Growing up, Dr. Paul Watanabe saw few people of his ancestry in U.S. professions outside of wage-earning jobs.
Tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans, including his parents, had been herded into government-run incarceration camps during World War II. Many lost homes, businesses and most of their belongings, forcing them to start from scratch after the war.
So it wasn’t surprising that the young Watanabe’s attention settled on two Japanese-Americans who became nationally prominent in the 1960s: George Takei, the actor behind Mr. Sulu on the original “Star Trek” television series, and U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, a combat veteran who in the 1970s questioned top White House aides during investigative hearings in the Watergate scandal and who cultivated a reputation for bipartisan approaches to behind-the-scenes politics.
Acting didn’t interest Watanabe, but he grew intrigued by politics and public policy while following Inouye’s career.
A University of Utah student activist during the tumultuous 1960s and ‘70s, Watanabe dropped plans to apply to law school. After earning a doctorate in political science, he began teaching full-time in 1978 at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where he is currently an associate professor in political science.
“I grew up in a poor mining town in Utah so I understood economic and racial differences,” Watanabe says. “Universities are the center of social change. A person can be part of that change, and that’s why I have been in academia my whole adult life.”
His research includes American foreign policy and American political behavior. He is a commentator in news and on-air reports during election season, whether for statewide or presidential races. He has also researched ethnic group politics and Asian Americans.
