Japan Unveiled Late-Blooming Culture

Reference [1] is a collection of Asakawa’s voluminous letters to his parents, friends, students and colleagues. Among them were letters addressed to G.W. without its full name. It was long been considered as a mystery of Asakawa’s letters. A recent study by Jinno [2] reveals that G. W. = Gretchen Warren (1868 – 1961)   She was an American actress, singer, and poet. Asakawa met Warren in 1915 and maintained many correspondences with her until late 1940’s, his last days. It is pointed out in [2] that there are several hundred letters between Asakawa and Warren kept during the 40 years of their friendship. A fact that is more important than the number of correspondences, is that Asakawa appears to show what he thought of the WWII and what Japan should do in overcoming the devastation of the war. Fig. Gretchen Osgood Warren of Beacon Hill , Boston , Massachusetts photo credit: Family of Robert Erskine Childers licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unporte...

  When the Pearl Haber incident happened President Charles Seymour of Yale University sent him the following hand written note, dated December 8, 1941 [1]: Fig. Charles Sayour The interested reader can visit the following Wikipedia site: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Seymour Asakawa Kan’ichi (1873 –1948) was a Professor of History at Yale, peace advocate, and a curator at Yale Library. He was born in Japan as the son of a samurai, however, he spent most of his time in America. Fig. Asakawa Kan’ichi "Kan'ichi Asakawa Papers (MS 40). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library." https://japanesehistory.yale.edu/about [1] Yale website: https://ceas.yale.edu/asakawa-kanichi

Asakawa had a highly accurate predictive capabilities of geopolitical events. His insights provide valuable historical context, and his concerns remain relevant even today. In his letter to K [1], (His addressee was “K” without explicit addressee to avoid sensor of the authority.) dated October 1941, shortly after Germany’s invasion of Soviet, Asakawa wrote (translation by the author) Within a month after WWII began, Asakawa wrote a letter to Murata Tsutomu (October 8, 1939) [1]. He says (translation by the author): Asakawa predicts Hitler’s suicide in 1941: Fig. Asakawa Kan’ichi "Kan'ichi Asakawa Papers (MS 40). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library." https://japanesehistory.yale.edu/about [1] Asakasa, K., “ Letters Written by Dr. Asakawa Kan’ichi ”, Waseda University Press, Tokyo, 1990.  

Fig. Okuma Shigenobu, the prime minister of Japan. Courtesy Waseda University Library 大隈重信写真 ヌ 06 09384 Fig. Jiaozhou City, China Source: Google earth modified by the author Fig. Asakawa Kan’ichi "Kan'ichi Asakawa Papers (MS 40). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library." https://japanesehistory.yale.edu/about   Asakawa Kan’ichi (1873 –1948) was a Professor of History at Yale, a peace advocate, and a curator at the Yale Library. Born in Japan as the son of a samurai, he spent the majority of his life in America. Asakawa penned at least ten letters to Okuma, primarily critiquing his policies. Jiaozhou City Among these correspondences, one notable topic was Jiaozhou City in China. In 1915, following Germany's defeat in World War I, Japan demanded the transfer of Jiaozhou City from Germany to Japan. In a letter dated August 22, 1914, addressed to Ohkuma, Asakawa writes (translation by the author): The tone of the letter is assertive, refle...

Fig. The Asakawa-Warner draft of a letter from Roosevelt to emperor. This is a schematic picture. Interested reader can visit Fukushima Prefecture Library for real image at https://www.library.fcs.ed.jp/?action=common_download_main&upload_id=470 Permission by the library. In November 1941, Langdon Warner proposed a scheme to Asakawa of asking President Roosevelt to send a letter to Emperor not to go for a war. Asakawa and Warner wrote a draft and sent it to Roosevelt. Langdon Warner (1881–1955) was an American archaeologist and art historian specializing in East Asian art. He was a professor at Harvard and the Curator of Oriental Art at Harvard's Fogg Museum. He and Asakawa prepared a draft of a letter from President Roosevelt to the Emperor not to go for a war.    Fig. Warner Image Number: 18560, Accession Number: 1973.30  Artist: Arthur Pope  Title: Langdon Warner (1881-1955), Date: 1951  Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Arthur Pope, C...

  Fig. Miriam Dingwall. This is a schematic picture. Interested reader can visit Fukushima Prefecture website at https://www.library.fcs.ed.jp/?page_id=261   p.3 top left ( permission by the library ) Fig. Asakawa Kan’ichi "Kan'ichi Asakawa Papers (MS 40). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library." https://japanesehistory.yale.edu/about Asakawa Kan’ichi (1873 –1948) was a Professor of History at Yale, a peace advocate, and a curator at the Yale Library. Born in Japan as the son of a samurai, he spent the majority of his life in America. Asakawa met Miriam Dingwall in 1899 when he was a doctoral student at Yale. They got married on October 12, 1905, at a church in Crown Point, Essex County, New York. According to contemporary reports, they were a happy couple, but Miriam passed away on February 4, 1913. Since then, Asakawa did not remarry and remained unmarried. The couple did not have any children. The greatest regret in Asakawa’s life was the ...

  In 1903 Asakawa publishes his Ph. D thesis from Yale University Press. Reference [1] is the second printing from another publisher. The following is a part of this book (color emphasis by the author): Note that he published this in 1903, when the above statements might have been against main stream media of the time. Asakawa Kan’ichi (1873 –1948) was a Professor of History at Yale, a peace advocate, and a curator at the Yale Library. Born in Japan as the son of a samurai, he spent the majority of his life in America. Fig. Asakawa Kan’ichi "Kan'ichi Asakawa Papers (MS 40). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library." https://japanesehistory.yale.edu/about [1] Asakawa, K., “ The Early Institutional Life of Japan; A Study of the Reform of 645 AD ”, Kashiwa Shobo, Tokyo, 2006. Originally Waseda University Press, Tokyo, 1903