Robert Joseph Charles Butow (March 19, 1924 – October 17, 2017[1]) was a professor emeritus of Japanese history at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Robert Butow was born in San Mateo, California.
He subsequently attended college at Stanford University, where he was a member of the Army Reserve, and a student of the Japanese language.
[3] Butow served in the United States Army during the early months of the occupation of Japan in 1945 and 1946, and became interested in Japanese history and culture.
[5] His third book (The John Doe Associates: Backdoor Diplomacy for Peace, 1941), published in 1974, was about a small group of Americans who, without diplomatic authority, tried to promote peace with Japan before 1941, but only ended up worsening relations between the two nations.