The Hoover Institution was established in 1919 by Stanford alumnus and later America's 31st president, Herbert Hoover. At that time the First World War had just ended, and he decided to establish this specialized institution to explore why these kinds of tragedies occur in the world and how mankind seeks peace.

In the beginning, the institution was funded by money provided by Hoover and by Stanford University, and collected all kinds of historical materials related to the Great War. Hoover also called on interested persons to collect related data and send it on to the center.

Aside from attracting people for reading and research, many government officials, famous persons and scholars sent their own precious materials. Now, whether from the world wars or contemporary, any data related to world political, economic, or social change, that can help in understanding the truth about war, the pursuit of democracy, or the process of peace, is a worthy object for collection.

The more materials there are, the broader the research topics. Consequently, different research departments were established. Currently there are six: North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Africa and the Middle East, East Asia, and the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Each group has a special library.

The East Asia Department was established to study China's War of Resistance against Japan and its political development. At the end of the war, a Stanford professor went to China, where he scoured the bookstalls and collected all kinds of historical materials and literature from the 30's and 40's. Then prices were low; he bought crate after crate of books and begged the U.S. Navy to take them back to the U.S.

When the mainland was in the midst of civil war, Stanford graduate Mary Wright and her husband furiously collected books in Peking. At the time of the retreat from the mainland, she took an American naval aircraft to Yen'an to save several tons of historical materials on the development of Chinese communism.

Today, the East Asian library still collects Chinese language materials. It has a vast collection of materials published in Taiwan during the Japanese occupation, including Japanese language books. While materials on Japan are also collected, 65% of the 250,000 volumes are related to China. Besides these, there are masses of periodicals, posters, slides, and audio tapes.

"A lot of things are quite rough, but they are extremely original and valuable," notes Dr. Ramon H. Myers, curator-scholar of the East Asian Collection. For example, recently they arranged a group of original charcoal drawings from Yen'an, including nudes and portraits of workers. They tracked down the artist after a lot of time, but he had already died. His wife didn't even know he had works existin the country. There are a lot of things like this waiting to be put into order.

Historical materials have attracted a lot of famous scholars. The institution's special fellows are all renowned in their fields. Researchers ordinarily study current events and express their views in articles on the world situation. When there is a major political event anywhere in the world, they are opinion leaders sought out by the media. This makes it appealing to be honorable fellows; former President Reagan has such a status.

In general, the researchers invited there all have strong ideologies and clear political positions. "You can say, relatively anticommunist and right wing," says Fan Yi-chun, a history Ph.D. at Stanford. It acts as a think tank for the Republican Party. Some students and faculty have protested, arguing that the institution's positions cannot represent Stanford.

Whatever the case, no one can oppose the goal of pursuing peace. And the materials it collects have great interest, regardless of whether one is right wing or left wing.

[Picture Caption]

(Above) The East Asia collection has many precious materials on Chinese history.

(Below) Understanding why mankind has wars and wants peace is the goal of the Hoover Institution.

Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn is an honorary research fellow at t he center. (photo courtesy of the Hoover Institute)

（Above） The East Asia collection has many precious materials on Chinese history.

（Below） Understanding why mankind has wars and wants peace is the goal of the Hoover Institution.