Event Report

Foundations and Prospects of Frank Hawley Studies: The Future of the Belongings Left by Frank Hawley

On January 25, 2019 (Fri.), a symposium titled “Foundations and Prospects of Frank Hawley Studies: The Future of the Belongings Left by Frank Hawley” was held in Room 10 on the 16th floor of Building 33 of Waseda University’s Toyama Campus. The primary sponsor of the symposium was Waseda University’s Global Japanese Studies Model Unit of the Top Global University Project, with co-sponsorship by the Waseda University Research Institute for Letters, Arts and Sciences and the Ryusaku Tsunoda Center of Japanese Culture.

The subject of the symposium was Frank Hawley, who came to Japan in 1931 as an English instructor. The plan for the event, which was successfully followed that day, started with research reports on the appeal of, and possibilities for, research into this figure from the perspectives of three speakers: the foremost figure in Hawley studies, Manabu Yokoyama (Professor Emeritus, Notre Dame Seishin University; Guest Researcher, The Ryusaku Tsunoda Center of Japanese Culture), Hideyuki Fujiwara (Librarian, Waseda University), and Nobuyuki Watanabe (Historian and Former Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun). Afterward, these participants exchanged views with one another.

At the start of the symposium, Waseda University’s Professor Lee Sung-si (Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences) described the research into Hawley that has taken place so far, the direction in which such research is heading, and the purpose of the day’s event—the aim of further enriching studies on the topic. Afterward, Lee discussed the outlook for the future, noting that the historical documents relating to Hawley in the possession of Yokoyama offered a new perspective on Japanese studies and—when combined with related research—will likely lead to broad and continuous dissemination of information on the topic.

Next, the first report, titled “Overview of the Documents Left by Hawley,” was given by Manabu Yokoyama, who presented about Frank Hawley as a person, the background to the documents he left behind, and an overview of those documents. Yokoyama said that he understood Hawley in terms of three aspects: as a researcher who engaged in studies of Japanese culture, as a correspondent for the London Times, and as a book collector. Yokoyama then touched on the story of how Hawley’s wish that his personal collection of historical materials be used in research eventually resulted in the materials coming into Yokoyama’s possession. Yokoyama then presented some of precious primary historical materials from Hawley’s days as a correspondent and spoke about the possibilities they held for a variety of future research. Next, Yokoyama suggested that Hawley’s articles on the post-war Tokyo military tribunals, on interviews with General MacArthur, on the Korean War, and on the journalist Ian Morrison, as well as his background reports based on interviews with various dignitaries, would enable researchers to make conjectures about the behavior of newspaper reporters at that time through detailed studies of lists of names of correspondents. Yokoyama ended his presentation by relating how Hawley was a central figure in the establishment of The Kansai Asiatic Society, a salon for Japanese studies in the Kansai region.

The second report, by Hideyuki Fujiwara, was titled “On the Hawley Collection Held by the Waseda University Library: A Case Study of Utilizing Documents Left by F. Hawley.” Fujiwara gave overviews of the documents left by Hawley and the catalog of texts in that collection, explained the “Hawley Collection,” mentioned how that collection has been scattered and partially lost, and described how Waseda University’s library system holds parts of the “Hawley Collection” but that this is nothing more than a fragmentary part of the original collection. With these points noted, Fujiwara talked about the investigation underway to locate all extant parts of the “Hawley Collection” and about a concrete plan to restore the scattered collection online through matching documents with the auction catalog for an exhibition of Hawley’s literary collection created as part of the sale of Hawley’s estate after his death. Fujiwara suggested that it would be necessary to check the status of holdings by other institutions, to strengthen partnerships with institutions in Japan and around the world, and to build a “Hawley Documents Site” linked to Waseda University’s database of classical texts. He then laid out his idea for launching and publicizing as part of these efforts “The Virtual Hawley Collection,” “Hawley, a Correspondent for the London Times,” “A Biography of Hawley,” and an academic journal, F. Hawley Document Studies. Fujiwara thus presented an outlook on the likelihood of this endeavor being realized and his vision for what the results would be if that were to happen: Viewing the site would provide immediate and clear access to Hawley’s documents, the Hawley Collection, and research relating to those materials. Finally, Fujiwara ended his presentation by noting that this project would be continuous and that he aspired to have the Ryusaku Tsunoda Center of Japanese Culture and the university library collaborate to create a framework that would allow additional information to be posted and disseminated even after the planned end of the research period.

The last report was by Nobuyuki Watanabe (Historian and Former Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun) and titled “The Hawley Documents as Research into the Period of Occupation: From a Journalist’s Perspective.” The report was based on Watanabe’s nearly 10 years of investigation and study of GHQ materials and discussed the possibilities contained in the Hawley documents. Watanabe said that he wanted to focus, in particular, on the conditions that prevailed when Hawley came to Japan as a foreign correspondent in 1946, how Hawley valued Japan, how the war crimes tribunals that took place while Hawley was dispatched to Japan were reported in the UK, and how these reports were received by British readers. Additionally—while including some of his own experiences as a reporter—Watanabe talked about the view of Japan that the Japan expert Hawley wanted to convey through his articles for The Times, which at the time had limited word counts, and about how he was very interested in this subject. Watanabe noted that he was interested in what Hawley thought and did upon becoming director of the British Library of Information and Culture, which was established in Tokyo. Finally, Watanabe ended his report by presenting his idea that there were possibilities for research into Hawley in two areas: Hawley as a journalist and Hawley in his position as person directly involved during the period when Japan-UK relations broke down and Japan set forth on its momentous path toward war with United States.

During the question and answer and discussion part of the symposium, a Waseda University student asked about the possibility of collecting texts by using knowledge of Hawley’s interactions with people involved in Japanese Buddhism. Members of the general public in attendance asked about the quantity of the personal documents in Yokoyama’s possession and about whether Hawley had any interest in the fine arts. A member of the of the audience affiliated with the National Diet Library asked about the overall picture of documents relating to Hawley. Waseda University Professor Hirokazu Toeda (Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences) asked about how journalists from different countries each viewed Japan and about what sort of image of Japan could be reconstructed. These represent only a small sample of the numerous queries posed. After this massive number of questions, there was a lively discussion of the outlook for further use and study of the documents that Hawley left behind.

In his closing remarks, Waseda University Professor Hidenori Jinno (Director, Research Institute for Letters, Arts and Sciences) said that Hawley, as a most appropriate subject for international Japanese studies, demonstrated a new way for the humanities to develop. He also suggested that Hawley, therefore, might offer the prospect of an opportunity to reappraise Japan during the US occupation from various perspectives; to this day, this period in the country’s history has primarily been viewed through materials from the US. Jinno also spoke of his eagerness to take advantage of this very opportunity as part of the future activities of the Research Institute for Letters, Arts and Sciences. The symposium thus turned out to be a truly meaningful event.

 

Event Overview

Symposium title: Foundations and Prospects of Frank Hawley Studies: The Future of the Belongings Left by Frank Hawley
Date and time: Friday, January 25, 2019 (Fri.) 4:30 pm to 6:15 pm
Venue: Meeting Room 10, 16th floor of Building 33, Toyama Campus, Waseda University
Sponsored by: Waseda University’s Global Japanese Studies Model Unit, Top Global University Project
Co-sponsored by: Waseda University Research Institute for Letters, Arts and Sciences and the Ryusaku Tsunoda Center of Japanese Culture

Opening remarks
Sung-si Lee (Professor, Waseda University)
Speakers
Manabu Yokoyama (Professor Emeritus, Notre Dame Seishin University)
“Overview of the Documents Left by Hawley”
Hideyuki Fujiwara (Librarian, Waseda University)
“On the Hawley Collection Held by the Waseda University Library”
Nobuyuki Watanabe (Historian and Former Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun)
“The Hawley Documents as Research into the Period of Occupation: From a Journalist’s Perspective”
Closing remarks
Hidenori Jinno (Professor, Waseda University)
“Challenges and Possibilities for this Research”