THE HAYTER YEARS, 1963–1980

WHEN THE UNIVERSITY Grants Committee's ‘Sub-Committee on Oriental, Slavonic, East European and African Studies’, chaired by Sir William Hayter, issued its report in 1961 only one individual in Sheffield University showed a serious interest in its contents. The professor of geography, Charles Fisher, read the report and proposed the establishment of a centre for South-East Asian Studies in Sheffield. Unfortunately for Fisher, Hull University had already been allocated Hayter funds for such a centre, so, as an alternative, Fisher proposed the creation of a centre of Japanese Studies. It is noteworthy that no other university made a similar proposal at this time. Fisher's plan was accepted by the University Grants Committee in 1962, although the academic role which the centre might play was not clearly defined.

Nevertheless, the Hayter sub-committee had already established some major principles for stimulating and consolidating area studies. Ring-fenced funds would be provided for studentships, travel, language training and research, and grants would be available for specialist library provision. Above all, the sub-committee wished to encourage language learning, research and teaching in modern studies and the social sciences.

With the future somewhat unclear, in 1963 Fisher appointed two postgraduate students from Oxford, Martin Collick and Gordon Daniels as centre staff, although they had not yet completed their doctorates. For two years a retired foreign office official, Henry Sawbridge, acted as deputy director of the Centre: he had qualified in Japanese as a member of the Japan Consular service and had been consul-general in Yokohama These appointments underline the great lack of fully-trained Japanese specialists in British universities at the time. In 1964 Fisher left Sheffield for a chair at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. However, before he left he had persuaded the university that a new professorship of Japanese Studies should be created to ensure the successful development of the Centre.

In 1965, Geoffrey Bownas of St Antony's College, Oxford, was appointed to the new chair. Bownas had studied and taught Chinese at Oxford, and had learnt Japanese for military intelligence purposes during the war.