Word: reischauer
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Naturally, Reischauer has not abandoned his interest in U.S. foreign policy. He thinks that American policy is beginning to turn a corner, and that "the shift is all in the right direction." He points out, however, that the U.S. "should be trying to prevent crises, instead of waiting for them to surprise us. It has been this way for many years now--first Japan, then China, then Korea. I don't know what's creeping up on us now, but we ought to take a look at Africa and Indonesia...
After an M.A. from Harvard, Reischauer pursued his studies of the Far East under a fellowship from the Harvard-Yenching Institute, first in Paris, and then in China and Japan. The second World War was threatening when he returned to Harvard for his doctorate in 1939, and the U.S. Government soon called him to Washington, for the summer of 1941, as a Senior Research Analyst in the State Department. "I was writing little digests which they evidently liked," Reischauer explains. "Also, with another young fellow, I drew up a grand scheme for avoiding the war, but someone pigeon-holed...
...Reischauer's constant shuttles to and from the capital were almost a commuter's nightmare. After another year back at Harvard, he returned to Washington by direct agreement between President Conant and John J. McCloy of the War Department, where he taught a special language program for a year. It was difficult for a civilian to make his force felt, so that when he again found himself in Washington, he made certain it was as a commissioned officer. He never let military etiquette bother him, though: "I didn't know how to salute, or anything like that. There were always...
...Reischauer's task was to analyze most of the important military intelligence on the Far East, which funneled through him. After the war, he shifted to the State Department, and began planning the occupation of Japan and the peace treaty. He never hesitated to speak out: "As an academician, I felt free to criticize. I acted as much like a professor as I could, since I had no government job to protect...
Throughout his government activities Reischauer had retained a desire to teach, so that when Harvard made him an associate professor in 1946, he returned to Cambridge. He had to turn down not only the State Department, which wanted him to become deputy director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs, but also General MacArthur, who sought him for chief counter-intelligence officer and then as chief historian of the occupation. "I said no thanks to that one," Reischauer smiles. It was teaching that he preferred--in small language classes even more than in the popular "Rice Paddies," History...