Haru Reischauer - Part 2

In early 1990, Dr. Edwin and Haru Reischauer finally settled in La Jolla, the home they bought when they were around age 80 for retirement but used as their summer home after the purchase. The house purchase has been the culmination of their efforts to fulfill their ultimate dreams, l) to enjoy the ocean view, 2) to have a Japanese garden, 3) be in close vicinity to Edwin’s daughter. Since suffering a stroke in his 70’s, Edwin was frequently hospitalized. Sadly, he passed away in September, the year they relocated from Belton, Massachusetts. He was buried at sea using a chartered plane, conducted per his will to help and support the U.S./Japan relationship.

I met Haru-san on several occasions, including my first visit to her La Jolla House, to seek her contribution for the Minato Gakuen’s Bridge magazine (see Part 1). It is fairly close to the tall hotel building (now Hotel La Jolla), entering from Torrey Pines Road to La Jolla Shores Drive and turning to Paseo Dorado. The entrance hall is in the back with the living room, kitchen, guest dining and drawing room to the right, and garage, guest bedrooms, main bedroom to the left.  It was well designed to provide views of La Jolla Shores from every room, except from the main bedroom.  There are some level differences.  The spacious drawing room, three steps up from the kitchen, has a 180 degree ocean view including the palm-lined Torrey Pines Road slope curving toward La Jolla Cove on the left. The CC&Rs (Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions) in the hilly La Jolla retreat are very strict in regards to ocean view. The house benefits most from being on the lower part of the hill as a single story house with the hacienda style backyard for family get-togethers or a small garden party and the front courtyard is a landscaped lawn.

My son, upon getting married, was a La Jollan living in a condo near Mt. Soledad before moving to New York. He reminisces about the sunsets viewed from La Jolla as magnificent and unforgettable. On July 4th, the Cove attracts onlookers for the fireworks.

In 1986, Haru’s non-fiction book, Samurai and Silk was published by Harvard Press. I had skimmed through it in a Mission Valley Bookstore in San Diego. Recently I read the translation by Wakako Hironaka. Here’s my thoughts after reading it:

1. Ryoichiro Arai (1855-1939)

Haru-san’s maternal grandfather, Ryoichiro Arai, arrived in New York after a two-week Union Pacific train ride in March, 1876, four years after the Meiji Restoration. The Japanese residing in the U.S. then were either Government bureaucrats or scholarship students. Ryoichiro sought his lodging in Brooklyn, $5 per week with breakfast and commuted to Manhattan by ferry. His workplace was 97 Front Street and he walked to save his carriage fee. I was unable to find Front Street around Battery Park or Greenwich. In 1878, his silk business got off to a good start, so he relocated his lodging to East 55th and 9th at $7 per week including breakfast.

I was a New Yorker myself in the 1960’s, arriving in New York City close to 90 years later than Ryoichiro, and my office was also in downtown Manhattan. I also walked around in the civic center area. The difference is that I checked into the uptown Hotel Paris, a long term stay hotel, used by many transitory Japanese, at West End Avenue along the Hudson River. I commuted to downtown by subway. (The subway system in New York opened in 1904.) I don’t remember my monthly hotel rent but I recall the $100 monthly garage fee for a car. Upon the arrival of my family, I rented an apartment in Forest Hills, Queens. Settling in a foreign country requires a challenging spirit and much patience. I noted Ryoichiro was the proposer of the New York Nippon Club. I belonged to the Club for about 10 years while living there and shared the great benefits as one of its members.


2. Masayoshi Matsukata (1834-1924)

Haru-san’s paternal grandfather is Masayoshi Matsukata, one of six Genros, an elderly statesmen who served the Government since the Meiji Restoration. Masayoshi, a 7-time Treasury Minister and two-time Prime Minister, is less familiar than the other five Genro because of the missing career of his younger days. Silk & Samurai had the details of how he stood out during the tumultuous Meiji Restoration and I felt closer to him as a Kyushuan after reading his story.

Masayoshi, serving often as an usher/guard to Lord Shimazu, Satsuma Domain, faced historical incidents, such as the Richardson Case (known as Namamugi Jiken) and Boshin War, and was involved in orderly duties between Kagoshima and his travel assignments. He happened to be in Nagasaki, when Tokugawa magistrates fled there with money. He not only retrieved it, but used it for the sake of Nagasaki citizens and appeased foreigners in distress. Toshimichi Okubo, his Kagoshima clan senior who was in the Meiji Government, was impressed with Matsukata and sent him to Hita (now in Oita), another country under Tokugawa’s direct control where commotions were reported because of the vacuum formed without Tokugawa. His tenure in Hita as a governor is about tow years but he proved his governing skills, ranging from an open door policy, land and tax reforms, to promoting businesses such as wood products, brewery, citrus planting and hot springs, while popularizing Sumo as a local sport. Outstanding was his creation of orphan homes, prohibition of bribes and counterfeit notes in the neighboring countries. He extended his rein in river management to Beppu and initiated Oita Harbor construction. His contribution to the Meiji Government in the treasury field and foreign trade promotion through Paris Exhibitions became legendary. Haru-san saw another last Samurai in Masayoshi.

Both Nagasaki and Hita are in northern Kyushu. Hita, in particular, is very close to Kitakyushu, where I live. However, there’s no direct highway for vehicles because of mountains. If you walk the direct route of 75 kilometers, it takes 16 hours. By vehicle, you have to travel 130 kilometers, which will take one hour and 45 minutes. Last year I took a highway bus via Fukuoka City. My 9 am departure from Hikino bus stop brought me to Hita before lunch time. I didn’t know that Hita, a tiny country, was an independent prefecture when the Meiji era got started.

Haru Reischauer - Part 1

Bridge was the name of the early 1990’s official publication of the San Diego Nihongo Kyoiku Shinkokai (San Diego Association for Japanese Language Promotion), which operated “Minato Gakuen”, a Saturday Japanese School primarily for the Japanese expatriates’ children. Minato Gakuen got jump started in 1979 with less than 40 students and grew to 400 in 10 years after the school's opening. The growth necessitated a search for a larger school facility that can accommodate two dozen classrooms for use on Saturday only. I served as President of the Association when Minato celebrated the 10th Anniversary and acted as Chairman of the School Site Search Commission. I thought of publishing a booklet to reach and communicate with local American schools and was able to distribute it to schools that teach Japanese as a second language. To my surprise, there were more than a dozen American schools teaching Japanese, including La Jolla Country Day School.

As editor, I asked Haru Reischauer, living in La Jolla, to write an introduction for the very first Bridge issue, which she accepted graciously. I edited the second issue but retired from work and left San Diego in 1994 before the issue was published. I received Bridge #2 in Japan by mail. It turned out to be the last issue published since nobody succeeded me as editor. Haru Reischauer passed away in 1998, four years later. The following is her contribution in its entirety.

“As we rapidly approach the 21st Century, we are poised at the threshold of a new international world order. Because Japan and America are presently the two economic superpowers, the relations between OUR two countries will play an essential role in the peaceful development of this new order. This places great responsibilities on Americans and Japanese to strengthen our relationship. We must become more knowledgeable and more appreciative of each others’ language, because through it we cannot help but learn our culture and background.

My family experiences have shown me the importance of language learning. My maternal grandfather, Rioichiro Arai, as a young boy in the early Meiji period, wanted to establish trade with America to sell Japanese silk from our family business. Soon after Japan opened its ports to foreign trade in 1860, learning English came into vogue because it was considered the ‘intellectual currency of the commercial world.’ My grandfather learned English and it enabled him to come to America in 1876, when he was twenty. With diligence and hard work, he succeeded in establishing trade between Japan and America. This trade was not only profitable for Japan’s economy, but it was also the start of the close relationship we have today between our countries.

In the early 1930s in America, just a few years before WWII, my late husband, Edwin O. Reischauer started the Japanese language program at Harvard University. The war accelerated language training for American officers as the future need for communication with the Japanese was realized. Since the war, as relations advanced at a rapid pace, Japanese studies and language courses in colleges and universities have increased throughout America. The large number of students in Japanese studies have formed a reservoir of good will toward Japan, which is the grass roots basis of the relations we have today.

Relations between San Diego and Japan, our closest Pacific neighbor, are rapidly developing. This will play an essential role in the development of the Pacific Rim. In recognition of the importance of this relationship and the urgency to build a bridge of communication across the Pacific, universities, community colleges and even city schools now have programs for the Japanese language in San Diego. The writers of the articles in this pamphlet testify to the benefits that they realized through their studies of Japanese. I am gratified to learn that the members of the Japanese Language Education and Promotion Program Society of San Diego are now endorsing and supporting the advancement of Japanese language training in this community. Let us all work together in advancing this educational opportunity in San Diego.”

- Haru M. Reischauer