Claude A. Buss

Claude Albert Buss (29 November 1903 – 17 November 1998) was a professor emeritus of history and a key American diplomat in the Philippines during World War II. Although not formally counted as one of the State Department's "China Hands", he was a U.S. Foreign Service Officer in Beijing and Nanjing prior to the war, and served in multiple U.S. government and policy advisory positions covering East Asia for almost seven decades. As an academic, he taught at the University of Southern California, Stanford University, and the Naval Postgraduate School. Buss authored multiple texts which became standard reference works in the field of East Asian studies and influenced generations of American civilian and military leaders and policy makers working in and around East Asia.

Early life

Buss was born in Sunbury, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1903. He received a B.A. from Washington Missionary College in 1922, an M.A. from Susquehanna University in 1924, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1927.

Service in China

After continuing his studies at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, he became a U.S. Foreign Service officer, serving in the U.S. legation in Beiping from 1927 to 1928 and as vice-consul in Nanjing from 1931 to 1934. That same year, he went on to join the faculty of the University of Southern California, where he lectured until 1941.

Buss was held with other Americans in a private home until June 1942, and was then transferred to Tokyo, where he was held until his repatriation aboard the MS Gripsholm (ironically, the same ship which delivered Chick Parsons and his family to New York) as part of a prisoner exchange in November 1943. After repatriation, he directed the San Francisco Office of War Information for a year. In 1945–46, he also served as a consultant to the War Department's Strategic Bombing Survey of Japan.