In scholarly works using the Latin alphabet, his name is generally romanised as "Sumihiko Hatusima" following the "Kunrei" system.
[1][2] Hatsushima was born in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan in 1906.
[1][2] His tertiary studies and early lectureship was at Kyushu Imperial University, where he was awarded a doctorate in 1942.
[2] He accompanied Ryōzō Kanehira on a collecting expedition in New Guinea in 1940.
[2] Hatsushima returned to Austronesia in a collecting expedition to the Philippines in 1964.