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Volume 2, Number 1
Spring 1995

In This Issue:Index of other issues

(Japanese names are presented western style, family name last, except for historical figures and bibliographic entries.)

President's Column

Rod Armstrong

It may be some time before this Society can afford to publish a formal annual report. We will try to find the money, because an annual report is one of the best means the leadership of a nonprofit has to communicate with current and prospective supporters, members and friends. In the meantime, we have this column to summarize the highlights of the American Manjiro Society's first year.

The American Society was incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia on October 13, 1993. The two "incorporaters" were Mrs. Taeko Floyd, our Executive Director, and myself. We are acting as the Board of Directors until a meeting of the Membership can be arranged and a slate of Director-nominees can be elected. In the meantime, Taeko and I have been treating our Director-nominees as if they were formally in office, and we are grateful to them for their participation in meetings and their generosity with their advice and support. We definitely will be formalizing the Society's Board this Spring.

The Society passed a legal milestone when we received, in an Internal Revenue Service letter of September 15, 1994, status as a not-for-profit educational organization meeting the standards set forth in section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. This means that contributors subject to the American tax code may be eligible for certain tax benefits. The process of obtaining this status is beneficial for the leadership of a new nonprofit. Guided by the knowledgeable Mr. Jeffrey Frank of our corporate member Arthur Andersen & Co. SC, we prepared five year budget projections, and wrote out operating procedures to ensure that the Society meets the standards of America's open society. These encourage nonprofits and their pluralistic programs to meet societal needs, but also require that nonprofits not be used as personal tax shelters or their benefits restricted to some arbitrarily limited group.

We have reported in this and previous issues of exchanges about Society programs. Last year's major focus was the Williamsburg/Richmond 4th Japan-America Grassroots Summit, just as 1995's principal focus will be the 5th Summit in Kagoshima, October 29 through November 6, 1995. A complete calendar of our activities -- such as would appear in a formal annual report -- would demonstrate that we have used our staff and office resources to maintain a busy schedule of smaller scale grassroots programs. We began with our "Office Warming" on April 14, 1994. The May 1994 series of talks in Boston, Washington and Williamsburg featuring Mr. Sadao Hirano, a long time leader of Manjiro activities in Japan and a Member of the House of Councillors, was one of the few times a non cabinet Japanese Diet member has given Americans an analysis of current politics. The summer of 1994 was busy with meetings in Richmond and Williamsburg preparing for the 4th Summit. The "Sora no Hi" or "Sky Day" youth exchange in Atlanta and the Washington area in September was great fun.

The Society spent about $127,000 in 1994 and finished its first full calendar year with almost $9,000 in the bank. American contributors, including the American subsidiaries of Japanese firms, were helpful, and we are very grateful for their support of a new and untried organization. Nevertheless, it was the unfailing support of the Tokyo John Manjiro-Whitfield Commemorative Center for International Exchange that underwrote our efforts. The CIE reimbursed all expenses related to the 4th Summit, and thus about 78% of the total American Society expenses in 1994. This is far above the percentage of support from a single donor that is acceptable to the Internal Revenue Service if we are to retain our 501(c)(3) status (we are allowed five years to reduce the average of contributions from a single donor down to one third).

The Society's Board has approved a budget for calendar 1995 that would have the Tokyo CIE reimbursing about one third of budgeted expenses of just over $140,000. Thus, to increase our expenditures by only 10% in the new year, we project roughly a tripling of our membership contributions -- in addition to cultivating new sources of revenue from program fees.

This is an enormous challenge for all of us in the Society's membership. Please help your Society to meet it!

The MANJIRO Society for International Exchange, .Inc.

 The Manjiro Society for International Exchange, Inc. is a not-for-profit educational and cultural exchange organization incorporated under the laws of the State of Virginia. The Society has been designated an organization as described under section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code, and contributions to the Society are deductible from taxable income to the extent permitted by U.S. tax laws.

The United States Manjiro Society was launched in late 1993. It serves as the counterpart and partner of the similarly-named Japanese organization founded in 1991 in response to the recommendation of the government-to-government Tokyo Declaration that more grassroots exchanges between Americans and Japanese were needed. The Society works to supplement the work of the numerous "Japan-America" societies located throughout the U.S. The Manjiro Society is a national membership organization seeking to interest those who: (A) have a serious, but perhaps not professional interest in Japan; (B) wish to visit Japan and meet Japanese in the U.S.; (C) may prefer to concentrate their involvement in annual sessions of no more than ten days, keeping in touch outside the "Summits" through Society publications and electronic communications; and (D) wish to support the Society's service as a coordinating point for special exchange programs that grow out of developing member interests.

Editor: Mrs. Hatsue K. Armstrong

(c) 1995 by Manjiro Society for International Exchange, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to use the material herein freely so long as credit is given to the Society, and a copy or notice of the usage is supplied to the Society at its U.S. address.

Officers

President: Mr. Rodney E. Armstrong

Vice President: Mr. Lewis S. Robinson, III

Treasurer: Mr. Izumi Asano

Secretary and Counsel: Thomas M. Clark, Esquire

Executive Director: Mrs. Taeko F. Floyd

Directors

Mr. Rodney E. Armstrong
President, hibernation software, inc.
Herndon, Virginia

Mr. Izumi Asano
Japanese Practice Director
Arthur Andersen & Co., SC
Washington, District of Columbia

Thomas M. Clark, Esquire
Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering
Washington, District of Columbia

Mr. Donald W. Crawford
Vice President & Treasurer
Mishawaka Federal Savings
Mishawaka, Indiana

Dr. William Duncan
General Director
Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association
Washington, District of Columbia

Mrs. Taeko F. Floyd
McLean, Virginia

The Hon. Robert E. Fritts
U.S. Ambassador (ret.)
Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy
The College of William & Mary
Williamsburg, Virginia

Mr. Junji Kitadai
Senior Advisor
Tokyo Broadcasting System International, Inc,
New York, New York

Mr. George Knox
Vice President, Corporate Public Affairs
Philip Morris Companies Inc.
New York, New York

Peter L. Malkin, Esquire
Wien, Malkin & Bettex
New York, New York

Mrs. Barbara Nesbitt
Executive Director
The Japan-Virginia Society
Richmond, Virginia

Mr. Lewis S. Robinson, III
Chairman, International Grizzly Fund, Inc.
West Yellowstone, Montana

As of March 1, 1995.
Affiliations are listed for purposes of identification only.

The 4th Japan-America Grassroots Summit

 About five hundred Americans and Japanese joined in the 4th Summit, held in Williamsburg and Richmond, Virginia October 7-11. Sponsored by the American and Japanese "Manjiro" exchange organizations, the Summit was also backed by the Japan-Virginia Society, Inc. and America's second oldest university, The College of William & Mary. President Timothy Sullivan of William & Mary made available the beautiful new University Center and its superb staff.

The Manjiro movement seeks to reproduce the quality of mutually respectful and substantive grassroots exchange Manjiro achieved 150 years ago. The Virginia Summit was attended by Ms. Kyo Nakahama and Mr. Robert Whitfield, fifth generation descendants of Manjiro and the American whaling captain who provided the first "host family" in the history of American/Japanese exchanges.

The 4th Summit opened in Williamsburg on the evening of October 7 with a welcoming reception hosted by the Mayor of Williamsburg and Mrs. Trist McConnell, both of whom had been to Japan for the 1993 Nagoya Summit. The Japanese delegation of 160 was led by the Chairman of the Japanese John Manjiro-Whitfield Commemorative Center for International Exchange(CIE), Diet Member Ichiro Ozawa; the President of the Center, former Ambassador to the United States Nobuo Matsunaga; and the Chairman of the Center's Advisory Council, Upper House Member Sadao Hirano.

Other members of the Japanese delegation came from all walks of life: business people, retirees, academics and teachers, young families, local government officials, and a large group of Japanese postal workers who were continuing an exchange launched at the 1993 Nagoya Summit. Since the 1995 Summit is scheduled for Kagoshima, there was a substantial representation from that historic prefecture, led by the Vice Governor, Mr. Tatsuro Suga.

The morning plenary session on October 8 opened with the boom of drums and the whistle of fifes as Kagoshima contributed its Seiryu Taiko ("fat drums") youth group from Kanoya City, and Historic Williamsburg its Colonial Fife and Drum Corps. Then came a few moments of Zen-like calm, with a performance by Ms. Sachi Minegishi on the one-string koto, Japan's oldest musical instrument, said to have originated in Manjiro's home province of Tosa.

American Manjiro Society President Rod Armstrong welcomed the upwards of 500 Americans and Japanese and described the formation in October 1993, of the American group and its program. Since the procedural details of encouraging more non profit and volunteer efforts are of current interest in Japan, Mr. Armstrong said something about the process whereby the American Society secured recognition as a 501(c)(3) organization under American tax laws. Moving on to the theme of the Plenary, "Living with a Constitution," Mr. Armstrong noted:

We know that any mention of the word "constitution" is controversial in Japan. But we are meeting in the very birthplace of American representative democracy....The proper control of Japan's Self Defense forces is naturally a subject of concern, but there seems to be no practical problem in this regard at the moment. Americans are more concerned about enforcement of the laws that govern and stabilize the Japanese economy and business, in such matters as banking and antitrust, and intellectual property.

Former U.S Trade Representative and Secretary of Agriculture Clayton Yeutter, long a friend of the Manjiro exchanges movement, gave the keynote address, a thoughtful review of the problems and prospects for the overall U.S.-Japan relationship. Referring to the session's theme, he said:

Some Japanese will say "we certainly had democratic society imposed upon Japan in the aftermath of World War II"....There was temporary imposition. But democracy would not have survived in Japan had not you folks decided on your own that you were going to make democracy work. (Democracy) did have a proper function in Japan; it was the right thing for governing your country. In the long pull, you have built a democratic society because you wanted to, and you have earned the benefits....

Chairman Ozawa followed up with an overview of Japanese thinking about the necessity for broader international exchanges. The other American and Japanese dignitaries, including Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. Takakazu Kuriyama, former Ambassador to the U.S., Nobuo Matsunaga (now President of the Tokyo CIE), and President Sullivan also welcomed the participants.

Washington lawyer and expert on Japanese law Jeffrey Lepon then chaired a session on "Living with a Constitution," arranged in honor of Williamsburg's place in history as the birthplace of representative democracy in the western hemisphere. Dean Thomas Krattenmaker of the Marshall-Wythe School of Law of William & Mary gave the substantive presentation on the role of the American Constitution in organizing the American political process, emphasizing the dramatic changes required over 200 years by shifts in the political consensus regarding the role of government. There was a brief but lively discussion, with a Japanese participant complimenting the Americans on their fundamental law, and an American noting with sorrow that the Supreme Court had held imprisonment of Japanese-Americans to be constitutional during World War II.

The October 8 morning session continued with a presentation on Kagoshima, including its modern role as the center of Japan's space program. The conclusion was the judging of an "Image of Japan" poster contest for Mid-Atlantic and Southeast children studying Japan. The five finalists and their art were each delightful. There was an audible gasp from the audience as a little finalist from one of the Fairfax County, Virginia "partial immersion" elementary schools launched his presentation in good Japanese.

After lunch, the participants broke down into some thirteen seminar/panel sessions. The topics reflected participant interests, and traded experiences and views on everything from baseball to education; sister cities to working mothers; non profits to doing business in Japan. The largest group was the specialized session for the postal workers, and the smallest was probably the collection of "nerds" and "otaku" in the modem networking session.

Following a gala reception on the evening of October 8 at which the Japanese guests met their host families, the Summit entered into its most popular phase, the two-night homestay. One could see host families and their Japanese guests all over Tidewater Virginia over the Columbus Day weekend -- at tourist attractions, churches, Jamestown and Historic Williamsburg (where the Seiryu Taiko Drummers put on a performance for a crowd of perhaps four hundred). The postal workers cruised Chesapeake Bay and got together at an American host's home for a traditional Virginia "pig roast."

After an October 10 morning tour of Historic Williamsburg, the participants reassembled in Richmond at the State Capital designed by "Mr. Jefferson," for a tour and a performance on the steps by the Taiko Drummers. They then moved across the grounds to the Executive Mansion that housed three former presidents during their terms as Governors of Virginia. There Governor George Allen and Mrs. Susan Allen, who had acted as Honorary Chair of the Summit Volunteers' Committee, hosted a reception distinguished by its kind hospitality and the Governor's generous remarks and willingness to interact with his Japanese guests. The participants also had an opportunity to meet many of the members of the cosponsoring Japan-Virginia Society, under the leadership of Mr. Malcolm McDonald, President, and Mrs. Barbara Nesbitt, Executive Director.

The October 10 farewell buffet was at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, with its wonderful "Gone with the Wind" staircase. The participants listened to a performance by the "Virginia Breeze Barbershop Quartet" and an impromptu Kagoshima performance of traditional songs and dances. They talked late into the evening and then took their leave of each other and the 4th Summit. Some went for a tour of Washington the next day, but others preferred to experience a large American shopping mall.

The Executive Director's Program Review

Embassy Reception

Late last year, Ambassador and Mrs. Kuriyama generously offered us the use of their magnificent Embassy Residence and its catering facilities for a fundraising event. The place is enormous, and designed for events of up to 1500 persons. I swallowed and said "yes" to a reservation on the evening of January 26, but I had misgivings about whether we would be able to bring enough people together to do justice to the Ambassador's generosity.

My fears were proven wrong when the cold and windy night arrived. One hundred and sixty people came, and the proceeds made a contribution of over $3600 to Society finances. Guests arrived from as far away as New York. Perhaps the largest single contingent was our loyal friends from Richmond and Williamsburg who had worked with us on the October 1994 Summit.

Ambassador and Mrs. Kuriyama immediately adapted themselves to the informal and "grassroots" nature of the evening. We were in something of a quandary about inviting the American children who had participated in our September "Sky Day" exchange, but Cally Williams talked me into it, noting that Manjiro had been roughly the same age when he cast up on our shores. They were on their best behavior, and the Ambassador and his wife spent much time with them, explaining about their "home" and the role of an ambassador. Some are studying Japanese, and had an opportunity to use the polite forms they had studied while their teachers looked on.

Mr. And Mrs. Robert Whitfield were able to come. Having the fifth generation descendent of Manjiro's host family present added a great deal to the occasion. Through my participation in the Tokyo-Washington Women's Club, I had met Mrs. Yumi Yomura, whose great grandmother's sister was the wife of one of Manjiro's sons, Keizaburo. Mrs. Yomura was able to come, and so we could balance Bob Whitfield with a representative of the Manjiro side as well.

Mrs. Kuriyama thoughtfully set up the largest reception room with chairs and a podium. We showed a video made several years ago of Manjiro's life story made with the cooperation of the Tokyo Center by an American company using water color drawings. The kids congregated in this room before the formal showing, watched a preview run of the video and ran down the Embassy's supply of cola and orange juice to record lows.

Of course, the reception took place under the grim shadow of the great Kobe earthquake disaster. Our president, Rod Armstrong, a former U.S. Consul in Kobe, noted that there were many programs for helping the victims, and that we in the Society would be contributing through a church in Higashinada Ku where Cally Williams worked during her stay in Kobe and which is now serving as a place of refuge. We also invited children to send drawings and messages through this channel. Besides adult contributions of money, American children have sent in many messages. They have been poignant and touching; one says, "Come to America if you need a place to live."

Ambassador Kuriyama summed up the evening in his remarks: "Seeing is believing. The exchange of information alone does not necessarily lead to better international understanding. Bridging the gap requires organizations such as the Manjiro Society."

The party ended with a drawing for door prizes by Mrs. Kuriyama. The luck of the draw brought most of the prizes to the Richmond area guests. They deserved them for their long drives. Bob Whitfield also got lucky, which gave him a chance to come to the podium and tell the children that the evening was a good demonstration of how great and good a thing can start from a single individual's single act of kindness. We thank the donors of the prizes: The ANA Hotel, Hisago Restaurant and Japan Inn of Washington, and the McLean Hilton Hotel.

Networking American and Japanese Shogakko

We have been dipping our toes in the worldwide pool of electronic information called the Internet. Although we are nothing but "newbies" (the Internet slang for newcomers), we do have an address: manjiro.org (so my address will be taeko@manjiro.org). Please give us a few weeks and we will be happy to communicate with all comers.

There has been some publicity about high schoolers in the U.S., Japan and European countries communicating over the Internet in English. We have had the idea of setting up communications among elementary schools in the U.S. and Japan in Japanese. That's right: Japanese.

There are three elementary schools here in Northern Virginia teaching science, health and arithmetic in Japanese (see "Editor's Note" in the last issue). Besides rattling away in Japanese, these children are also (unlike their parents) computer-literate and perfectly capable of pounding away at least in kana (the Japanese syllabary). We think grassroots exchanges over the Internet with similar schools in Japan would be a great way to facilitate internationalization and education. The teachers in the immersion schools all say they have been waiting for a program like this, and are enthusiastic.

The problem is that not many elementary schools in Japan have computers as yet. We will be talking with prospective donors who may wish to assist in making this new form of communications possible.

Possible Manjiro Awards

Manjiro was a great reporter on the America of his times. His "reporting" was in the form of his answers to formal interrogations: first by the Shimazu Fiefdom in Kagoshima, then by the Tokugawa Shogunate in Nagasaki, and lastly by his own feudal domain officers in Tosa. Later, he spent vast amounts of time responding to questions from Shogunate officials in Edo. Manjiro's balanced information and calm interpretation won out against the battle for credibility during the controversies surrounding Commodore Perry's visits to Japan.

Many of us in the Society wish to encourage serious study of the United States in Japan. That is why we enjoy working with an organization that brings Japanese to the U.S. for something more than tourism and business. There is serious academic study of the U.S. in Japan, but often it is too specialized to be useful as background for informed participation in public affairs. It is the Japanese media's reporting from and on America that forms the average Japanese opinions about the issues between the two countries.

Accordingly, the idea of a "Manjiro Award for Japanese Reporting on America" has come about. There would be a panel of Americans to review nominated Japanese coverage of the U.S. and make award(s) to selected journalists.

Merely to state the idea is to raise a host of problems. The U.S.-Japan relationship is much more complicated than in Manjiro's day. What are to be the criteria for judgment? Who are to be the judges? Since very few American experts on the U.S. read Japanese, how will we overcome the language barrier? No one has criticized Japanese journalists' reporting of facts; obviously we would be judging the quality of their interpretations. Who would judge the judges?

Nevertheless, we think that the idea of "Manjiro Award(s)" has value. We cling to the results of a fairly recent poll of foreign (mostly American) journalists in Tokyo and Japanese journalists in Washington on the question of press balance. The foreign journalists thought the Japanese journalists less objective and balanced in their reporting about the U.S. than the Japanese journalists thought the American press was in reporting about Japan [Ando Hiroshi, Nichibei joho masatsu (Tokyo: Iwanami Shinsho, 1991), pp. 162-164]. This makes us think good Japanese journalism on the U.S. still needs encouragement and reward.

We are consulting widely about the possibility of launching such a program, and find some informed enthusiasm. We would welcome the opinions of the membership as we seek to develop the consensus that would be necessary to support such an awards program.

Bulletin Board

Earthquake Fund

As of February 28, the Society's Earthquake Fund totalled $700. This amount was sent to the Higashinada Baptist Church in one of the hardest-hit areas of Kobe. Those who contributed were: Mr. & Mrs. Bruce Bradford, Mr. Warren Little, Ms. Gayle Monkkonen, Ms. Yukiko Jane Nakano, Ms. Cynthia K. Peacock, Dr. Edward A. Sawada, Ms. Dorothy P. Tua, Dr. G. B. Wright, and Manjiro staff.

More than 150 children's drawings have arrived and been forwarded to the Higashinada Baptist Church for distribution to schools near the church. We have used one for the cover of this issue of exchanges. The selection of the cover drawing was very difficult. All were affecting and wonderfully generous in spirit. The schools we have to thank are quite representative: the rural Ashby-Lee Elementary School of Mt. Jackson, Virginia, the private Kingsbury Day School in Washington, DC and the L. G. Hine Junior High School in inner city Washington, DC.

MS Walk

On Sunday, April 23, 1995, the Manjiro Society Team will meet at the Reston Town Center at 9:30 AM to join the 12 mile MS WALK. We are hoping for a good-sized (and genki) Society Team. Cally Williams will be the team captain (her mother has MS) and each team member is responsible for raising his or her own pledges. Anyone raising $75 or more will receive a MS WALK T-shirt.

Last year, $345,000 was raised by 2,700 Washington area walkers to support people with Multiple Sclerosis, their families and research. Please help support this great cause by joining us! Contact Cally at (703)847-3906 for further information.

Homestays and Friendship

Walle Hargreaves

Why stay with a complete stranger? Why invite a complete stranger into your home?

To answer these questions, think: What were the memorable moments in your own travels? The one experience that made a trip special? Almost always it was contact with local people: a chance to talk with them, share a moment in a cafe, perhaps to be invited into their home or participate in a special celebration.

The Manjiro exchanges are designed as fairly serious study tours, with sightseeing, discussions of shared problems led by experts, and talks by political leaders. But at the last three Grassroots Summits, we have also built in two-night stays in each other's homes. It is the Homestay Program that brings the study discussions down to earth and roots our exchanges in individual experience.

The Third Summit, Nagoya 1993, was my first experience as coordinator. I briefed the Americans about living in a Japanese home: Never wear shoes inside; make sure your socks have no holes; don't wear slippers on a tatami mat; there is a separate pair of slippers for the john; don't pull the plug in a Japanese bathtub; wash and rinse outside the tub; and in the toilet, face the hump.

Perhaps my briefing was a bit too matter-of-fact. I saw doubtful American faces in the audience. Nevertheless, it was all hugs, kisses and tears when the Japanese hosts brought their guests back two days later. Today, if one of these Americans is asked what they remember about the Nagoya Summit, the answer is, "The homestay!"

In Nagoya, I became the instant grandmother of two little girls. My Japanese family took me into their tiny apartment and invited all their friends for a pot-luck dinner (thirty pairs of shoes in the entryway). We went sightseeing; looked at photo albums; and played with the children. I was surprised to see how well the husband and wife worked together in caring for the children and getting ready for the party. The children demanded to come along for the 1994 Williamsbug/Richmond Summit to see their "American grandmother," and the family's visit with us then was another warm experience.

At the Virginia Summit, it was my job to act as coordinator for the host families. I started at the end of July preparing for the October Summit. With the help of Mayor McConnell of Wiliamsburg, we were able to find an energetic and well-organized retired businessman, Mr. Shelby Molter, to be our principal host family "finder." We had two other volunteers looking for hosts in outlying areas, and the substantial delegation of Japanese postal workers was given full "first class" handling by their American counterparts. In the end, we found 40 American homes for Japanese guests.

Shelby Molter was my principal contact during the Summit preparations. He gave out fliers, talked to clubs and people he met during his daily rounds, advertised in the local paper and put up notices on bulletin boards. There were days with good news from Shelby: "Three more families signed up!" There were days with bad news: "A family has backed out because of changes in their plans for the Columbus Day weekend!" Shelby made sure the host family questionnaires were filled out, and passed on special needs and concerns about language problems. In the end, Shelby and his wife Jan became good friends as we worked all of this out together.

This seems a good point at which to note that the basic principle of the Manjiro exchanges is that we do not pay homestay hosts. I am sure that doing so would change the entire basis of the program, and not for the better. When we recruit people, we can be sure that they are offering genuine hospitality out of personal interest. Our "finders" are also volunteers, although we do pay some expenses, such as Shelby Molter's local advertisement.

Here are our guidelines for American host families. We want our hosts to have a spare bedroom with a single, double or two single beds. Because the Japanese couples who traveled to Virginia had a good experience, we hope that future groups will include more married couples. Nevertheless, to date, most Japanese visitors have come without their spouses. Since any two Japanese guests will most likely be unrelated, things will go best if the host family has two spare rooms. Japanese couples normally sleep in single beds, so an American double has for them the same novelty as sleeping on a futon on the floor has for an American.

We try to make sure that, where the hosts have no Japanese, at least one of the Japanese guests will have some English (almost all Japanese can read some English; it is the speaking that raises the problems). We find that the language problem always goes better if the hosts take two Japanese guests per family (one or the other will usually come up with the right word).

We provide American hosts with the answers the Japanese guests gave to our questionnaire about their interests. We will have already tried to match hosts with guests in terms of interests, hobbies, smoking or non smoking, allergies to pets, etc.

What should you do with your guests? If the guests have expressed some special wish, you will have been made aware. Otherwise, some hosts start off (like my family in Nagoya) by getting together with friends or another host family for dinner or dessert. Our homestays tend to happen over weekends, so sightseeing, visits to art galleries or playing golf or tennis have been welcome. Some guests may wish to see an American nursing home or hospital. During the week, visits to schools or factories might be interesting. Never underestimate the appeal to a Japanese of a visit to a supermarket or the mall! American prices are very low from the Japanese perspective.

At the Virginia Summit, a farmer from Kagoshima was matched with an American soybean farmer whose product sometimes ends up in Japanese soy sauce bottles (the American also grows peanuts). With lots of smiling and nodding and hand gestures, the two farmers "talked" about their business. They compared their farms' sizes and yields. The Kagoshima farmer's spread was smaller by a factor of 45, but his yields were out of sight -- with three crops a year.

A pair of teachers talked most of the night comparing the good and bad sides of their mutual profession. When a scheduled host got sick, five husky lads from the Taiko Drummers were transferred to an American family who wondered what to provide for breakfast. I suggested 50 pancakes. I was almost right. Only two were left, and the drummers told everyone at their morning performance that American pancakes were oishii.

The postal workers put a major effort into the 1994 Virginia Summit, and may have had the most fun. American postal workers from Richmond and Norfolk entertained their Japanese counterparts with a pig roast, pool party and a cruise on the Chesapeake Bay. Contributing to the warmth of the postal workers' exchange was the fact that most of the Japanese workers brought their spouses -- something unusual for Japanese participants. One Japanese who had hosted Americans at Nagoya even brought along his three children, who had a wonderful time playing together with his host family's children while ignoring the language barrier. The Japanese postal workers produced an amazingly detailed scrapbook of memories of the trip that will be a treasured possession for all.

It is not too early to put the 1995 Kagoshima Summit on your calendar. The Summit will start in Tokyo on October 29; move to Kagoshima and end on November 4. This Summit will feature a two-day homestay and a folk dance festival. American participants will have plenty of advance information and they will be asked to list their interests. How about a hot sand bath at one of Kagoshima's famous hot springs? Participants will be given tips that make things go better: for example, travel light (you will have to carry your own bags) and bring a small gift (local American products or craft items, for example).

In short, it is wonderful that homestays are available not just for students, but for all those adults who are young at heart, crave a bit of adventure, and have curiosity and a willingness to make a contribution to grassroots understanding.

Come to Kagoshima! The 5th Japan-America Grassroots Summit

We hope everyone has already read our warmup piece about Kagoshima in the April 1994 issue of exchanges, and blocked off the last week of October and first week of November for the 1995 Summit. We can now give some preliminary details. Here is the schedule as it now stands:
10/29 Depart U.S. via All Nippon Airways
10/30 Arrive Narita International Airport (Tokyo)
Welcome Reception in evening
10/31 Arrive Kagoshima
Opening Ceremony & Keynote Address
Welcome Reception
11/1 Group Sessions at local sites:
Space program
"Silver" (Senior Citizens)
National Park Service
Teachers
JET AA English teachers
Farmers
Postal Employees
Other interest groups in formation...

Beginning of homestays
11/2 Group Exchanges, Continuation of homestays
11/3 Return to Kagoshima City, Ohara Matsuri
Overnight at hotel
11/4 & 11/5 Return to Tokyo, Free days
11/6 Return to U.S. via All Nippon Airways
Now for the really good news. It appears that the basic cost for participation by members in the 5th Summit will be only approximately $1,600 for East coast departures (New York or Washington, DC) and something less for West coast departures from Los Angeles. (Unfortunately, the $/¥ rate is moving substantially against the $ as this is written; and our pricing may have to be adjusted if there is no recovery by the fall.) This will cover roundtrip, economy air fare U.S. and accommodations and meals for three nights in Tokyo and four nights in Kagoshima (including two nights of homestay). Only the expenses for meals on the two "free" days in Tokyo after return from Kagoshima are not included. We are still working on arrangements with the Tokyo Center, and we may have further enhancements to announce later. Please contact the Society for information or to make your reservations. If you are not a member, please use the back cover of this newsletter for your membership application.

Manjiro Watch

A copy of the most recent book in English to be published on Manjiro has just come to hand: Donald R. Bernard, The Life and Times of John Manjiro (New York: McGraw, Hill, 1992). It is in many ways an unusual volume, but it fills a definite niche and is a valuable contribution.

I say "unusual" because it is the work of an amateur local historian from Fairhaven, Massachusetts, Manjiro's host town in the 1850s. In the spot on the book jacket flap where the author's head-and-shoulders portrait normally appears, there is a colorful shot of Mr. Bernard standing in full dress uniform in the open door of the Chief's sedan of the Fairhaven Fire Department. Chief Bernard died suddenly -- and tragically early in his mid fifties -- around the time of his book's publication, but it book lives on as one of his memorials (he had also produced a book about local military history). Clearly he was an amateur of history in the classic Latin sense of the word, a "lover" of Clio.

Chief Bernard was not deterred either by his lack of a college education or of specialized training on Japan. The book, however, is a professionally edited volume that reads well and brings a great deal of new Japanese material to the English reader. Since Chief Bernard took his romanization of Japanese names directly from documents of the time, before the beneficent ministrations of James Hepburn, there are some strange and unfamiliar apparitions from time to time. Sometimes these are just plain funny: it is amazing to know that Katsu Kai-shu once romanized his family name as "Cats."

As might be expected, Chief Bernard's book is strong on local sources. In documenting, for example, the kind of schools Manjiro attended, he has reproduced the full texts of the school inspectors' reports, documents of great general interest to any American reader. He reprints family documents of a truly affecting nature. I defy anyone to read Alice Bonney's December 5, 1898, farewell letter to Manjiro with a dry eye. It belongs in any anthology of letters of friendship. Chief Bernard's comment is quietly simple. "Manjiro had died twenty-four days earlier. He never had the opportunity to read this letter from his old friend."

Chief Bernard goes on to put into English a great deal of Japanese material previously not available. About five years ago, a massive compendium of both English and Japanese documents related to Manjiro was published in Tokyo in honor of the 150th anniversary of Manjiro's voyages: Kawasumi Tetsuo (Editor), Nakahama Manjiro shusei [The Manjiro Memorabilia] (Tokyo: Shogakkan, 1990), 1119 pages. This volume would not have been available to Chief Bernard, but a random check of his translations of selected documents against the original Japanese documents to be found in The Memorabilia shows that the translations are well done. In addition, Chief Bernard tells in English for the first time many unpublished Manjiro anecdotes. The natural question, then, is: how did our Massachusetts autodidact accomplish all of this? Asked this question, his longtime friend and current director of the Millicent Library in Fairhaven laughed and replied, "The wonders of modern technology!" Apparently there were almost innumerable telefaxes between Dr. Hiroshi Nakahama, Manjiro's great grandson and the Chief. It is a great tribute to this grassroots cooperation between a Japanese medical doctor and an American small town fire chief that this book is virtually a seamless interweaving of these materials. The achievement is all the more impressive when one considers that the originals were written in premodern Japanese -- certainly as hard for a modern Japanese to understand as Shakespeare is for English speakers today, and sometimes rising to the level of Chaucer in terms of relative difficulty.

"Lewd" Americans?

In the last issue of exchanges, we noted that James Fallows, in a July 1994, Smithsonian Magazine article, had quoted Manjiro as having said during his interrogations upon his return, among other things, that Americas are "lewd by nature."

The characterization of Americans as "lewd" seemed somehow out of character for Manjiro, and we promised to track down the truth of the matter. Mr. Fallows got his quote from a children's book by Walter McDougall, Let the Sea Make a Noise (New York: Basic Books, 1993). McDougall got the quote from a book by the noted diplomatic historian, Foster Rhea Dulles, Yankees and Samurai (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), page 49. Dr. Dulles says in his notes that he got his quotes from two early books on Manjiro by Japanese authors, Ibuse Masuji, John Manjiro: The Castaway (Tokyo: 1941) and Kaneko Hisakazu, Manjiro: the Man Who Discovered America (Boston, 1956). Dr. Dulles, who apparently did not read Japanese, writes in his notes, however, that their translations of Manjiro's Nagasaki interrogations differ.

Our own reading of the Nagasaki interrogations in The Manjiro Memorabilia cited above does not indicate any statement that should be translated to characterize the Americans as "lewd." Perhaps there was some confusion with Manjiro's comments on the habits of various South Seas islanders. The Puritans of Massachusetts seem safe from any aspersions.

Editor's Note

The annual Summits end, and we say farewell to a place -- but fortunately not to the friends we have made. Walle Hargreaves tells us in her article in this issue how her 1993 host family in Nagoya came to visit her in 1994. As Walle's article says, the Manjiro exchange movement is rooted in the homestay experience.

Our homestay guest for the Virginia Summit was Ms. Emiko Fukumoto. She came as a speaker for the "Working Mother" session. A widow with three children and three grandchildren, she has made her own way for several decades. Trained as a teacher, she runs a preparatory school (juku) in Mie Prefecture -- near Nagoya, where we were together for the 1993 Summit. It was many years before Emiko was able to satisfy her long-standing interest in the United States. She came first as a summer teacher of Japanese at the University of Michigan, and later for nine months of teaching in American elementary schools in Virginia and South Carolina under the auspices of the International Intern Program chaired by former Ambassador Reichauer's widow, Mrs. Haru Reischauer.

We laugh together at the story of the initial spark for her interest in this country. It is the classic story of a Japanese child being tossed packets of gum from a jeep by boisterously kind American soldiers amidst the stark ruin of postwar Japan. But what energy she brings to her curiosity! Her hobby is mountain climbing, but still the energy is unexpected. She participated fully in the Summit, came back with us to Northern Virginia for further sight-seeing and still found time to cook us good Japanese meals in the evening.

Emiko writes that she went to Kobe after the earthquake to check on friends who turned out to be safe but with a severely damaged home. Now she is volunteering to take a homeless senior citizen from the disaster. She says she learned from her homestays in America that there is no reason to hold back from offering to have strangers in one's home. She says she looks forward to the Summit in Kagoshima, her late husband's home town. A friend for life.

New Contributors & Members

This listing gives the names of corporations and members who have joined us since October 1, 1994 through March 1, 1995. A complete listing of all current members will be given in the Fall, 1995 issue of exchanges.

Corporate Contributors

Hester Industries, Inc.
Winchester, Virginia
Representative, Mr. Jeffrey D. Hester

Norfolk Southern Corporation
Norfolk, Virginia
Representative, Mr. Henry Watts

Mars, Incorporated
McLean, Virginia
Representative, Mr. David H. Badger

Pacific Select
New York, New York
Representative, Mr. Eiji Kanno

Family

Ms. Shinako Y. Radke, McLean, Virginia
Mr. Ray and Mrs. Chizuyo Templeman, Falls Church, Virginia
Mr. Richard and Mrs. Setsuko Orr, Williamsburg, Virginia
Mr. and Mrs. Robert O. Whitfield, Edgewater, Maryland
Mr. Henry and Mrs. Eleanor Watts, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Colonel Karl and Mrs. Susan Widmayer, Oakton, Virginia

Individuals

Mr. Yuichiro Fujiyama, Falls Church, Virginia
Mr. Ralph Gonzalez, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Mr. Ronald E. Greigg, Bethesda, Maryland
Ms. Barbara Kimball, Williston, Vermont
Mr. Timothy Killen, Las Vegas, Nevada
Mr. Iwao Kobayashi, Nagoya, Japan
Jeffrey Lepon, Esquire, McLean, Virginia
Ms. Elizabeth Okada, Arlington, Virginia
Mr. Patrick Okura, Bethesda, Maryland
Dr. Edward A. Sawada, Towson, Maryland
Mr. Chris Wada, New York, New York
Ms. Bina Wyllie, Mechanicsville, Virginia

Students

Mr. Hideki Hirayama (Washington, DC)

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Page last updated Aug 15, 1999. Copyright 1998-2002, The Manjiro Society.