Jerome Forrest papers
Collection
0244-UA
Jerome Forrest was an economist, trade negotiator and an Army intelligence officer in the Far East during World War II. He attended the University of Maryland as a graduate student for a brief period in spring 1951. The Jerome Forrest papers, which cover the period from 1945 to 1995, include correspondence between Forrest and former University of Maryland history professor Dr. Gordon W. Prange as well as accounts of interrogations of former members of the Japanese army concerning the Battle of Wake Island in which he participated. In addition there are articles by Forrest and others concerning General Douglas McArthur and post-World War II Japan as well as Japanese publications and U.S. Army reports from this era. There is also a photograph of Dr. Prange and Jerome Forrest, a U.S. War Department personnel file, and editorial work papers from the period of time where Forrest worked as an economist and trade negotiator.
This collection is open for research use.
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1.50 Linear Feet
English
The Jerome Forrest papers, which cover the period from 1945 to 1995, consist primarily of correspondence with University of Maryland professor Gordon W. Prange, University of Maryland President Harry Clifton Byrd, and members of the U.S. military and working papers from various editorial projects. The collection also contains interrogations conducted by Dr. Prange and Forrest with former members of the Japanese army concerning the Battle of Wake Island. There are notes on the Battle of Wake Island taken by Forrest, a photograph of Dr. Prange and Forrest, and a personnel file documenting Forrest's employment with the U.S. War Department. The collection also contains publications concerning the Far East and Japan pre-World War II and post-World War II, including publications by Forrest such as General MacArthur and His Vanishing War History, published by The Reporter in 1952, and publications not by Forrest such as The Japanese Emperor and the War by Yasumasa Matsudaira. Reports by the U.S. Army, including Interrogation report no. 0447, an Investigation of the Pearl Harbor attack by the 79th Congress, and "Japan's Struggle to End the War" by the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey are also included in the collection to provide context for Forrest's publications and research. Work papers concerning an article written by Forrest titled "Japan's Greatest Blunder?" are also included in this collection.
Jerome Forrest was born on June 3, 1916, in New York. Before the outbreak of World War II, Forrest was able to complete two years of undergraduate coursework at the College of the City of New York, one year of elementary Japanese at Columbia University, and one year of law school at the New York Law School before enlisting in the army. During his enlistment, he took courses at the Army Intelligence School at Arlington, Virginia, on Japanese language, government, economy, and philosophy. After the war, he met and began working with Gordon W. Prange, a professor of history at the University of Maryland from 1937 to 1980 who was widely known for his research on the attack on Pearl Harbor. From 1947 to 1951, they researched the events surrounding the Battle of Wake Island which occurred shortly after the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Prange convinced Forrest to enroll at the University of Maryland to begin studying under him as a graduate student to continue their work in Japanese Studies. Forrest enrolled as a graduate student in spring 1951 and took a course on Far Eastern Politics. Forrest's and Dr. Prange's professional relationship waned during this time, and Forrest subsequently withdrew from the university after taking this single course.
Forrest went on to receive a bachelor's degree from Sophia University in Tokyo and become a civilian employee of the army. He later worked as an economist for the Agency for International Development in Japan and Washington in the 1950s and 1960s and worked for the Commerce Department up until the early 1970s. He also served as a trade negotiator in Geneva throughout the 1970s and then as a consultant until his death on May 18, 1998.
The collection is organized as one series.
Jeffrey Stanley, grandson of Jerome Forrest, and his mother, June Stanley, donated the collection to the University of Maryland Libraries in January 2015.
Metal fasteners were removed and replaced plastic clips. Materials were rehoused and placed in folders and acid-free containers and arranged according to type of document.
Part of the Special Collections and University Archives