Japanese Studies Pioneer Dies

Robert Burnett Hall, professor emeritus of geography at the U-M and founder of the University's Center for Japanese Studies, died Friday at his home here. He was 78. He lived at 270 Barton Shore Drive.
He is survived by his widow, Pauline; a son, Prof. Robert B. Hall Jr. who teaches at the University of Rochester in New York; a daughter, Mrs. Stratton Brown of Birmingham, Mich. and five grandchildren. Cremation has taken place. There will be no funeral service.
L. A. Peter Gosling, U-M geography professor and former chairman of the department, said Dr. Hall "was the father of organized area studies on campus and helped the Center for Japanese Studies grow into the leading research center of its kind in the United States.
"Dr. Hall also was the outstanding American scholar specializing in Japanese geography. His death is a tremendous loss to the geography profession and to the field of Asian studies."
Born in 1896 in Espanola, N.M., Dr. Hall graduated from the U-M in 1923 and went on to receive a master's degree and a doctorate from the University.
Dr. Hall founded the U-M Center for Japanese Studies in 1947 and became its first director. He spent five years (1955-60) in Japan as a representative of the Asia Foundation. He was given the Order of the Rising Sun, the highest decoration granted to a foreigner by the Japanese government, as well as the Order of the Sacred Treasure.
In 1960 he was given a silver medal from the Tokyo Geographical Society for his leading role in a study of Japanese settlement and for his work with the Center for Japanese Studies. He was the first American to receive such an award.
Dr. Hall became full professor of geog. raphy at U-M in 1938. He retired in 1966 as professor emeritus of geography and director emeritus of the Center for Japanese studies.
Dr. Hall directed a series of Geographical expeditions to Haiti during 1924-25 and to Japan during 1928-36. He served as director of the U-M Institute of Far Eastern Studies from 1937-38.
Dr. Hall went to Latin America in 1941 to study the Japanese infiltration during World War II. In 1942-43, he was director of the Pacific coast offices for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services.
He went to Washington to train and equip an expedition to go to India and China. He then traveled to England in 1943 to correlate American and British information on the Far East. He visited North Africa, India and Assam, was a colonel and chief of the research and analysis branch for the China-Burma. India theater, and for the Southeast Asia Command. Later he was commanding officer of OSS in China.