A Historical Study for Now and the Future 　Shinzo Hayase　 　　I was on an airplane for Perth, Western Australia from Hong Kong as the only non-white passenger two months before Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira passed away. There was no direct flight from Osaka to Western Australia at that time. I had to stay over a night at Hong Kong or Singapore and paid the normal one way airfare, more than 200,000 yen. In this situation "The Pacific Basin Community Concept" was advocated by Mr. Ohira stared at the 21st century. There is nothing but being surprised at his insight. And now, I am given the 20th Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize for the history of islands scattered between Hong Kong and Australia, and I am overcome by deep emotion. 　　When I wrote A History of Maritime Islam Society: Mindanao Ethnohistory, I kept three key words in mind: history as a science, world history and social contribution (for peace). There was a strong mind for me that the historical study did not contribute well to the present society in the midst of historic change, although historians should read the times. The history in the 20th century focused on the land dominated world, the temperate zone, settled people and adult males using limited and biased written documents. I challenged to overcome such an unbalanced and unfair history, and tried to write regions, times and people that had not written enough. 　　I am very pleased that my work is recognized as a historical study contributed to the society, because this prize is targeted to mainly politics, economy, culture and technology. In this sense, I have the great honor to be given this prize and I hope to continue to study a history for now and the future.