1940 Japan-America Student Conference
Issue Date
1999-01-01Author
Halsema, James
Goodman, Grant K.
Torii, Hiroshi
Ishikawa, Haruko
Publisher
University of Kansas, Center for East Asian Studies
Type
Other
Is part of series
CEAS Electronic Series;1
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
“Several years ago in a casual conversation Jim Halsema not only told me that he was a student delegate to the 7th Japan-America Student Conference held in Japan, but that he had kept a diary of that experience. Luckily for us Jim had that diary in his possession and has been willing to share it with us. Because Jim Halsema was an incredibly astute and careful observer, even at the relatively tender age of 21, we are able to share his keen perceptions of Japan, Korea, Manchuria, and China on the eve of the Pacific War. And what we are able to discern in retrospect from the Halsema diary is that a) the Japanese government had no intention whatever of diminishing its imperial state in Northeast Asia and b) that Japanese public opinion was extremely supportive of that position. From Halsema's observations one easily deduces that, behind the rhetoric of comity which is endemic in the nature of the Japan-America Student Conference, there was already evident a significant degree of tension at the base of Japanese-American relations. That Halsema was as insightful as he was can surely be attributed to his native intelligence and to his education and in particular, to his exposure to Asia including Japan from his earliest childhood.”—Goodman’s intro.
Description
This is an online publication of the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Kansas. The diary is referred to by http://www.halsema.org/people/JamesJuliusHalsema/JimBio.html. For more information about the Japan-America Student Conference, which is still being held annually, see http://iscdc.org/jasc/ .
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