Straus, Ulrich
ULRICH “RICK” STRAUS lived in Japan a total of twenty-one years, beginning in 1933–1940 while still a child. He returned there as a U.S. Army Japanese language officer in early 1946, serving in the Occupation, at the Tokyo major war crimes trial, and in the Intelligence Division (G-2) at GHQ, to which he returned during the Korean War. In 1957, he joined the State Department. Fully half his thirty-year Foreign Service career dealt directly with Japan – ten years in Japan, in the political section of Embassy Tokyo and as consul general in Okinawa, and five at the State Department working on U.S.-Japan relations. He also served in West Berlin, as political counselor in Bern, as director of Philippine affairs, and as adjunct professor at the National War College. Since retiring from the Senior Foreign Service in 1986, he has written on Japan and U.S.-Japan relations and taught and lectured at various universities and colleges. He appears as a regular local PBS foreign affairs commentator in Michigan.
