Journeys to the Japanese, 1952-1979 PDF
Preview Journeys to the Japanese, 1952-1979
JOURNEYS TO THE JAPANESE Also by Morton and Lucia White The Intellectual versus the City: From Thomas Jefferson to Frank Lloyd Wright JOURNEYS to the JAPANESE 1952-1979 Morton and Lucia White The University of British Columbia Press Vancouver 1986 Journeys to the Japanese, 1952-1979 1986 by Morton and Lucia White All Rights Reserved Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data White, Morton, 1917- Journeys to the Japanese, 1952-1979 Includes index. 1. Japan - Description and travel - 1945- 2Japan-Civilization-1945- 3. White, Morton, 1917- 4. White, Lucia. I. White, Lucia. II. Title. DS811.W494 1986 915.2'044 C85-091446-9 International Standard Book Number 0-7748-0231-6 Printed and bound in Canada by John Deyell Company To Nick Trish, Jenny, Livy, and Alex y and Steve, Kate, and Joe This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS p reface ix 1. The First Invitation to Tokyo 1 2. The Matsudaira Hotel 6 3. The Japanese Philosophers in 1952 13 4. A Land of "Contradictions" 25 5. From Tokyo to the Hinterlands 34 6. Preparing to Revisit Japan in 1960 55 7. Revisiting Japan in 1960 62 8. A Miscellany of Experiences in 1960 76 9. The Japanese Philosophers Declare Their Independence: 1966 92 10. The Fourth Visit: 1976 112 11. Japan Visited for the Fifth Time: 1979 138 12. Looking Backward and Looking Forward 163 Index 171 This page intentionally left blank PREFACE In this book, which is based on journals, correspondence, and recollections, we record some experiences and present some reflections on roughly thirty years of association with the Japanese, primarily with scholars and their families. Most of our contact with them occurred while we lived and travel- led in Japan during five visits there, some of it while they visited in the United States. We saw our friends in seminars and conferences, in the lecture-hall and the beer-hall, in their homes and in restaurants, in the city and the country, at work and at play. We watched some of them move from youth to the ripeness of age, and we saw their country rise from abject military defeat to the economic pre-eminence it now holds in the world. We were therefore able to observe Japan and Japanese life during a crucial part of this century. We watched it change in a period of turbulent and rapid transi- tion; we also saw it maintain many of its ancient traditions. Not being professional students of Japanese language, history, or culture, we have not written a scholarly work. Rather, we have presented some impressions and ideas of Japan which we hope will interest the reader who can find more scientific information elsewhere. Although our respon- sibilities and personal connections led us to spend a good deal of time with philosophers, students of American life, and their families, our frequent visits and our travels within Japan gave us an opportunity to see beyond the confines of the classroom. The reader will observe that we give more space to our first visit in 1952 than to any other visit. This is partly owing to our having been assaulted by a great variety of novel experiences on our first encounter with Japan, experiences that we were moved to report in the fullest journals we kept. We wish to thank Rebecca Davies for cheerfully typing the manuscript.
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