Glenn D. Davis

Glenn was born in Texas and joined the Navy after high school. He was assigned to duty in Japan and remained there afterwards, becoming a journalist and joining the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in 1980. After serving as Tokyo correspondent for Business International of New York, he became editor-in-chief of Tokyo Journal during the 1980s, moved on to edit the American Chamber of Commerce Journal in Japan in the 1990s and then became bureau chief of UPI's Tokyo bureau in 1995. His first assignment there was to cover the gassing of the Tokyo subway system by a fanatical cult, a story reported around the world. Glenn also taught at three Japanese universities (Toyo, Hosei and Aoyama) and was a commentator on Japanese TV and radio. In the lead-up to the first Gulf War, Glenn was the only foreigner invited to appear on a nationally telecast debate on what Japan should do (attended by representatives of all the political parties in Japan). He also made keynote speeches around the country in Japanese. Glenn finally returned home to Texas in 2007, after a 40-year career in Japan. He then taught at the prestigious Rice U. in Houston (Japanese journalism) and later at Texas A&M in College Station (international relations) and Blinn College in Bryan (journalism). In 2010, Glenn was interviewed in Texas by a visiting team of NHK (Japan's version of BBC) journalists for a feature-length documentary on Hiroshima, which questioned the motives for the U.S. dropping the bomb on a civilian population. Myself and the personal advisor to President Truman were the main people interviewed for the film, which won Japan's version of the academy award (called the Galaxy Award). Glenn writes a weekly blog on blues history at www.bluesrootsusa.com.