Center for Japanese Studies - Japan in the World, the World in Japan: Fifty Years of Japanese Studies at Michigan

Japan in the World, the World in Japan

Fifty Years of Japanese Studies at Michigan

Edited by the Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan

The Center for Japanese Studies

The University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, 2001

Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program.

2001 The Regents of the University of Michigan

Published by the Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 202 S. Thayer St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1608

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Japan in the world, the world in Japan : fifty years of Japanese studies at Michigan / edited by the Center for Japanese Studies, the University of Michigan.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-939512-95-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. JapanStudy and teaching (Higher)United States. 2. University of Michigan. Center for Japanese StudiesHistory. I. University of Michigan. Center for Japanese Studies.

DS834.95.J318 2001

952.0071173dc21

00-064354

Cover design by Seiko Semones

This book was set in Garamond.

This publication meets the ANSI/NISO Standards for Permanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries and Archives

(Z39.48-1992).

Published in the United States of America

ISBN 978-0-939512-95-9 (paper)
ISBN 978-0-472-12796-2 (ebook)
ISBN 978-0-472-90192-0 (open access)

The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Contents

Hitomi Tonomura

Philip H. Power

Roger F. Hackett

George Oakley Totten III

Edwin Neville

Forrest R. Pitts

Grant K. Goodman

Arthur E. Klauser

John Creighton Campbell

Robert E. Ward

J. Douglas Eyre

Grace Beardsley

Robert J. Smith

Margaret Norbeck

Robin Hall for John Whitney Hall

Beate Sirota Gordon

Hugh Patrick

Jennifer Corbett

Gary Saxonhouse

Yuzuru Takeshita

B. J. George, Jr.

Dan Fenno Henderson

Whitmore Gray

Mark Ramseyer

Merit E. Janow

Jill Kleinberg

John Shook

Kondo Motohiro

Irwin Scheiner

Bernard Silberman

Peter Duus

Edward Seidensticker

Samuel Hideo Yamashita

Richard J. Smethurst

Michael Robinson

Jung-Suk Youn

Patricia G. Steinhoff

It is the style of the Center to put Japanese personal names in Japanese order (surname first, personal name last), and we have tried to follow that style here. In a few articles, however, we have used the Western style in order to avoid, for example, Ono Eijiro next to Yoko Ono. We hope that our decision does not create too much confusion.

A crisp blue autumn sky greeted us on the morning of November 6, 1997. The night before, guests began arriving in Ann Arbor, and some walked over to Zanzibar on State Street for, along with an evening snack, warm handshakes or hugs with their old buddies and new acquaintances. Almost everyone had experienced a life at Michigan, though at different stages in the life of the Center for Japanese Studies. All had played a notable role in the development of studies about Japan into Japanese studies, an important academic field and a subject of serious human interest.

The Center for Japanese Studies had been preparing for its 50th celebration for about two years. After deciding on the theme, Japan in the World, the World in Japan, one of the earliest tasks involved compiling a list of alumni/ae. This was easier said than done; the data were far from complete. Eventually we streamlined our search into basically three different phases in the history of CJS. The first phase actually belonged to the prehistory of CJS: the time of the Army Intensive Language School, the government-run and supposedly top secret institute that produced superb linguists under strict instruction. The decade following the formal establishment of CJS in 1947, the second phase, included the Okayama outpost years of the 1950s when path-breaking, highly interdisciplinary research was accomplished. The more recent past was the third phase that saw Michigans program expand in all directions to host a large and influential body of faculty and graduate students. We also looked into resources at the Law School, whose relationship with Japanese legal scholars dates back to the late nineteenth century, and the Business School, with which CJS had worked closely on various programs including the studies related to Japans manufacturing sectors.

In identifying and locating possible speakers, we received valuable suggestions from alumni/ae themselves, many of whom, apparently, maintain their networks of past UM friends and colleagues. Slowly the outline of the event emerged. Musical performances, keynote speeches, and a historical exhibit would be important components of the celebration. The central feature was the symposium organized under three themes: Pioneering Japanese Studies, Connecting with the Professional World, and Looking Ahead to a New Global Age. Soon, the program was set; invitations were sent; venues were reserved; the food and flowers were ordered; staff assignments were clarified. We were ready to go.

The encouraging remarks from Mr. Philip H. Power, a regent of the University of Michigan, had the event rolling bright and early on November 6. The presentations from the pioneers proceeded, impressing the audience with the fascinating saga of learning the Japanese language and culture during and shortly after the war. Together with the afternoon session that vividly retold the life in Okayama, the panels of the day stimulated us to contemplate the changing significance of US-Japan relations. While the war with Japan barred Japanese-Americans from enrolling in the University, select Americans, numbering more than a thousand(!), were busy practicing Chinese characters and repeating Japanese phrases under the disciplined training demanded by the indomitable Joseph K.Yamagiwa, a Japanese-American himself. These linguists became truly outstanding by any standard, and a large number of these experts continued to hold clout in the politics of postwar years. The audience, myself included, learned a great deal about the circumstances and personalities that made the establishment of CJS possible. The prior foundation of linguistic strength and the tremendous foresight that characterized the CJS leadership were crucial in instituting an interdisciplinary program that demanded rigorous grounding in and balanced interpretations of multidimensions of Japanese society. This comprehensive approach would soon find its way to the publication of such books as Twelve Doors to Japan and Village Japan.

The participants of the celebration enjoyed an opportunity to juxtapose the speakers presentations with footings of visual images. Three documentary filmsReunion: A Streetcar to Hibiya, A Japanese Village: Modernization and Its Price, and An Island Without a Sea: Takashima and Its Half-A-Centurywere shown at breaks. In the midst of one, a misfired fire alarm in our building alerted us to roll out to the front lawn, without coats or even a cup of coffee. This perhaps was a test of our participants character and endurance. Fortunately, all seemed to survive the mini-ordeal in good humor, and I was most greateful to everyones magnanimity as well as to the sympathetic autumn weather.

Mrs. Beate Sirota Gordon, the keynote speaker that evening, was as entertaining, gracious, and captivating as her reputation suggests. There is, of course, nothing like her story of helping to write, as a young lady just in her early twenties, the constitution of a country that had only recently lost a war to hers. The Bentley Library, the site of this reception, exhibited a sampling of photos and documents from the CJSs founding days and Okayama outpost experiences. Reactions to the exhibit were mostly, Not enough! Indeed, the exhibit could have filled all of the walls of the library.