Subodhana (Subo) Wijeyeratne

Subodhana Wijeyeratne a historian of technology with a focus on East Asia in general, and Japan in particular. His primary historical interests are in the history of science and technology, in particular the interaction between humans and large-scale scientific endeavours. 

His PhD explored the development of the Japanese space program within the context of that nation's particular political, social, and geographic conditions in the 20th century. His past articles have featured in venues such as the Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Historia Scientiarum, Roadsides, and Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly. He has two upcoming pieces on the role of women in the work of Japan’s ‘Dr Rocket’ Itokawa Hideo, and the way in which Japanese villages incorporated space exploration into their identities. Wijeyeratne is also currently working on a book, Red Sun Rising: The History of the Japanese Space Program, 1920-1990, which covers the key decades of Japan's space development from the Second World War to the bursting of the 'bubble' economy in the 1990s. 

Wijeyeratne is also a writer of speculative fiction and has twenty-six short stories and three book-length publications to his name. His short form work has appeared in venues like Welkin, Expanded Horizons, and Mythaxis. He has a collection of short stories (Tales from the Stone Lotus) and two novels (The Slixes, Triangulum: An Epic of the Nine Worlds of Surya) currently in print. He also has two collections of short stories and a third novel, A Beast Called Man, in the works. 

You can follow the latest information on his academic and fiction work at subowijeyeratne.com. 

subowijeyeratne.com