Japan Storm - Columbia College - Columbia University

Donald Keene ’42, ’49 GSAS came to Columbia from
Brooklyn, Ashley Hayes ’06 from Atlanta, separated
by some 64 years. On Morningside Heights, a
passion for the culture of Japan — a country some
6,760 miles away — blossomed in both.
Keene (page 28) was browsing the discount
shelves at a bookstore when he came across a two-volume edition
of The Tale of Genji. He invested 49 cents and became fascinated by
the story and its hero. He went on to study under cultural historian
Ryusaku Tsunoda and developed a close friendship with Wm.
Theodore de Bary ’41, ’53 GSAS, with whom
he helped build Columbia’s program in East
Asian languages and cultures.
Keene spent summers in Japan during the
early part of his teaching career, then developed
an arrangement where he taught fall semesters
in Japan and spring semesters at Columbia. He
became far more famous in his adopted homeland
than he was in the United States. “You can’t
go anywhere in Japan and utter the words ‘Donald
Keene’ and not have everybody know him,”
says Carol Gluck ’77 GSAS, Columbia’s George
Sansom Professor of History.
After Keene became ill last winter, he announced
his retirement from teaching and his
plan to become a Japanese citizen and live fulltime
in Tokyo, where he has kept a home for
more than 30 years. When he taught his final
class at Columbia in the spring, the classroom was overflowing
with Japanese journalists and camera crews.
Hayes (page 34) spent two weeks in Japan while in high school
and became intrigued by its culture, past and present. She was attracted
to Columbia because of its outstanding East Asian studies
program. She learned Japanese and spent her junior year in Japan.
After graduation, Hayes worked in Nagano and later in Tokyo,
which is where she was when the earthquake and tsunami
hit on March 11. With the U.S. and other countries urging its citizens
to leave Japan, she returned to Atlanta for about 10 days,
but her heart was still in Japan and she knew she had to return
as soon as possible. She spent the next four months there, and although
she again returned to Atlanta in August, she says she still
loves Japan, reads Japanese newspapers and blogs every day and
would live there again if that is how life unfolds.
Hayes says, “I’d like to be one of those Americans like Donald
Keene who’s a bridge between Japan and America.”
One of the great things about a large research university
like Columbia is the vast array of possibilities it
affords. Wherever you go you will find a renowned
expert on something or other.
One of Columbia’s experts on Japan is Gerald Curtis, the Bur-
W I T H I N T H E F A M I L Y
Building Bridges and
Rebuilding Lives
PHOTO: EILEEN BARROSO
WINTER 2011–12
6
gess Professor of Political Science who concurrently is visiting
professor at Waseda University and senior research fellow at the
International Institute for Economic Studies in Tokyo and the Tokyo
Foundation. He directed Columbia’s Weatherhead East Asian
Institute for 12 years and has held appointments at the Royal Institute
of International Affairs, Chatham House, London; the College
de France, Paris; the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore;
and in Tokyo at Keio and Tokyo Universities, the Research
Institute for Economy, Trade and Industry, the Graduate Research
Institute for Policy Studies, and the International Institute of Economic
Studies.
Curtis visited the disaster zone on Japan’s
Northeast Pacific coast in May to prepare a documentary
for Japanese television, and he returned
there numerous times in the subsequent months.
In our cover story, “Tohoku Diary” (page 20),
Curtis describes the devastation he saw on his
visits and takes us to the towns and villages and
inside the evacuation shelters and temporary
housing to hear of the impact the disaster had on
people in the region.
Some of the stories are heart-wrenching. A
woman says her only possession is the cell phone
she had with her when she fled the tsunami, yet
she still manages to smile and say she will be OK.
Another woman speaks of her husband, who
was swept away by the tsunami, the tears in her
eyes betraying the smile on her lips.
Yet in the face of disaster, there is hope. Mayor Sato of Minami
Sanriku speaks of consolidating ravaged fishing ports into larger
centers with more modern equipment. The owner of a fish packing
plant in Ofunatu wonders where he will raise the $5 million–$10
million he says it will take to recover from his loss, but adds that he
is determined to get his plant up and running again and to rehire
employees he had to let go.
Curtis describes the excessive government regulations and
segmented bureaucracy that often hampers recovery efforts. But
he also says the story is “one of resilience, community solidarity
and self-help,” of a people determined to rebuild their lives.
What does this have to do with the College? In this age of globalization,
what affects one part of the world often impacts the rest of it,
or at least carries global implications. The November economic crisis
in Europe is a perfect example, its impact being felt by the U.S. and
other countries around the world. We all can learn from the tragedy
in Japan and the response of that country’s people, companies
and layers of government. And Curtis and Keene are examples of
the quality of faculty members who have taught, and in Curtis’ case
continue to teach, these lessons to Columbians throughout the years,
something that should never be taken for granted.