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Edwin Oldfather Reischauer (; October 15, 1910 – September 1, 1990) was an American diplomat, educator, and
professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...
at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
. Born in
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...
to American educational missionaries, he became a leading scholar of the history and culture of Japan and East Asia. Together with
George M. McCune George McAfee "Mac" McCune (; June 16, 1908 – November 5, 1948) was an American scholar of Korea who developed the McCune–Reischauer romanization system of Korean with Edwin O. Reischauer. He taught Korean history and language at Occident ...
, a scholar of Korea, in 1939 he developed the
McCune–Reischauer McCune–Reischauer romanization () is one of the two most widely used Korean language romanization systems. A modified version of McCune–Reischauer was the official romanization system in South Korea until 2002, when it was replaced by the R ...
romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, a ...
of the Korean language. Reischauer became involved in helping create US policy toward East Asia during and after World War II. President John F. Kennedy appointed Reischauer as the
United States Ambassador to Japan The is the ambassador from the United States of America to Japan. History Since the opening of Japan by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, in 1854, the U.S. has maintained diplomatic relations with Japan, except for the ten-year period between the ...
, where he served from 1961 to 1966. Reischauer founded the Japan Institute at Harvard University in 1973 and was its founding director. It was later named in honor of him.


Early life and education

Reischauer was born in
Tokyo, Japan Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
, the son of Helen Sidwell (Oldfather) and August Karl Reischauer, Presbyterian educational missionaries. His father helped found the
Tokyo Woman's Christian University , often abbreviated to TWCU or , is an independent Protestant university in Tokyo, Japan. Founding TWCU was established by Nitobe Inazō (1862–1933), an author, diplomat and educator, who was appointed as the first president in 1918. The first ...
along with Nitobe Inazo and
Yasui Tetsu was a Japanese educator and writer. She was the first dean of Tokyo Woman's Christian University and its second president. Biography Yasui was born in 1870 in Tokyo. Her father was a weapons instructor to Doi Toshimoto, a ''daimyō'' of ...
. His mother founded the Japan Deaf Oral School, the first of its kind in Japan. He and his younger brother Robert attended the
American School in Japan The American School in Japan (ASIJ; ja, アメリカンスクール・イン・ジャパン) is an international private day school located in the city of Chōfu, Tokyo, Japan. The school consists of an elementary school, a middle school, and a ...
before going to the United States for college. Both did graduate work in Asian studies. Edwin graduated with a AB from Oberlin in 1931. On his 75th birthday, Reischauer recalled publicly that his aim in life after graduating in 1931 was to draw American attention to
Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
. Reischauer earned his
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...
from
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
in 1939. He was a student of the Russian-French Japanologist
Serge Elisséeff Serge Elisséeff (; born Sergei Grigorievich Eliseyev; 13 January 188913 April 1975) was a Russian-French scholar, Japanologist, and professor at Harvard University. He was one of the first Westerners to study Japanese at a university in Japan. H ...
, who had been the first Western graduate of the
University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project b ...
.Zurndorfer, Harriet Thelma. (1995)
''China Bibliography: A Research Guide to Reference Works About China Past and Present'', p. 31 n85.
/ref> His doctoral dissertation was "''Nittō guhō junrei gyōki'': Ennin's Diary of His Travels in T'ang China, 838–847," a study and translation of the Japanese monk
Ennin , better known in Japan by his posthumous name, Jikaku Daishi (), was a priest of the Tendai school of Buddhism in Japan, and its third . Ennin was instrumental in expanding the Tendai Order's influence, and bringing back crucial training and re ...
's travelogues on his journeys in China during the
Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
. Ennin's work, ''Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law'' (;
Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
: ''Nyip-Dang gjuw-pjop zwin-léi hæng-kì''), is written in
Classical Chinese Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning "literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning "literar ...
. Reischauer's work shows the high level of Sinological scholarship that a graduate student was expected to demonstrate.


Wartime service

By October 1940 Reischauer had become aware of the possibility of war with Japan. He wrote a memorandum for the U.S. Navy pointing out that very few Americans knew the kind of written Japanese that was used in military situations and hardly any could read Japanese that had been handwritten in a hurry. His solution was to create a Japanese language school to train linguists in advance. Reischauer’s warning did not go unheeded. It landed on the desk of Lieutenant (later Commander) Albert Hindmarsh of the U.S. Navy, and he agreed that there were indeed few competent Japanese-speaking officers available. The result was the creation of the U.S. Navy Japanese Language School, which spent most of the war at Boulder, Colorado. In the summer of 1942, at the request of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, Reischauer started running a top-secret course at
Arlington Hall Arlington Hall (also called Arlington Hall Station) is a historic building in Arlington, Virginia, originally a girls' school and later the headquarters of the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) cryptography effort during W ...
in Virginia. Arlington Hall had been a women’s college, but it was taken over by the US Army Signal Intelligence Service in June 1942 and functioned like
Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
in England as a secret cryptanalysis centre.


Teaching career

Reischauer had a 40-year teaching career at Harvard. He and
John King Fairbank John King Fairbank (May 24, 1907 – September 14, 1991) was an American historian of China and United States–China relations. He taught at Harvard University from 1936 until his retirement in 1977. He is credited with building the field of C ...
developed a popular undergraduate survey of East Asian history and culture. The course, which was known as "Rice Paddies", was the basis for their widely influential textbooks, ''East Asia: The Great Tradition'' (1958) and ''East Asia: The Modern Transformation'' (1965). Reischauer wrote both for fellow scholars and for the general public, including ''Japan: Story of a Nation'', which was published in several editions. He served as director of the
Harvard–Yenching Institute The Harvard–Yenching Institute is an independent foundation dedicated to advancing higher education in Asia in the humanities and social sciences, with special attention to the study of Asian culture. It traditionally had close ties to Harvar ...
and chairman of the Department of Far Eastern Languages. For his 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 that crowded scene, 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."


Ambassador to Japan

Reischauer was appointed US Ambassador to Japan by President John F. Kennedy in the spring of 1961, at a time when US-Japan relations were at a low point following the massive 1960 protests in Japan against the US-Japan Security Treaty. In the immediate aftermath of the protests, Reischauer had traveled to Japan and spoken with various Japanese friends and associates to get a Japanese point of view on the protests. After returning to the United States, Reischauer attracted the attention of Kennedy's transition team when he wrote an article about the protests in the prominent policy journal ''
Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy a ...
'' called "The Broken Dialogue with Japan." In this article Reischauer rejected the notion, put forth by the Eisenhower administration, that the protests had been a communist plot. Instead, he argued that the protests reflected real grievances on the part of the Japanese in relation to US, and were exacerbated by a failure by American leaders to reach out to Japanese opinion leaders and try to understand Japanese concerns. Reischauer argued forcefully that only skillful and nuanced diplomacy could repair this "broken dialogue." On the advice of his advisors, Kennedy decided that Reischauer himself would be the best candidate for the job, and nominated Reischauer to be his first (and only) ambassador to Japan. This was a break with precedent, because previous ambassadors to Japan had been career
State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...
officials who had no special connection with Japan. In fact, State Department officials viewed strong connections with an ambassador's host country with suspicion and opposed Reischauer's nomination on these grounds. However, Kennedy prevailed and Reischauer became the first US ambassador to Japan who actually knew the local language. As Ambassador, Reischauer worked to repair the recent rift in US-Japan relations. Reischauer made "equal partnership" the watchword of his time as ambassador, and constantly pushed for more equal treatment of Japan. He advocated and helped arrange a summit meeting between Kennedy and new Japanese prime minister
Hayato Ikeda was a Japanese bureaucrat and later politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1960 to 1964. He is best known for his Income Doubling Plan, which promised to double Japan's GDP in ten years. Ikeda is also known for repairing U.S.- ...
in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1961. Historian Nick Kapur has argued that this summit was a success, and led to a substantial realignment of the US-Japan alliance in the direction of greater mutuality. Reischauer hoped to return the favor by having Kennedy become the first sitting US president to visit Japan. Kennedy was agreeable, and initial preparations were made, but Kennedy's was assassinated before he could make the visit and Secretary of State
Dean Rusk David Dean Rusk (February 9, 1909December 20, 1994) was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, the second-longest serving Secretary of State after Cordell Hull from the F ...
went in his place in early 1964. Reischauer also embarked on a nationwide listening tour in Japan; although he did not reach his goal of visiting all 47 prefectures by the end of his time in office, he did manage to visit 39 of them. Reischauer's great efforts to charm the Japanese people were jocularly nicknamed the "Reischauer Offensive" (''Raishawā rosen'') by the Japanese press (sometimes alternatively, the "Kennedy-Reischauer Offensive"). Reischauer's time as ambassador was seen as a success, and he stayed in the role until 1966, continuing on under the administration of
Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
. However, his time as ambassador ended on two notes of tragedy. Toward the end of his ambassadorship, Reischauer increasingly had to defend the US war in Vietnam, and increasingly felt uncomfortable doing so, ultimately leading to his resignation. In addition, Reischauer was hospitalized in March 1964 after being stabbed by Shiotani Norikazu, a Japanese youth, in an apparent assassination attempt. The Japanese youth had a history of mental illness and had
Ménière's disease Ménière's disease (MD) is a disease of the inner ear that is characterized by potentially severe and incapacitating episodes of vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss, and a feeling of fullness in the ear. Typically, only one ear is affected initi ...
, a disorder of the inner ear. He felt that he had not been properly treated by the American occupation and wished to draw attention to this cause by assassinating Reischauer. The attacker apparently acted alone and had no connection to any group. In the aftermath of the violence, Japan's
Minister of Public Safety The minister of public safety (french: ministre de la sécurité publique) is the minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet responsible for overseeing Public Safety Canada, the internal security department of the Government of Canada. The ...
was compelled to resign. Reischauer received a
blood transfusion Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used whole blood, but mo ...
and recovered from his wound, but the transfusion he received in the hospital was tainted with
hepatitis C Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection people often have mild or no symptoms. Occasionally a fever, dark urine, ...
virus, which would lead to a variety of ailments for Reischauer in future years, and ultimately contribute to his death 26 years later.


Personal life

Reischauer married (Elinor) Adrienne Danton in Tokyo on July 5, 1935. They had three children together. She died in 1955 of a heart ailment. Author
James A. Michener James Albert Michener ( or ; February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American writer. He wrote more than 40 books, most of which were long, fictional family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and ...
introduced the widower to Haru Matsukata at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo in 1955. They married on January 16, 1956. They learned that, as teenagers, they had attended the same Tokyo high school. Haru confessed to having had a secret crush on him. Together they became a formidable team. They jointly designed their house in
Belmont, Massachusetts Belmont is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. It is a western suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, United States; and is part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, the town's population stood at 27,29 ...
. It is operated and used today as the
Edwin O. Reischauer Memorial House The Edwin O. Reischauer Memorial House is the former home of American diplomat and Japanese scholar Edwin O. Reischauer in Belmont, Massachusetts. After Reischauer's death, the house was purchased by Kodansha Publishers. For many years, it was us ...
.


Later life

In 1973, Reischauer was the founding Director of the Japan Institute at Harvard University. It was renamed the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies in his honor when he turned 75, in 1985. Reischauer was also honored in 1985 by the opening of the
Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at Johns Hopkins University is a research center within the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) that supports the research and study of transpacific and intra-Asian relatio ...
at the
Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., United States, with campuses in Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China. It is consistently ranked one of th ...
(SAIS), part of
Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
. Speaking at the dedication ceremonies in
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
, Senator
Jay Rockefeller John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV (born June 18, 1937) is a retired American politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia (1985–2015). He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, while in office as governor of West Virg ...
, 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: "I know of no other man who has so thoroughly understood Japan."


Illness and death

For the last decade of his life, Reischauer was afflicted by a variety of ailments and illnesses related to the hepatitis infection he had contracted from tainted blood following the attempt on his life while serving as US Ambassador to Japan. As a result of these ailments, Reischauer had to withdraw from active teaching and lecturing. Finally, in 1990, Reischauer succumbed to complications of hepatitis-C.


Impact on US foreign policy

Reischauer promoted US foreign policy both in public and in government on Japan and the rest of Asia after
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
and during the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
.


World War II and afterward

On September 14, 1942, three years before the end of World War II, Reischauer, then an instructor in Far Eastern languages at Harvard University, wrote the "Memorandum on Policy towards Japan." It laid out a plan on how the US could attain its postwar objective of "winning the peace" in Asia. According to late 20th-century Japanese historian Takashi Fujitani, the memo revealed a "condescension toward Japanese people" and a "purely instrumentalist and manipulative stance."Rabson 2010
/ref> In the abstract to his article, "The Reischauer Memo: Mr. Moto, Hirohito, and Japanese American Soldiers," Fujitani wrote:


Myth of saving Kyoto

During the war, Reischauer served as a Japan expert for the US Army Intelligence Service. A myth developed after the war that he had prevented the US from a nuclear bombing of
Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...
.
Robert Jungk Robert Jungk (; born ''Robert Baum'', also known as ''Robert Baum-Jungk''; 11 May 1913 – 14 July 1994) was an Austrian writer, journalist, historian and peace campaigner who wrote mostly on issues relating to nuclear weapons. Life Jungk was bor ...
, in his memoir about the war and atomic scientists, claimed that Reischauer convinced his boss to persuade Secretary of War
Henry L. Stimson Henry Lewis Stimson (September 21, 1867 – October 20, 1950) was an American statesman, lawyer, and Republican Party politician. Over his long career, he emerged as a leading figure in U.S. foreign policy by serving in both Republican and ...
not to bomb Kyoto, and to have it crossed off the black list of potential sites. Reischauer specifically denied that popular myth:


US bases in Okinawa

A secret memorandum, declassified in 1996, detailed a conversation among top US military and civilian officials on July 16, 1965 in Tokyo. Reischauer, then serving as the US Ambassador to Japan, proposed a plan to enable the US both to keep its military bases and to introduce nuclear weapons in
Okinawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 Square kilometre, km2 (880 sq mi). ...
after the reversion of the US-occupied islands to Japanese sovereignty. Reischauer based his strategy on the symbolic political importance of reversion for Japan's conservative ruling party, but argued that the US did not have to "give Japan any real say in the use of our bases.""Memorandum of Conversation: U.S. Policy in the Ryukyu Islands"
July 16, 1965. Record Number 79651
He said that "if Japan would accept nuclear weapons on Japanese soil, including
Okinawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 Square kilometre, km2 (880 sq mi). ...
, and if it would provide us with assurances guaranteeing our military commanders effective control of the islands in time of military crisis, then we would be able to keep our bases on the islands, even though 'full sovereignty' reverted to Japan." These "became key elements fthe 1969 U.S.-Japan Okinawa Reversion Agreement," effectively making "U.S. military presence more or less permanent and maintaining the option to introduce nuclear weapons." In a 1981 article, ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
'' reported: "Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Edwin O. Reischauer revealed that ...U.S. naval vessels carrying nuclear weapons have routinely visited Japanese ports—with Tokyo's tacit approval." The secret memo also revealed Reischauer's proposed countermeasures to quell "nationalistic reaction" to continuing US military presence in Okinawa. In his 2010 article, "'Secret' 1965 Memo Reveals Plans to Keep U.S. bases and Nuclear Weapons Options in Okinawa After Reversion," Steve Rabson, author and lecturer on Okinawan literature, history, and culture, wrote:


Romanization of Korean

With
George M. McCune George McAfee "Mac" McCune (; June 16, 1908 – November 5, 1948) was an American scholar of Korea who developed the McCune–Reischauer romanization system of Korean with Edwin O. Reischauer. He taught Korean history and language at Occident ...
, Reischauer in 1939 published the
McCune–Reischauer McCune–Reischauer romanization () is one of the two most widely used Korean language romanization systems. A modified version of McCune–Reischauer was the official romanization system in South Korea until 2002, when it was replaced by the R ...
system for romanization of the
Korean language Korean (South Korean: , ''hangugeo''; North Korean: , ''chosŏnmal'') is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (geographica ...
, which became the most-widely used system for many years. Reischauer called
Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The l ...
, the Korean alphabet, "perhaps the most scientific system of writing in general use in any language."


Honors

* Elected to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
, 1957 *
Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight f ...
, 1968 *Elected to the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
, 1973 *
Japan Foundation The was established in 1972 by an Act of the National Diet as a special legal entity to undertake international dissemination of Japanese culture, and became an Independent Administrative Institution under the jurisdiction of the Ministr ...
Award, 1975 *
Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at Johns Hopkins University is a research center within the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) that supports the research and study of transpacific and intra-Asian relatio ...
at Johns Hopkins, 1984. * Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies (RIJS) at Harvard, 1985 * Edwin O. Reischauer Lectures, series of lectures from 1986 given at Harvard


Notable students

* Gail Lee Bernstein, (
University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first ...
) *
Albert M. Craig Albert Morton Craig (December 9, 1927 – December 1, 2021) was an American academic, historian, author and professor emeritus in the Department of History at Harvard University.Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies (RIJS)faculty/ref> Early l ...
(Harvard University) *
John W. Dower John W. Dower (born June 21, 1938 in Providence, Rhode Island) is an American author and historian. His 1999 book '' Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II'' won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction, National Book Foundatio ...
(
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...
) *
John Whitney Hall John Whitney Hall (September 13, 1916 – October 21, 1997),"John Whitney Hall papers, 1930–1999", Yale University Library was an American historian of Japan who specialized in premodern Japanese history. His life work was recognized by the Japan ...
(
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
) *
Howard Hibbett Howard Hibbett (July 27, 1920 – March 13, 2019) was a translator and professor of Japanese literature at Harvard University. He held the Victor S. Thomas Professorship in Japanese Literature. Early life Hibbett was born in Akron, Ohio, on Jul ...
(Harvard University) *
Marius Jansen Marius Berthus Jansen (April 11, 1922 – December 10, 2000) was an American academic, historian, and Emeritus Professor of Japanese History at Princeton University.Princeton University, Office of Communications"Professor Marius Berthus Jansen, sc ...
(
Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
) * Joyce Chapman Lebra (
University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...
) *
John Curtis Perry John Curtis Perry also known as John Perry (born 18 July 1930) is an East Asian and Oceanic studies professor and historian. He is the Henry Willard Denison Professor Emeritus of History at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts Universi ...
( The Fletcher School,
Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
) * Sen.
Jay Rockefeller John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV (born June 18, 1937) is a retired American politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia (1985–2015). He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, while in office as governor of West Virg ...
* Robert A. Scalapino (
University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...
) *
Conrad Totman Conrad Davis Totman (born January 5, 1934) is an American historian, academic, writer, translator and Japanologist.Conrad Totman Papers (MS 447). Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amhe ...
(Yale University) * Edward Willett Wagner (Harvard University)


Selected bibliography

The statistical overview of writings by and about Reischauer,
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/
WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
encompasses some 300 works in more than 1000 publications in 18 languages and more than 23,000 library holdings. * ''The Romanization of the Korean language, Based Upon Its Phonetic Structure'' (1939) with G. M. McCune * ''Elementary Japanese for University Students'' (1942) with S. Elisséeff * ''Japan: Past and Present'' (1946; rev. ed. 1952, 1964) * ''The United States and Japan'' (1950; rev. ed. 1957, 1965) * ''Translations from Early Japanese Literature (1951) with Joseph Yamagiwa * ''Ennin's Travels in T'ang China (1955; reprinted, Angelico Press, 2020) * '' Ennin's Diary: The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law'' (1955; reprinted, Angelico Press, 2020), translated from Chinese * ''Wanted: An Asian Policy'' (1955) * ''Our Asian Frontiers of Knowledge'' (1958) * ''East Asia: The Great Tradition'' (1960) with J. K. Fairbank * ''East Asia, The Modern Transformation'' (1965) with J. K. Fairbank and A. M. Craig * ''A History of East Asian Civilization'' (1965) * ''Beyond Vietnam: The United States and Asia'' (1968) * ''Japan: The Story of a Nation'' (1970; rev. ed. 1974, 1981, 1990) * ''A New Look at Modern History '' (1972) * ''Translations from Early Japanese Literature'' (1972) with Joseph K. Yamagiwa * ''Toward the 21st century: Education for a Changing World'' (1973) * ''East Asia, Tradition and Transformation'' (1973; rev. ed. 1989) with J. K. Fairbank and A. M. Craig * ''The Japanese'' (1977) * ''My Life between Japan and America'' (1986, autobiography) * ''The United States and Japan in 1986: Can the Partnership Work?'' (1986) * ''The Japanese Today: Change and Continuity'' (1988; rev. ed. with Marius B. Jansen 1995) * ''Japan, Tradition and Transformation'' (1989)


See also

*
Edwin O. Reischauer Memorial House The Edwin O. Reischauer Memorial House is the former home of American diplomat and Japanese scholar Edwin O. Reischauer in Belmont, Massachusetts. After Reischauer's death, the house was purchased by Kodansha Publishers. For many years, it was us ...
* '' Ennin's Diary: The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law'' *
McCune–Reischauer McCune–Reischauer romanization () is one of the two most widely used Korean language romanization systems. A modified version of McCune–Reischauer was the official romanization system in South Korea until 2002, when it was replaced by the R ...
romanization


Citations


General sources

* Chapin, Emerson
"Edwin Reischauer, Diplomat and Scholar, Dies at 79"
''The New York Times''. September 2, 1990. * Deptula, Nancy Monteith and Michael M. Hess. (1996). ''The Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies: A Twenty-Year Chronicle''. Cambridge: Reischauer Institute, Harvard University. * Haberman, Clyde

''The New York Times''. August 20, 1986. * * McDowell, Edwin
"Major Encyclopedia on Japan Written in English"
''The New York Times''. October 11, 1983. * Packard, George R. ''Edwin O. Reischauer and the American Discovery of Japan'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010). * Rabson, Steve
Secret' 1965 Memo Reveals Plans to Keep U.S. bases and Nuclear Weapons Options in Okinawa After Reversion"
''The Asia-Pacific Journal'', 5-1-10, February 1, 2010. * Reischauer, Edwin (1986). ''My Life Between Japan And America''. New York: Harper & Row. * Schulman, Frank Joseph. (1970).
''Japan and Korea: An Annotated Bibliography of Doctoral Dissertations in Western Languages, 1877–1969''
London: Routledge. * Zurndorfer, Harriet Thelma. (1995)
''China Bibliography: A Research Guide to Reference Works About China Past and Present''
Leiden: Brill Publishers. (cloth) (reprinted by University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1999). (paper)


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Reischauer, Edwin O. 1910 births 1990 deaths 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Ambassadors of the United States to Japan American expatriates in Japan American Japanologists American School in Japan alumni Deaths from hepatitis Grand Cordons of the Order of the Rising Sun Harvard University alumni Oberlin College alumni People from Tokyo Presidents of the Association for Asian Studies American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American diplomats Members of the American Philosophical Society