I came into the class never having heard of Mikiso Hane, I knew we were going to be involved in processing someone’s collection into the archive and that was exciting enough. I became personally invested in this after reading his story. I found it inspirational that someone who started his academic journey in his mid-twenties had made such an impact on the field of history. With me being 27 with a wife and daughter, my experience in undergrad is much different than the average student. Referencing his wiki page for dates, I found that he was born in 1922 and got his B.A. in 1952. He married his wife Rose in 1948. Needless to say, I feel like I can relate in ways that others may not be able to. Maybe I will encounter something that would seem insignificant to others but worth keeping because of something I relate to. But I also have to keep in mind that just because it relates to me in a certain way doesn’t mean that it was significant enough to Hane to keep. I may also not encounter anything relatable, and my personal experience will be of no use to this process, which is most likely going to be the case. Nonetheless, I respect the man for what he achieved, and I find comfort in knowing that someone so close to my home had succeeded in his academics. I’m also minoring in Japanese, which adds to the personal investment.
Anyway, I believe that there will be much to consider when processing his collection. Any mentions of personal information regarding his wife and children should be looked at with caution. Though as a true amateur historian, I do not know how his position should be considered when processing his collection. I know that he was part of the National Council on The Humanities. Perhaps if anything relating to that pops up we should proceed with caution.
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I think your personal experience will absolutely give you insight into Hane’s materials that are distinctive and I hope if you come across these moments, you’ll share them. Life experience of the researcher is something we don’t always talk about in classes, but it absolutely shapes how we interpret aspects of our research. After all, one of the things that makes Hane able to make the historiographical contribution that he does is his personal experience during the years he was in Japan, working on a farm as part of a peasant family. So lean in to those moments, they often point toward productive findings that maybe only you could make.