Keiko Itoh is a Japanese writer and historian in the United Kingdom.
Itoh was born in Kobe and was educated at Manhattanville College, she graduated with a BA in History from Swarthmore College in 1974 [1] and then a MA in East Asian studies from Yale in 1976 Yale. [2] She worked at the UN, where she met and subsequently married British journalist Tommy Helsby. [3] [4] In 1991 they moved to the UK, Itoh was press officer for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development [5] and then worked at the World Bank which she left in 1999. [6]
In 2001 Itoh completed a PhD in history from the London School of Economics on "The Japanese immigrant community in inter-war London: diversity and cohesion", exploring the Japanese community in 1920s and 1930s Britain. [7] As part of her research she organised the exhibition "A Visual History of the Japanese in Britain" in London. [8]
Itoh's PhD thesis was published in 2001 as a book entitled The Japanese Community in Pre-war Britain: From Integration to Disintegration by Curzon Press, [9] now Routledge. [10]
In 2013 she contributed a chapter on 'The Human Legacy of the Japan-British Exhibition' to the book Commerce and Culture at the 1910 Japan-British Exhibition: Centenary Perspectives, edited by Ayako Hotta-Lister and Ian Nish. [11]
In 2015 Itoh published My Shanghai [12] with Renaissance Books, [13] the historical novel looks at the life of the Japanese community in Shanghai in the 1940s. [14] The main character is London-educated protagonist Eiko Kishimoto [15] who is based on Itoh's mother. [16]
In 2021 Itoh was interviewed for the Earth 2 Air podcast [17] by New Earth Theatre [18] and she contributed to the Thames Festival Trust series about the Japanese Seamen's Club in Silvertown. [19] [20] In 2022 she gave a talk at the Embassy of Japan, London on how the Japanese community grew in the UK from the late 19th century onwards. [21]
Keiko Itoh is a Japanese writer and historian in the United Kingdom.
Itoh was born in Kobe and was educated at Manhattanville College, she graduated with a BA in History from Swarthmore College in 1974 [1] and then a MA in East Asian studies from Yale in 1976 Yale. [2] She worked at the UN, where she met and subsequently married British journalist Tommy Helsby. [3] [4] In 1991 they moved to the UK, Itoh was press officer for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development [5] and then worked at the World Bank which she left in 1999. [6]
In 2001 Itoh completed a PhD in history from the London School of Economics on "The Japanese immigrant community in inter-war London: diversity and cohesion", exploring the Japanese community in 1920s and 1930s Britain. [7] As part of her research she organised the exhibition "A Visual History of the Japanese in Britain" in London. [8]
Itoh's PhD thesis was published in 2001 as a book entitled The Japanese Community in Pre-war Britain: From Integration to Disintegration by Curzon Press, [9] now Routledge. [10]
In 2013 she contributed a chapter on 'The Human Legacy of the Japan-British Exhibition' to the book Commerce and Culture at the 1910 Japan-British Exhibition: Centenary Perspectives, edited by Ayako Hotta-Lister and Ian Nish. [11]
In 2015 Itoh published My Shanghai [12] with Renaissance Books, [13] the historical novel looks at the life of the Japanese community in Shanghai in the 1940s. [14] The main character is London-educated protagonist Eiko Kishimoto [15] who is based on Itoh's mother. [16]
In 2021 Itoh was interviewed for the Earth 2 Air podcast [17] by New Earth Theatre [18] and she contributed to the Thames Festival Trust series about the Japanese Seamen's Club in Silvertown. [19] [20] In 2022 she gave a talk at the Embassy of Japan, London on how the Japanese community grew in the UK from the late 19th century onwards. [21]