James Rodger Brandon, born in 1927 and died September 19, 2015.
James was an American academic who was a professor of Asian theater specializing in Kabuki and Sanskrit theater at the University of Hawaii.
James was drafted into the military in 1950 and was stationed in Japan and Korea during the Korean War.
It was with only two days left before his tour ended and he returned to the United States that he saw his first kabuki performance.
It was this performance that awakened his interest in Asian theater.
James returned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to take a Ph.D. in theater on the G.I. Bill.
After completing his Ph.D., he entered the foreign service where he was a cultural affairs officer stationed in Jakarta, Indonesia from 1955-1957.
In 1965, along with Andrew T. Tsubaki and Farley Richmond, he founded the Afro-Asian Theater Project, which after a series of reorganizations has been known since 1987 as the Association for Asian Performance.
James co-founded the Asian Theatre Journal with Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak in 1984.
He died at age 88 on September 19, 2015.