They looked to the American Friends Service Committee, which set up teaching posts for them at a small school in the foothills of the Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains.
Borton’s academic career was interrupted by America’s entry into the Second World War following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, diverting him into public service.
Borton cited his Quaker principles in conscientiously objecting to serving in the armed forces, but he was interested in doing what he could to prepare for the peace after the war.
In June 1942 he sought leave from Columbia to spend the summer serving on the faculty of the School of Military Government at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville.
He replaced the inaugural director, Sir George Sansom, and later helped to establish the Association for Asian Studies, serving as its first treasurer and later as its president.