Brandon Palmer, associate professor of Asian history at Coastal Carolina University, has been awarded the Terada Mari Japan Study Award by the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals (JINF).

Each year the JINF awards four mid-career scholars who undertake research that deepens international understanding of Japan's history, culture and politics. The Terada Mari award includes $5,000 as well as travel expenses to/from Japan.

Palmer's research focuses on the Japanese colonization of Korea. He has written two books on the topic: "Fighting for the Enemy: Koreans in Japan's War, 1937-1945" and "Japan's colonial rule in Korea, 1919-1945," co-authored with George Akita. He is currently working on a biography that addresses modernization and gender in rural Korea in the 1970s and 1980s and an article on the Dokdo Isles in Korean national culture.

Palmer joined the CCU faculty in 2007. He teaches courses in Asian history and previously led groups of CCU students and faculty to South Korea for three weeks in 2011 and 2012.

He earned a master's degree from Brigham Young University and a doctorate from the University of Hawaii. His research interests center on the Japanese colonization of Korea, particularly the wartime mobilization of Koreans.