During the post-World War II American occupation of Japan, Elizabeth Vining was selected to be the English tutor for Crown Prince Akihito. Written with complete and refreshing candor, this book recounts in Mrs. Vining’s own words her four years in Japan in that capacity.
The idea
of an English tutor was not imposed by the Occupation but was, rather, the idea
of Emperor Hirohito himself. He
stipulated that the tutor should be a “Christian but not a fanatic,” someone
who did not speak Japanese and someone who knew little to nothing about Japan. Elizabeth Vining certainly fit the bill. Elizabeth Janet Gray Vining was a Quaker, a
native of Philadelphia, PA, graduate of Bryn Mawr College and Drexel Institute
of Technology. She was a respected and
well-connected member of the Quaker community and an established writer of
children’s literature. A connection
through her time in the American Friends Service Committee made her a highly
suitable candidate for the position of tutor.
Though she
did have some ties with the international community in Japan, Mrs. Vining
ventured off to Japan alone and a widow. Her marriage to Morgan Vining had ended
in tragedy when her husband was killed in a car accident just several years
into their marriage. They had no children. It was during this period of
mourning her husband that Vining left her Episcopalian faith to become a
Quaker. In the last two years of her
stint in Japan, she was joined by her sister, presumably to fill the loneliness
she only alludes to but must have surely felt so far from home.
In Japan,
Mrs. Vining had a furnished home, a cook and a driver. Her constant companion, secretary and
interpreter was (Mrs.) Tane Takahashi, also a Quaker. Who was actually Mrs. Vining’s boss is not
clear, but she reported on occasion directly to General MacArthur. She also had not infrequent entrée to the
imperial family. She regularly dealt
with the chamberlains assigned to the Crown Prince and made recommendations and
reports on his education to the chamberlains as well as to the Emperor and
Empress.
Mrs. Vining
led a privileged life in post-war Japan, but that is not to say that she didn’t
work hard. Her initial assignment included
tutoring the prince once a week in English and teaching no more than 8 hours a
week at the Gakushuin he attended. The prince was 12 at the time of her
arrival, having just completed their equivalent of elementary school. He would now go on to the equivalent of
American junior high school under a slightly new and democratized system
instituted by the Occupation. Her duties
expanded rather quickly into tutoring
others including members of the imperial family (but never the Emperor). She
lectured and traveled as well, both in Japan and elsewhere.
Her work
ethic, her deeply-held beliefs in Quaker ideals, her love of American democracy
and her genuine concern for her fellow human being all combined to mark her as
a person of immense integrity and sincerity.
She undertook her job as tutor
with a broad view of its impact in the post-war international world. She had a
desire to promote “the ideals of liberty and justice and good will upon which
peace must be based if it is to endure.”
At the same time, she took a very personal interest in the Crown Prince
often expressing sadness that he couldn’t grow up like a normal boy and always
advocating to the imperial family and the chamberlains that he be given that
opportunity. She and the Crown Prince-later-Emperor
had an enduring relationship which continued until Vining’s death.
This book
is an obvious sidebar to Bergamini’s Japan's Imperial Conspiracy. Bergamini mentions, without much fanfare,
Mrs. Vining’s selection as tutor in his chapters on the Occupation. Thus was I
reminded that I had often heard of Mrs. Vining and her books growing up as I
did a Quaker in Kennett Square, PA where Elizabeth Gray Vining was a local
figure. (The reader will be reminded that my own formerly Catholic and
Presbyterian parents joined the Religious Society of Friends, Quakers, and we
all attended London Grove Friends Meeting into my teen years.) The thrift,
industry, honesty and simplicity historically characteristic of Quakers is
embodied in Mrs. Vining. The human secularism of the Quaker faith, a Christian
sect actually, is just Western enough and just Christian enough that it would
appeal to the Emperor who didn’t want anything too fanatical.
Which
brings us to the Emperor. Vining herself
had the traditional view of the Emperor. She had been told by people in Japan
that Hirohito was someone who “disapproved of what the war party did in his
name and who had at different times attempted to avert war.” She described him as a shy figurehead who was
manipulated by his jingoistic military and hardline advisors. There is of course not a shred of evidence to
support that in Bergamini’s book and I was not tempted to subscribe to Mrs. Vining’s
view of the Emperor.
She did,
however, acknowledge the opposite view. Mrs.
Vining devoted a chapter to the War Crimes Tribunal which, as a V.I.P. member of the Occupation, she was permitted to
attend. Her discussion did give a nod to
Bergamini’s perspective when she wrote: “Elements in the United States and
Australia also declared the Emperor responsible, and in some quarters his abdication
was called for.” She went no further than
that.
I’m sorry
but I can attribute nothing good to Emperor Hirohito. I seriously doubt that his seeming
open-mindedness in suggesting an English tutor for his son arose out of any love
for American values or from a desire to be more Western. Instead, I consider it was a calculated move
on his part to dissemble and appear to be working with the Occupation. It was
“belly talk.” I find it instructive that
he preferred the tutor-candidate to have as little familiarity with Japan and
its culture as possible. That way, he
could present exactly the view of his homeland that he wished, or at least as
much of a one-sided view as the Occupation would allow.
Despite Mrs.
Vining’s very admiring descriptions of Japan and its customs, geography and
history, I found myself still regrettably
incapable of warm feelings for this nation and its culture. For example, Mrs. Vining devoted an entire
chapter to an account of a Japanese poetry-writing tradition dating back to the
10th century. The tradition
consisted of the emperor, at the time of the New Year, announcing a theme upon
which everyone could write a poem in waka verse and submit their
creation to be judged as part of a contest of sorts. Typical themes were Spring
in the Mountains or New Grass. For the
year Mrs. Vining describes, the theme chosen by the emperor was Morning Snow.
Vining
submitted a poem and was then invited to the “annual party when the New Year
poems were read in the presence of the Emperor and Empress.” Before attending the party, the head of the
Bureau of Poetry—the Bureau of Poetry!-- paid a visit to Mrs. Vining to
instruct her in all the intricacies of the “party” which read more like some
arcane ritual with no meaning or purpose that I could discern. To cap off the evening, the Emperor’s poem
was chanted 5 times by the chanters while “Most people stood with their heads
bowed, as if in prayer.” Here is the Emperor’s
poem:
At
the sight of snow deep in my garden of a morning my thoughts go to people who
are shivering in the cold
I’m rendered speechless. What complete nonsense. Another example of what would seem to be a society of children playing at being grown-ups, except some of the grown-ups were able to aggregate to themselves the power to act to conquer the world, and, with little regard for human life in the process.
Elizabeth Vining leaves out very little in this book. She is thorough and detailed in recounting everything from the rationale for the English lessons she used to her exchanges with General MacArthur to her relationship with the Crown Prince and the imperial family. Elizabeth Vining is in my estimation a singular woman, an accomplished individual who was true to the values and principles she professed. Elizabeth Janet Gray Vining died in 1999. She lived out her remaining years in Kennett Square, in the Quaker retirement community, Kendall, where my sisters worked! Once again, history ties us all together.
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