William E. Sharp Jr

William E. Sharp, Jr.'s association with Asia started in 1968 while serving with US Army military intelligence in Vietnam.. He later received an A.B. Degree in Political Science, focused on Chinese and Japanese politics, from the University of California, Berkeley. He came to Hawaii to attend the University of Hawaii, Manoa, where he received a M.A. Degree in Asian Studies. While at UH, he received the James Shigeta Award for Excellence in Asian Studies and the Lee-Shao Chang Award for Excellence in Chinese Studies. He studied Mandarin Chinese in both Taiwan and Beijing. During the 1980s, he lived in Japan where he taught English and was a free-lance writer.

Returning to the US in 1989, he attended Harvard University where he earned an Ed.M. Degree in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy. In the early 1990s, he was Executive Director of the Japan-America Society of Hawaii. He currently teaches classes about East Asian politics at HPU and hosts, Asia in Review, a weekly TV show dedicated to substantive discussion of contemporary Asian affairs. From late 2005 to early 2009, he wrote “Look East,” a column for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that discussed Asian affairs. His book Random Views of Asia from the Mid-Pacific recently published by Savant Books and Publications incorporates over 50 fifty essays commenting on events throughout Asia. In pursuit of his interests, he often travels to Asia.