- PDF Free Download

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download ""

こごろうよどぎみ
7 years ago
Views:

21 Hepburn delightedly accepted that idea and offered 120,000 yen. It was told that Ministry of Education was somehow ruluctant to accept it. Anyhow, in 1924 the Hepburn Chair for American studies was formally established in the Faculty of Law, Tokyo University. Takagi Yasaka had been selected to be the first holder of this chair in 1919 and sent to the United States for three years. In the mean time, special lectures for the chair were given by such distinguished scholars as Minobe Tatsukichi, Nitobe Inazo and Yoshino Sakuzo. Upon his return, Takagi started his regular lecture on American history and government and he contributed several articles to academic journals. He was interested in tracing how the tradition of Puritanism as a broader current of thought, became institutionalized into American political and cultural life. As the result of his research, in 1931 Beikoku seijishi jyosetsu (Introduction o f American Political History) was published, which could be called a classic in American studies in Japan. Besides of Takagi, there were many specialized scholars in American studies, like Takagaki Matsuo in American literature and Fujiwara Moritane in American politics. Since 1932, the Japanese-American relations became more and more tense, leading to the final catastrophe, the Pacific War. Certainly the United States could not be considered as a model for Japan. But, it was felt, the need for the objective information about the United States should be increased. As a matter of fact, in America, the learning of Japanese studies in general and Japanese language in particular were encouraged tremendously, whereas in Japan, even English teaching was discouraged, much less American studies. However, I would like to point out that just before the War, some books on American history have been translated into Japanese and well sold. For example, James T. Adams' The Epic of America and Frederick L. Allen's Only Yesterday. Moreover, during the wartime, as far as academic world is concerned, the stream of American studies was flowing ceaselessly and Takagi's lecture for the Hepburn chair on American studies continued as a sort of farewell gift to the students who would soon go up to the front line. It might be not an exaggeration to say that the remarkable development of American studies in post-war Japan was possible, precisely because there was the foundation, however small, erected by pre-war scholars of American studies.

22 titles exactly imply the "model seeking" approach. It reminds me of Japanese the famous words in Tocquville's Democracy in America, "in America, I saw more than America; I sought there image of democracy itself." As is well known, however, the Meiji Constitution was drafted under the influence of German scholars and the model for modernization of Japan was sought in European countries, especially in Germany and Great Britain. Governmental officials and professors of national universities were sent to European countries to study. Under such circumstances, it is noteworthy that some of the leaders of socialist movement in Japan such as Katayama Sen had experience of studying in the United States as a working student, and revisited there several times. America happened to be a good asylum for them. After the end of Russo Japanese War, Japan emerged as one of the world powers. Japan and the United States were sometimes opposed to each other on such issues as the Chinese market and the Japanese immigrants. Even the possibility of a Japanese-American war was seriously discussed in both countries. In 1913, Masaoka Yuuichi, who had studied in the United States and assisted Komura Jutaro at the Portsmouth Conference, worried over the situations and wrote a book, Beikoku oyobi beikokujin (The United States and the American People), whose first chapter was entitled as "The Necessity for American Studies." In the meantime, especially after the end of World War I, interest in democracy was deepened among some opinion leaders as the era of so-called "Taisho Democracy" came on the stage. The demands for the knowledge of America, as a "model" as well as "information" were hightened. As if to respond to the demands, a chair for American studies was provided in Tokyo Imperial Univesity. In 1917, A. Barton Hepburn, a banker and a relative to James C. Hepburn, a famous missionary to Japan, wrote a long letter to Shibusawa Eiichi, a leader of the Japanese financial world. Barton Hepburn mentioned that he was worried about the present Japanese-American relationship and keenly felt the necessity to improve it. "As an influence in that direction," he suggested to endow a chair for international law and comity to Tokyo University. Since two chairs for international law already existed in the University, the Faculty of Law wished to have rather a new chair for American Constitution, History and Diplomacy.

23 American Studies in Pre-War Japan: A Brief Sketch By Makoto SAIT0, M. J. A. In November, 1999, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Institute for American Studies at Rikkyo University, a special lecture meeting was held. It seems to be generally believed that American studies did not exist in pre-war Japan. But, as the establishment of that Institute at Rikkyo University itself suggests, the term "American studies" and some achievements in that field had existed well before the war. As a matter of fact, it started in the closing days of the Tokugawa regime. What was the reason for this early and strong interests in American studies in pre-war Japan? If I could be allowed to set up a simple hypothesis, I could count at least two different kinds of approach to the knowledge of the United States in pre-war Japan. One was the demand for the objective and concrete information concerning the United States as a strong and wealthy power on the other side of the Pacific, which could be a potential enemy sometime in the future. The other was the demand for some subjective and abstract ideas about the United States as a model for the modernization of Japan. When Commodore Perry's black ships approached to Japan, some enlightened bureaucrats of Tokugawa government and anti-tokugawa patriots eagerly studied about America through Chinese translation of History o f the United States, written by Elij ah C. Bridgman, an American missionary to China. Following that various Japanese versions of that Chinese translation were published soon after. It might be a good example of the "information seeking" approach. Then, a translation of Tocqueville's Democracy in America was published under the title, Jiyu genron (Principle of Liberty) in 1882 and another classic of American Studies, The American Commonwealth by James Bryce was translated under the title, Heimin set/i (Government of Common People) in , immediately after the original one was published. It is quite interesting to note that both Japanese versions omitted the term "America" from the titles. These

„h‹¤.05.07

„h‹¤.05.07 Japanese Civilian Control in the Cold War Era Takeo MIYAMOTO In European and American democratic countries, the predominance of politics over military, i.e. civilian control, has been assumed as an axiom.