Records of a 30-year journey by a well-known researcher on Southeast Asia will soon be available to the public on a Web site operated by a research center at Saitama University.
Until his death in 1994 at age 68, Yoshiyuki Tsurumi observed the social and economic structure of the region from a grassroots viewpoint. He walked the beaches of Asia to meet people who freely crossed borders for production and trade, and to follow the distribution of local products, including bananas, shrimp and sea cucumbers.
Saitama University's Center for the Study of Cooperative Human Relations will launch the Web site this spring to enable the public to look through some of his mementos donated by his family. They include tens of thousands of photographs, notebooks, memos and his collection of 7,000 books.
"Mr. Tsurumi focused on those who lead their lives independently without being caught up in the frameworks of the state," said Yasushi Fujibayashi, a researcher at the center. "And he presented the structure of Southeast Asia through things like shrimp and sea cucumbers."