He was known for a 1967 magnum opus, Traces on the Rhodian Shore, that demonstrated how perceptions of the natural environment shaped the course of human events over millennia.
Discharged at the end of the war he took a job in Korea at the military government's Bureau of Health and Welfare, and found time for some geographical study of land cover change.
Later he undertook an ethnography of three villages in Okinawa, using his language skills, working for the Pacific Science Board of the National Research Council from 1951-2.
He pursued varied research interests and attended the landmark conference, Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth in 1955, led by colleague Carl Sauer.
[2] In his last decade, as interest in his environmental ideas grew, he remained severely depressed and mentally ill, and although he completed a sequel to Traces on the Rhodian Shore in 1982 dealing with human-environment relationships in the 20th century, the manuscript was returned by University of California Press.