Scienceבן-עמי שילוני

Ben-Ami Shillony

Ben-Ami Shillony is an Israeli historian of Japan and professor emeritus of Japanese history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a 2021 Israel Prize laureate.

born 1937Research on Japanese historyStudies of the Japanese emperorsHebrew books on Japan

Born: 28 October 1937, Poland
Occupation: historian, japanologist, humanities scholar
Education: Princeton University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Ben-Ami Shillony was born in 1937 in Poland

Ben-Ami Shillony was born in Poland in October 1937 to Avraham and Yehudit Shillony. As a child he spent World War II in Russia. He came to Israel in 1948 and joined Kibbutz Tel Yitzhak with his parents.

He studied at schools in the kibbutz, Magdiel and Even Yehuda, and then at Ironi Alef high school in Tel Aviv. He served in the army from 1956 to 1958 and took part in Operation Kadesh.

From 1958 he studied history and philosophy at the Hebrew University, completing a master's degree in history in 1965 with a thesis on the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He then studied in Japan for 2 years at ICU in Tokyo on a Japanese scholarship. He earned a doctorate from Princeton University in 1971.

In 1971 he began teaching East Asian studies and history at the Hebrew University, where he became a full professor in 1985. His research covered the Japanese army and wars, the Japanese emperors, and the Japanese and the Jews. He wrote books in English, Hebrew and Japanese.

He retired from teaching in 2006 but kept teaching as a volunteer. He was married to Lena Shillony, a professor of French literature, and they have 2 daughters.