Curtis (9)

At the end of the summer of 1967, it was time to leave Japan and return to New York with a suitcase full of research notes and what I thought would be a year to write my dissertation. But one day in November, just as I was getting a handle on what I wanted to say about grassroots politics in Japan, professor James Morley told me that the University of Illinois was looking to hire a faculty member to teach Japanese politics in the spring semester. He said that faculty positions for Japan specialists at major universities do not come around very often and recommended that I grasp this opportunity.