
The Japanese Diaspora Initiative (JDI) aims to make the Hoover Institution Library & Archives a leading center for archive-based research and analysis on historical issues regarding Japan during its period of empire. As a visiting fellow, Azuma is researching the experiences of Japanese-American US soldiers in Occupied Japan (1945–52), as well as how the story of their military heroism during World War II helped buoy the rearmament of postwar Japan and the resurgence of ethno-racial nationalism, despite the destruction of the Japanese empire.