Satoshi Nakano 　　　　　I am truly honored to have been selected as a recipient of the 24th Ohira Masayoshi Memorial Award for my book, The American Empire as Lived Experience: Scenes from the History of Philippine-U.S. Relations. Let me express my heartfelt gratitude to the Ohira Masayoshi Memorial Foundation, its Board of Directors, the Selection Committee, and everyone who made publication of this book possible. 　　　　　The book is intended to give readers a bird's eye view of the history of Philippine-U.S. relations as experienced by a variety of people since annexation (1898) all the way to the present day, using Americanization, democracy, and citizenship as key concepts in understanding their experiences. At first glance, Philippine-U.S. relation may appear only remotely relevant to Japan. But the issue cannot be dismissed as someone else's business because it includes the stories of people having tackled "America as an issue" for more than one century just like Japanese. It should also be remembered that Japan once deeply intervened the two peoples' relations during the Second World War. Sharing this understanding with readers was the chief aim of this book. 　　　　　Another ambition of the book is to write history as much as possible through the lived experiences of the people. Readers will encounter personalities including a CIA agent sent to the Philippines who later made the most of what he learned in the city politics of New York; an African American sociologist who devoted his whole career to the community development efforts in the American South and the Third World countries like the Philippines; an immigrant poet who never stopped loving America despite the pains of racism; modern Filipino Americans who freely come and go between the two countries with double citizenship; and even the author as a scholar who travels across the Pacific seeking interviewees and historical materials. Focus on these Pacific crossing experiences came from my desire to give the notion of "Asia-Pacific" significance not only as a dynamic arena of international political economy but also as a "historical sphere" traveled and shared by the people across the Pacific. Therefore it is especially meaningful to me to receive the Ohira Masayoshi Memorial Award for books "that contribute to the development of the Pacific Basin Community Concept." Encouraged by this award, I will go on tackling the question how historians can tell the stories of the "Asia Pacific."