Walter Hatch is a professor of political science at Colby College in Maine who, when not teaching, lives in Seattle's Phinneywood. He has written numerous articles and chapters on the politics of Japan and China, as well as three books on international relations, including "Ghosts in the Neighborhood: How Germany Has Escaped a Haunted Past, But Japan Has Not" (University of Michigan Press, forthcoming). Before becoming an academic, he was a journalist -- most recently for The Seattle Times.