Unabridged Version: A Time Long Ago in Tokyo (1951-1952) - A Librarian Remembers
Jean Boucher
Library/Information Resources Manager (retired)
Shannon & Wilson, Inc.
Seattle, Washington
January 17, 2003
Jean Boucher describes her experiences in 1951-52 creating a library science
library for the Japan Library School (now the Keio University School of Library
and Information Science). The school was established under the direction of
Dr. Robert Gitler. The library school has now celebrated its 50th anniversary,
and offers a doctoral program. Jean also comments on her life in Tokyo as
the school was getting underway. She returned to Tokyo in April 2000 for a
reunion with some of the first library school students. She also recounts
her visit to the current library school.
See Members in the Spotlight for Jean's biography.
I was working at the reference desk at the Library of Hawaii in December 1950 when I received a phone call from Dr. Robert L. Gitler, Director of the University of Washington School of Librarianship, from which I had graduated in 1949. Bob asked if I would help him set up a new library school in Japan. General Douglas MacArthur's goal in that post-World War II period was to establish a democratic society in Japan. As a result, the American Library Association and the Dept. for Orientation of Occupied Areas studied the feasibility of a professional librarianship program in Japan. Don Brown, from MacArthur's Civil Information and Education Section, recognized the need for such a program, located some funds, and in early 1950 managed to get the project underway.
NEED FOR THE JAPAN LIBRARY SCHOOL
Takahisa Sawamoto, one of the first employees and later a professor and director of the school, wrote: "Although there had been libraries in Japan for centuries, and in them now and then some exceptionally able librarians, social and economic circumstances until recent times hindered the evolution of a professional concept of librarianship, without which the full potentialities of libraries in our national life could not be realized. The need for corrective action was clear, important and urgent, and it was to proclaim such a concept and provide the training required by it that the School of Library and Information Science of Keio University, then called the Japan Library School, came into being as of 1 April 1951" (Sawamoto, 1971).
FLYING OUT
Bob's offer came on December 22, 1950. I agreed on the spot to accept the job, and February 5, 1951, found me in Tokyo after a hurried trip home to see family and friends. I flew out of Travis Air Force Base (near San Francisco), after getting all my shots and putting my affairs in order. It was quite exciting for a 24-year-old young Iowa girl, especially since my boyfriend of University of Washington days, Tom Boucher, caught up with me the day I flew out, and we talked a blue streak all day while awaiting the plane's departure. He was interesting and cute, a professional golfer, and I eventually married him. I flew out on a "small plane, Western Airlines, chartered by Pan American under contract to the Military Air Transport Service (MATS), and flown by American Airlines pilots." (from a letter home). I believe it was a "prop" plane (4 propellers), and we had stops at Honolulu and Wake Island. We left on Thursday and arrived on Saturday, losing Friday altogether. On February 10th two of my acquaintances from the plane trip, an Air Force colonel and a captain, took me out to play golf--it was a preview of my social life in Japan.
ROBERT GITLER AND THE JAPAN LIBRARY SCHOOL
The story of setting up the Japan Library School is told in Robert Gitler and the Japan Library School; An Autobiographical Narrative, edited by Professor Michael Buckland from the School of Information Management and Systems, University of California, Berkeley (Gitler, 1999). It was an enormous task for Michael to reconstruct what happened so long ago, since Bob was in a retirement residence, not too well and pushing 90 years of age, but with marvelous recall. Michael described one Christmas when he had the transcriptions of the interviews with Bob spread out all over his very large dining room table, trying to organize them in some logical fashion. Fortunately, he did make sense of them, and the book is highly readable because it uses Bob's "this is how it was" stories, but with Michael's sense of organization. A reviewer in ALA's Library Journal calls the project a significant development in international librarianship, and as the reviewer points out, this book is an excellent record of the library profession in Japan and the United States. I won't retell his story--those who are interested should get this book. I will just recount some personal observations as we established the school.
FACULTY AND STAFF
Bob had recruited an outstanding library school faculty for that first year and everyone had arrived by the end of March. Professors Bertha Frick, from Columbia University, and Frances Cheney, from George Peabody Library School in Tennessee, were both well-known for work done in their fields of cataloging and reference in the United States. Also were Hannah Hunt, Children's Librarian, Rockford Public Library in Illinois, and Ed Larson, Library of Congress Audio-visual Librarian. We all worked well together. Our aim was to establish an excellent library school, as good as any we knew in the United States; it was quite educational for all of us, but particularly for me, a young person with a lot to learn. In addition to the Americans, there were two part-time Japanese lecturers: Mr. Shigeyoshi Doi, Associate Librarian of Tokyo University Library, and Mr. Mikinosuke Ishida, Professor of Nihon University. Each of our school's office staff was bright and personable, and a pleasure to work with. Bob was a very good judge of getting the right people to do the job.
STUDENTS
In April 1951 the first students arrived, about 60 of them, and we somehow got the doors open in time and began our first year. The students were an exceptional group, and we got to know all of them, as well as our interpreters and staff, very well. How we (and they) were integrated into the most elite private university in Japan--its Harvard, so to speak--is well- and frankly-told in Bob's book.
THE JOB
My job was to create a special library for the school, a library science library. It was a daunting project--to start with just a pencil, then a desk, then a typewriter, then a translator and interpreter, not to mention a place to put the library. We settled on Keio University as the location of the school, but there was no room in the classroom building. I ended up in a prize spot--just inside the door of the main library, a 1912 Gothic structure of brick and granite, one of the few on the whole campus not destroyed by bombing or fire during the war. It was also convenient to the classroom, and one of Bob's guiding principles was to make it as easy as possible for people to use libraries. There was a slight problem with that, however. As Bob tells it in his book: "Traditionally the students never entered where the faculty enters. They had to go in through the basement entrance by a foul-smelling lavatory. By the end of the first year…I got the library school's students coming in through the front door, but no other students at that time. That took me three years" (Gitler, 1999). In 2000 when I visited the new Keio library I was pleased to see this principle carried out perfectly: the library was conveniently located and there was an attractive main entrance which all could use--students, faculty, staff or visitors. For pictures of the old and new Keio Library see their web site: www.mita.lib.keio.ac.jp/guide/library_e.html.
WHO, ME? CATALOGING?
We were far from supplies in the U.S., and it was very difficult to get any specialized library supplies in Japan at that time. The first task, as we were getting supplies and equipment, was to catalog the library science books sent out from ALA (by the end of the first year the collection numbered about 2000 volumes). For me, as well as I am sure for most library school students, cataloging was an unnerving class, and facing cataloging that library was pretty intimidating. This was pre-everything: electric typewriters, computers, MARC, OCLC, copiers, Cataloging in Publication (some, maybe?), even the printed Library of Congress cards were very difficult to get. So I personally typed each of the cards on a manual typewriter for items in non-Japanese languages; for those in the Japanese language my assistant and interpreter, Ms. Ai Kawaguchi, typed the main entry in romaji (Roman letters), and inscribed the Japanese characters on the cards in pen and ink (her calligraphy was beautiful!). Catalogers now probably don't even remember "main entries" and "added entries," the latter having a shorter typed version of the main card (to cut down on the typing time!). Was it good that we could not foresee then the enormity of the changes to come in the information sciences?
RULES
Even harder was deciding how to work within the existing Japanese library system. Fortunately, Bertha Frick, who was teaching the classification and cataloging class, was my advisor and an absolutely logical, empathetic, forward-thinking individual. We set up a dictionary catalog, unusual in Japan, and for classification we used the Dewey decimal system, with Library of Congress subject headings. We consulted many Japanese librarians, students and language scholars before the rules of entry were finally decided. Many a night, in my hotel room at the Osaka Hotel with the nearby Ginza as background noise, I typed 5 to 8 cards for each item on the manual portable typewriter I had brought from the States. The next year, when the catalog was shaping up, the director of the National Diet Library, Dr. Tokujiro Kanamori, asked Bob if the catalog could be reproduced in book form. Consequently, the first Catalog of Books and Periodicals, Japan Library School Collection, Keio Gijuku Library was produced in mimeographed form in 1952, with a supplement following in 1956.
CULTURAL/LINGUISTIC
Sometimes when we asked questions of a Japanese person, a "yes" or a "no" did not seem to mean the same to us as to them, and that was one of the cultural and linguistic differences to overcome. It caused many a misunderstanding, which we would patiently see through to a proper conclusion, but the situations we got ourselves into would often cause us to dissolve in laughter when we were on the way back to our hotels after work. Our co-workers and students were probably regaling their families on our strange ways, because on our part we violated some strong taboos and made some pretty laughable mistakes (and I still am, probably) trying to fit into situations and in using the Japanese language. For example, I was saying the Japanese equivalent of "night-night" which we use just before going off to bed, when I was trying to say "good evening" or "good night" to my Japanese colleagues when I left work (they finally got up enough nerve to tell me what was proper). Or I would use the wrong word for toilet (from using an Army dictionary).
FACULTY MEETINGS
We would hold our faculty meetings at night in Bob's small room at the Dai Ichi Hotel, sitting on his bed or on the floor. Because of the informality of the meetings I never felt intimidated by all the brainpower in the room, and chimed right in despite my youth and position. Since the deadlines came at us fast and furiously, it took a great deal of equanimity to face everything calmly and logically. I remember Bob telling me one time that my rendition of the minutes was a little too humorous sometimes, what with some of the tough spots we would get ourselves into, and that others reading them might not understand. So many a hysterical moment went undocumented after that.
COOPERATION
The politeness of the Japanese people was absolutely amazing to me. In all my time in Tokyo I always felt welcome and even cherished. It seemed like an acceptance of what was, was, and "let's learn as much as we can and get on with it." I did not know it at the time, but I read later that Emperor Hirohito, at General Douglas MacArthur's request, had prepared the Japanese citizens for our arrival, and had requested that they cooperate with us, and they certainly did. On our part, one of Bob's principles was "constant availability," his only " regulation" for us, he said. We had a constant stream of visitors at school--reporters, photographers, Monbusho (the Ministry of Education), Army personnel, jobhunters, students, professors, and practicing librarians. From my letter home, April 19, 1951: "Mr.…came over from the Diet Library and brought us copies of his new book and talked and talked and tried out our electric pencil (which we used for call numbers on books) , and two psychiatrists (Japanese) dropped in and stayed, and Mr. Dulles' secretary (THE John Foster Dulles) called and wanted a book by Stalin [from the Keio collection] and some professor had our copy checked out. So I called all over town and we finally got the professor's copy back and over to him [Dulles]."
What did the Japanese think of Bob and the school and the program? I don't know, of course, but I do have some clues. They kept asking him to come back whenever he left. Keio conferred an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree on him in 1956. And this is a quote from a librarian who attended several of Bob's classes and workshops: "…But, as the principle of democratism [sic] has gradually been permeating more and more among the Japanese since the end of hostilities, the new American educational plan is in the process of realization… This is the stupendous progress witnessed in our educational world as compared to the old days when the Japanese learned of school education through the aid of only one Japanese version from the original on pedagogy. My heart is full when I think of the library which, taken up by the people as an indispensable agency for social education as well as school education, has come to be recognized as the pioneer of the new education in this country… Though a top-ranking librarian [Gitler] sent over to Japan by the American Library Association, he was so light-hearted as to carry the vase to the ceremonial hall for himself" (Inoue, 1951).
THE CITY
In 1951 there were many areas of Tokyo flattened from the bombings, and to my eyes everything was terribly gray and drab as we drove in from Haneda Airport. This was partly because of the bombings and resultant fires and partly because I was accustomed to houses and fences being painted, and here nothing was painted. The streets and public areas were still dusty, gritty, and dirty, with charcoal-burning taxis. It turned out the garish colors I associated with Japanese imports to the U.S. were used in Japan in very different ways, and I gradually came to love the subtleties of design--in their art, their houses, their gardens, their roofs, their fields, their utensils, their toys--everything. At my job in Seattle at Shannon & Wilson years later I came to appreciate how expert the Japanese engineers were becoming at geotechnical projects, for instance, tunnel engineering, retaining structures, and earthquake engineering. And in 2000, when I returned for a visit, I found in busy Tokyo that the public areas were swept and clean and orderly; there was public transportation by monorail, subway and bus; there were beautiful buildings everywhere; and the now cosmopolitan city was perhaps epitomized by our taxi driver, whose cab was spotless and who, because it was raining, insisted on loaning me an umbrella for my whole stay.
SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE
At night at the hotel I would often help people who would come by with their English questions and ask for help practicing their English pronunciation correctly. Do they still speak with an Iowa accent? When I began college I skipped some of the basic English courses, because I passed the tests well. But here I discovered that I should have learned all the rules, subjunctives included, because the rules were definitely something the Japanese students knew better than I did! Oh, well… Everywhere I went--on the train, on the street, at school--people were anxious to practice their English.
In fact, it was hard for me to practice my Japanese. Another test I took at the beginning of college indicated I would not be adept at learning foreign languages, and I did find Latin difficult and so was French. In Japan it turned out that I was not so foreign-language-impaired as I feared, and I really enjoyed learning it. I found the kanji characters impossible to read, though I did learn some, but the newspapers were in kana (katakana and hiragana) and that was easier. I did learn enough spoken and written language to get around by myself without too much trouble. But like Chinese, the Japanese language is difficult to read or to speak correctly.
We had good interpreters at school or wherever we went, and I enjoyed giving talks, because while the interpreter was translating I had a chance to think about my next words. Bob gave a talk entirely in Japanese to the Japan Library Association in May 1951, quite an accomplishment! Some of the listeners actually thought he knew Japanese, and of course eventually he did have quite a vocabulary.
MAY DAY, 1952
I never felt threatened or fearful in Japan, except during the May Day riot in 1952. Luckily, we took a local bus home after work that day instead of the Army sedans, and from the nearest bus stop we walked the final distance home to our hotels hearing about such cars being overturned and burned. The riot had been quelled by that time, but we met numerous people leaving the scene, some on their way home but others on their way to demonstrate at the Dai Ichi Hotel. However, the hotel was surrounded by many Japanese police, and when we arrived for Bob's birthday party later in the evening all was quiet. Time Magazine, May 12, 1952, said two died and 1,454 were injured, many of them critically. Our students were very concerned for us, but could not get through on the phone that night. Evidently the Communist party had carefully staged it, using the occasion of a peaceful May Day demonstration by some 300,000 "workaday" Japanese to start an anti-American protest.
THE KOREAN WAR AND THE COLD WAR
The Korean War was going on while I was there and the U.S. had a tense relationship with the USSR. One of my boyfriends was an Air Force captain who flew bombers in the Korean conflict and could not talk about anything he did. Another worked for the FBIS, the Foreign Broadcast Information Service. They mainly monitored Russian broadcasts, I suppose, and one time they showed me that we Americans at Keio were cited as examples of spies in Japan. Here is an excerpt from the Library of Congress Information Bulletin, March 14, 1952, translated from Bibliotekar, an official Russian library journal: "…the planting of American intelligence agents in other countries under the guise of specialists in library and bibliographic affairs…thus, in particular, with the assistance of the American Library Association, a library school was opened in Tokyo in 1950 [sic], the director and teaching staff of which were sent from the U.S.A."
MACARTHUR
It was a shock when President Truman dismissed General Douglas MacArthur abruptly on April 11, 1951. All of Japan was in shock. In a letter home on April 19th I reported that "the Japanese people just worshiped MacArthur." We all thought MacArthur was doing a great job, and the reasons for the recall were not clear. With time those reasons have become available and more understandable. In my letter I said: "Some people here though do stick up for Truman. They say he [MacArthur] would have gotten us into more than we could handle." General Matthew Ridgway replaced him, and shortly thereafter General and Mrs. Ridgway paid a visit to Keio. He gave a talk to the Keio students from the balcony above my office, and they both toured the Japan Library School, a memorable event for all of us.
SOCIAL/CULTURAL
Often we were entertained at official or semi-official events--parties put on by various sponsors of the school, but also by Japanese friends. President Ushioda and the Directors of Keio University hosted a luncheon for our staff; when I left the President gave me a beautiful pearl necklace and earrings on behalf of the University. There were excursions arranged by the students. There were impromptu lessons in how to use hashi, the Japanese "chopsticks" the first week I was there--and being introduced to a raw egg in the bottom of my bowl for sukiyaki. Lessons such as this often broke the ice between us all on more formal occasions. We went to an exciting Keio-Waseda baseball game. We saw sumo wrestling, a Bunraku puppet show, Takarazuka shows, and Kabuki. And I've never been so cold as in a Japanese movie theater with no central heating in the midst of winter. Toward the end of my stay we were a part of the U.S. State Department for a short time, and were invited to their events--I remember the caviar. I don't remember many museum visits during those years in Tokyo, probably because of the bombing, but before I left I visited some outstanding museums and gardens in Kyoto. At that time I also visited Hiroshima, which was terrible to behold. In my mind I can still see on the stone steps of a building the shadow from a person sitting there when the atomic bomb exploded.
AT THE OSAKA HOTEL, TOKYO
Life was interesting for us three young women roommates, all Department of Army civilians, at the Osaka Hotel. We had our own maid, who lived in the hotel--we did not feel it was necessary, but realized that it gave someone a very needed job. No suitable clothes were available to buy in stores, but a seamstress came to our room and made them for us. We all wore the same size, even shoes, and that tripled our choices for the day or evening! There was an Army restaurant in the basement of our hotel, so that was convenient. A Bank of America was nearby. But it was difficult to do the most ordinary things, or to buy what we were used to. My roommates were very attractive women and we all had lots of opportunities to go out for dinner, or dancing, what with all the servicemen and other personnel who were in and out of town, and who were often participating in the Korean conflict.
BLACK MARKET
One day all the Japanese yen in the marketplace was declared useless, and so whatever you had in your possession you took in to have reissued--this to combat the black market. I believe the biggest item on the black market was cigarettes in those days. There were many wonderful things to buy or collect, but I was repaying a loan for library school. Also I have never enjoyed shopping, though I did take home several treasures, like a silk kimono and a white jade pin.
GOLF/SKIING
Learning to play golf there was interesting. There were beautiful golf courses and we always had girl caddies--how I missed them when I came home. I played at Koganei (badly), taking my clubs on the subway to the outskirts of Tokyo (the conductors on the subways sometimes physically pushed people into the cars--it was crowded!). I played at Sengoku-hara on the south side of Mt. Fuji, where we would stay sometimes at the Fujiya Hotel, which we could use as Department of Army civilians for R&R (rest and recreation? or was it recuperation?) and also at Kawana and Atami Golf Courses south of Tokyo. Learning to ski was also fun. We took the train to the "Japanese Alps" and I cobbled together enough gear to survive. I loved it, but on my second trip I had a big fall resulting in a ride back up the hill with the ski patrol. However it turned out not to be too serious--an ankle injury that healed after hobbling around a few weeks.
FORTY-NINE YEARS LATER
In April 2000 I was visiting China, and on the way home our tour group had a brief stopover at Narita Airport north of Tokyo, where I left them and deplaned. I was met by two of the Keio first-year students, Professors Yoshinari Tsuda and Tsuyoshi Nakamori. They took me on the fast train from the airport to downtown, then in a taxi to the Fairmont Hotel, a small and comfortable hotel across from the moat surrounding the palace, and among the most wonderful cherry trees. Nakamori-san had used it for some of his foreign guests and it was perfect.
DAY ONE IN TOKYO
I had just two days, and in the morning the two men came by my hotel along with Professor Shigeo Watanabe, another first-year student. They took me on the monorail out to the waterfront, where we had an elegant lunch and a walk, then on the monorail and subway to several Japanese gardens (at my request). Finally in the evening after a couple of minutes at my hotel, we went to a beautiful Japanese restaurant in the Shinjuku District, Shunnka-shutou, where about 20 people, mostly first-year students with a few other guests, gathered for a party in my honor. There was wonderful Japanese food, served with style, in a traditional tatami-matted room but in a modern, glittering multi-story building, where we looked out over the colorful lights of Tokyo.
OUR "HISTORIES"
In my speech to the group I told them that my "presento" to each of them, An Autobiography of an American Special Librarian, told about my life after we knew each other in Tokyo, and that I wanted to hear what had happened to each of them. Watanabe-san interpreted my talk, and then Professor Madoko Kon, a charming woman who teaches at Chuo University, interpreted for me as they talked, and their stories were amazing. But of course I couldn't remember half of what they had said, so after I got home I asked Tsuda-san if he would ask each person to write out what they had told me. He did, and I have his translation of what many of them said that night. (I should have had a tape recorder along, of course.)
SUCCESS STORIES
Our students are now matured, as Watanabe-san said. Many of them became leading librarians, some are active in different professions, and some are retired. Some had started library schools, and many taught at Keio or other library schools. Watanabe-san is one of the most famous children's authors in Japan, Tsuda-san founded a national medical library and think-tank in Tokyo, Takase-san is Counsellor to the Governor of Tokyo, one had started a "friends of the library" group, Kono-san is a paper manufacturer. The women in the group were looking very successful, and it did my heart good to hear their stories. One of them, Professor Motoko Shiiba, said Bertha Frick must be surprised in heaven, because Frick gave her a "D" in cataloging and now Shiiba-san is a library science teacher at a university, and one of her subjects is cataloging.
RARE OCCASION
The group presented me with an attractive Aizome "traditional dyed-textile" bag from Kyoto I believe, a real treasure. It was one of those nights to remember always. And as Tsuda-san put it so nicely in his holiday greeting this year "we must thank you for giving us that rare occasion" as "we [the students] could have a chance to get together."
LUNCH AND A TOUR AT KEIO SLIS
The next day Professor Toshiro Hamada came by and took me to Keio University, where I was met by the entire School of Library and Information Science faculty, and that was a thrill and an honor. Led by the Director, Professor Kimio Hosono, they took me (all except Professor Kurata, who had her class to teach) to the new Faculty Club for lunch. Then we went for a tour of the main Keio Library and of the School of Library and Information Science, which is on the second floor. And wonder of wonders--the library of the school. The collection had multiplied into rows of stacks, with many books and periodicals, and plans for new computers. The success of the School is perhaps reflected by the fact that they now have a doctoral program and in 2001 had a great 50th year celebration.
NOW A MUSEUM
The group (the ones not teaching) then took me across the square to where my original library was located in the historic old Keio Library. I was pleased to see that it is now a museum and archive honoring the founder of the university, Mr. Yukichi Fukuzawa, a most interesting person philosophically. He visited America in the 1860's, was impressed with the concept of democracy, and when he returned to Japan he acted as a leader in the study of western arts and sciences. His ideas are expressed in "the pen is mightier than the sword" inscribed in a large stained glass window above the old library's entrance hall staircase, and by one of the symbols of Keio, a pair of crossed pens. His grandson, Professor Eiichi Kiyooka of Keio, was one of our strongest champions, and I treasure his English translation of Fukuzawa's Autobiography (Fukuzawa, 1948). My guides also took me for the first time to see Fukuzawa Sensei's study in the locked towers above my original library space.
THE HUMI PROJECT
Next we all went down to the library's basement. That's where I spent some of my breaks, having a cigarette on the back steps (horrors!), and where I often spent a few minutes watching a game of go played by the janitors. They sat on raised tatami mats near a hibachi (charcoal brazier used for heat and to keep a kettle warm); we shared a lot of laughter brought on by my hesitant Japanese conversation. And now what is in this basement? It is currently the home of the HUMI (Humanities Media Interface) Project, where Keio is digitizing rare books such as their own recently acquired Gutenberg Bible. There are several different versions of this Bible, and for one of their projects they have successfully digitized a British Museum copy and perhaps others, so they can then compare versions by using an "electronic thumb." It is indeed mind-boggling.
For more information on the HUMI Project go to www.humi.mita.keio.ac.jp/sitemap/Sitemap_eng.htm
OBSERVATIONS
When we started the library school library at Keio we aimed to 1) provide a good basic library science collection for the students and faculty, 2) organize the library so that it would be easy to use, and 3) serve as a useful example of a specialized collection. But at Keio I did not start to do what I did in later positions as a special librarian; that is to go beyond obtaining and organizing a collection, and beyond spoken requests. It's asking what is it this organization needs to best carry out its mission? What is it that each individual person needs? What is out there that would fill those needs? And then it is finding a way to accomplish that goal in a timely and economical way. It is also trying to look into the future to keep up with change. So I had an unusual and wonderful opportunity, helping get that library started, and during my visit in 2000 I was so pleased that it looked like a very successful operation.
In these days of cooperative cataloging with massive databases, OPACs, online full-text, and the web we certainly operate in a different environment than in 1951-1952. But in my opinion Bob Gitler's principles of "library service" (it usually sounded like "savis") have indeed endured through the years: good collections, easy access, and friendly and knowledgeable guidance and help from a professional. I don't know to what extent that has happened in libraries in Japan or whether those principles or goals have changed. I will let the Japanese information professionals decide that for themselves.
AND SO
My thanks go to Bob Gitler for making all those experiences in Japan possible. He was an inspiration to be with, and brought out the best in everyone he met. I visit him at Lake Merritt in Oakland whenever I can, and we share the latest news. He still sees the big picture, and his memory is remarkable. Dr. Buckland took me out to lunch in Berkeley when he was finishing Bob's book and told me at that time that he would like to do "his take" on the Japan Library School story. He has not done that yet, but I look forward to it, as he is a great historian of libraries and librarians--he has some interesting tales to tell. He says "maybe by the summer…". I hope so!
REFERENCES
Fukuzawa, Yukichi, 1948, Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi, translated
by Eiichi Kiyooka, revised and authorized edition, Tokyo, Hokuseido Press,
380 p. [1st edition, 1934]
Gitler, Robert L., 1999, Robert Gitler and the Japan Library School:
An autobiographical narrative, edited by Michael Buckland, Lanham, Maryland,
Scarecrow Press, 173 p.
Inoue, Kojiro, 1951, The impression made upon us by the visiting American librarians, translated by K. Saito, The Tomoshibi (Light), Akita Prefectural Library Bulletin, no. 1, November 5, p. 12-13.
Sawamoto, Takahisa, 1971, Keio University School of Library and Information
Science: Its past, present and future, Library and Information Science,
Mita Society for Library and Information Science, Keio University, no. 9,
p. 11-23.