Robert Innes retired to the Portland area in 2007 after a Foreign Service career that included nine years in the U.S. Embassy, Tokyo. A Portland native, he received a B.A. from Oregon State, an M.A. in Asian Studies from Oregon, and a Ph.D. in Japanese and Southeast Asian history from Michigan. He attended Waseda University's International Division as an undergraduate, and did dissertation research at Tokyo University's Historiographical Institute. In the Army, he completed basic and advanced Vietnamese language courses before going to Vietnam in 1971-72. He has taught Modern East Asia and the History of Vietnam at PSU.