Tam Yue-Him

A naturalized U.S. citizen, Yue-him Tam was born in China and educated in Hong Kong (CUHK), Japan (Kyoto U), and the United States. He received his Ph.D. in East Asian History from Princeton University (1975), specializing in modern Japanese history and Sino-Japanese relations. Since 1990, he has been a Professor of History at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. For many years he also served as Director of the Programs of Japan Study & East Asian Studies at Macalester. 

Before joining Macalester, he was a senior faculty and administrator (college dean of general education & dean of students) at the Chinese U of Hong Kong for 19 years, in addition to visiting positions at Nanjing U (China), U of Tokyo (Japan), U of Chicago (US), York U (Canada), Bowdoin College (US) and other institutions. Tam has published widely on modern Japanese history and Sino-Japanese relations in English, Chinese, and Japanese. To date, he has authored, edited, and translated more than fifteen books and sixty articles. 

Among his latest publications is the two-volume Encyclopedia of Sino-Japanese Relations (in Chinese) (Shenyang, China: Liaohai Press, 1999, totaling 2,000+ pages), the very first of its kind. He has received research and publication grants from such major foundations as the National Endowment for the Humanities (Washington, DC), Japan Foundation (Tokyo), and Chang Ching-kuo International Academic Exchange Foundation (Taipei).

Tam’s professional service includes the Advisory Board of The Journal of the East Asian Library at Princeton U (Princeton, US), the Chinese Association for Sino-Japanese Studies (Beijing), the Chinese Association for Japanese Historical Studies (Tianjin), and the Center for Studies of Sexual Slavery in China by Imperial Japan (Shanghai). For a few years, he chaired the Committee on East Asian Studies, overseeing curricular cooperation regarding Asia in the consortium of five independent colleges (Augsburg, Hamline, Macalester, St. Catherine & St. Thomas) in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. Recently he was appointed to the editorial board of the 32-volume series entitled Complete Work on the Nanjing Massacre to be published by the Nanjing U Press, China.

Tam is active in social service. He has served on the governing boards and committees of the Hong Kong Examination Authority, the Japan Society of Hong Kong, the Minnesota Chinese Music Ensemble, and the Organization of Chinese Americans of Minnesota. Among his recent services was his experience as president (1998-2000) of the Global Alliance for Preserving the History of World War II in Asia (GA), a federation of 40 scholarly and grassroots organizations worldwide committed to safeguarding humanity, justice, and peace. 

In Minnesota, he served on the Organizing Committee of the first Hun Qiao [Bridge of Souls] Conference on war crimes and reconciliation in Asia held at the University of Minnesota in 2001 and was appointed historian to the video documentary on the Hun Qiao Concert with Yoyo Ma premiered in St. Paul in 2001.

Tam has been invited to speak by scholarly institutions and grassroots organizations in China, Japan, Canada, Holland, and the United States. Among his latest hosts are the Simon Weisenthal Center (Los Angeles, 1998), the Foreign Correspondent Club (Tokyo, 1999), the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts (the Hague, 2000), and Nanjing U (Nanjing, 2001). Tam’s biography can be found in Who’s Who in the World (Chicago, 1983), Who’s Who in Japanology (in Japanese) (Tokyo, 1984), and the Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese Historians (in Chinese) (Xian, China, 1994).