Edwin O. Reischauer

Edwin O. Reischauer
Born October 15, 1910(1910-10-15)
Tokyo, Japan
Died September 1, 1990(1990-09-01) (aged 79)
La Jolla, California
Occupation Academic, U.S. ambassador
Known for Japanology

Edwin Oldfather Reischauer (October 15, 1910 – September 1, 1990) was the leading U.S. educator and noted scholar of the history and culture of Japan, and of East Asia. From 1961–1966, he was the U.S. ambassador to Japan.

Contents

Education and academic life

Growing up in Tokyo, Reischauer attended the American School in Japan. He graduated with a B.A. from Oberlin in 1931. On his 75th birthday, he recalled publicly that his life aim in 1931 was to draw attention to Asia.[1]

He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1939. He was a student of Prof. Serge Elisséeff, who had been the first Western graduate of the University of Tokyo.[2] His doctoral dissertation was "Nittō guhō junrei gyōki: Ennin's Diary of His Travels in T'ang China, 838–847".[3] The work demonstrates the level of sinological scholarship a student of Japanese was expected to demonstrate at that time.[2]

Most of his teaching career was spent at Harvard. During 40 years in Cambridge classrooms, he became the director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute and chairman of the Department of Far Eastern Languages. In a farewell lecture at the Yenching Institute in 1981, students had to compete for seats with faculty colleagues, university officials and a television crew from Japan. In this crowded context, he said, "As I remember, there were only two graduate students interested in East Asian studies when I first came here: myself and my brother."[4]

In 1956, Professor Reischauer was a widower with three children when author James A. Michener introduced him to Haru Matsukata, who would become his second wife. As teenagers, it turned out, they had gone to the same Tokyo high school, where she had had a secret crush on him. She and her husband became a formidable team.[5] The home they made together is maintained and used today as the Edwin O. Reischauer Memorial House.

In 1973, he was the founding Director of the Japan Institute, which was renamed the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies in his honor when he turned 75 in 1985.[6]

Reischauer was also honored in 1985 by the opening of the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), which is part of Johns Hopkins University . Speaking at the dedication ceremonies in Baltimore, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, one of Reischauer's former students, described Reischauer as being "what a teacher is meant to be, one who can change the life of his students." At the same event, Japan's Ambassador Nabuo Matsunaga read a personal message from Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who observed, "I know of no other man who has so thoroughly understood Japan."[1] Reischauer used his deep knowledge of Japanese history to write a book, Japan: Story of a Nation, to which he added in subsequent editions

With George M. McCune, Reischauer worked to develop the McCune-Reischauer romanization of Korean. Reischauer regarded the hangul alphabet as "perhaps the most scientific system of writing in general use in any language."[7]

Role during World War II

During World War II, Reischauer was the Japan expert for the U.S. Army Intelligence Service, and a myth developed that he prevented the bombing of Kyoto during the war,[8] as explained by Robert Jungk in Brighter Than a Thousand Suns: A personal history of the atomic scientists:

"On the short list of targets for the atom bomb, in addition to Hiroshima, Kokura and Niigata, was the Japanese city of temples, Kyoto. When the expert on Japan, Professor Edwin O. Reischauer, heard this terrible news, he rushed into the office of his chief, Major Alfred MacCormack, in a department of the Army Intelligence Service. The shock caused him to burst into tears. MacCormack, a cultivated and humane New York lawyer, thereupon managed to persuade Secretary of War Stimson to reprieve Kyoto and have it crossed off the black list."[9]

In his autobiography, Reischauer specifically refuted that validity of this broadly-accepted myth:

"I probably would have done this if I had ever had the opportunity, but there is not a word of truth to it. As has been amply proved by my friend Otis Cary of Doshisha in Kyoto, the only person deserving credit for saving Kyoto from destruction is Henry L. Stimson, the Secretary of War at the time, who had known and admired Kyoto ever since his honeymoon there several decades earlier."[10]

Illness and death

In 1964, while serving as Ambassador to Japan, Reischauer was stabbed by a mentally disturbed youth. He received a blood transfusion and recovered from the wound, but the transfusion inflicted him with hepatitis. He never fully recovered, and though he continued to work and lead an active life, he died of the complications of hepatitis 26 years later.[11]

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Edwin Reischauer, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 300+ works in 1,000+ publications in 18 languages and 23,000+ library holdings.[12]

Honors

Notable students

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Reischauer is Feted in Capital." New York Times. October 16, 1985.
  2. ^ a b Zurndorfer, Harriet Thelma. (1995). China Bibliography: A Research Guide to Reference Works About China Past and Present, p. 31 n85.
  3. ^ Schulman, Frank Joseph. (1970). Japan and Korea: An Annotated Bibliography of Doctoral Dissertations in Western Languages, 1877–1969, p. 909. (Reischauer 1610)
  4. ^ Johnston, Laurie and Robert Thomas. "Notes on People; Reischauer, at Harvard, Gives Farewell Lecture, New York Times. April 23, 1981.
  5. ^ Stewart, Barbara. "Haru M. Reischauer, 83; Eased Tensions With Japan," New York Times. October 5, 1998.
  6. ^ Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies (RIJS), Director, 1974–1981
  7. ^ Hyun, Peter. "A Trove of Unfamiliar Art from Korea," New York Times. January 4, 1981.
  8. ^ A-bomb targets/decision-making record (1945)
  9. ^ Jungk, Robert. (1959). Brighter Than a Thousand Suns: A personal history of the atomic scientists, p. 178.
  10. ^ Reischauer, Edwin. (1986). My Life Between Japan And America, p. 101.
  11. ^ "Edwin O. Reischauer, Japan Expert, Dies," The Harvard Crimson. September 10, 1990.
  12. ^ WorldCat Identities: Reischauer, Edwin O. (Edwin Oldfather) 1910–1990
  13. ^ Japan Foundation
  14. ^ RIJS named in his honor when he turned 75 in 1985.
  15. ^ Nitze School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies

References