William E. Naff was an American scholar of Japanese language

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 and literature

Japanese literature

Early works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan...

.

He was born on February 14, 1929 in Wenatchee, Washington State, and served with the US Air Force from 1946-1949. He received a BA degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

, and subsequently earned an MA in Japanese history and a Ph.D. in Japanese literature from the same university.

In 1969 he became founding chairman of the department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Massachusetts

University of Massachusetts

This article relates to the statewide university system. For the flagship campus often referred to as "UMass", see University of Massachusetts Amherst...

, Amherst

Amherst, Massachusetts

Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,819, making it the largest community in Hampshire County . The town is home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts...

. In addition to teaching Japanese language and literature, he taught Japanese culture, scientific Japanese, science fiction and sometimes Chinese literature.

His translation of Shimazaki Toson

Shimazaki Toson

is the pen-name of Shimazaki Haruki, a Japanese author, active in the Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa periods of Japan. He began his career as a romantic poet, but went on to establish himself as a major proponent of naturalism in Japanese fiction.-Early life:...

's Before the Dawn (Yo-ake Mae) received the 1987 Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. He also completed a biography of Shimazaki Toson, The Kiso Road: The Life and Times of Shimazaki Toson. His translation of the 8-volume historical novel by Shiba Ryotaro, A Wisp of Cloud (Saka no Ue no Kumo), which tells the story of Japan from the Meiji Restoration

Meiji Restoration

The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...

 to the Russo-Japanese War

Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...

and Japan's emergence on the world stage, was uncompleted at his death.