For historians of modern Japan, of whom I happen to be one, the search for clues to a better understanding of Japan's imperial expansion as well as of Japan's concurrent internal authoritarianism is never ending. That same search usually leads us to try to find new documentary sources, especially those which are contemporary in the sense that they record events, personalities, and in particular, an environment revelatory of evolving Japanese developments. Remarkably, I believe, this is what is so important about the diary of James Halsema electronically published below.
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.
James Halsema was born Jan. 1, 1919 in
Warren, Ohio while his father, who had joined the Philippine Islands
Bureau of Public Works as an engineer in 1908, was serving in
the US Army Corps of Engineers. At the age of six months, James,
together with his mother and sister joined their father E.J. Halsema
in Zamboanga where he resumed his career with the Bureau of Public
Works. Seconded to develop the Malangas coalmine, E.H. Halsema
barely survived an epidemic of blackwater (cerebral malaria) fever
that killed 600 Cebuano workers. Sent to Baguio to recuperate,
E.H. Halsema stayed there 17 years serving as city mayor and district
engineer for Benguet.
James Halsema attended the prestigious
Brent School in Baguio, graduating in 1936 proceeding to Duke
University where he graduated with honors in History in 1940.
He returned to the Philippines after the JASC and was interned
by the Imperial Japanese Army, which captured Baguio Dec. 27,
1941.
It was Paul Linebarger, the outstanding
Asianist on the Duke faculty at the time, who acquainted Jim Halsema
with the JASC and urged him to apply. Halsema himself notes, "Japan
was not exotic to me or my family. Growing up in the Philippines
as the son of an American official in the American colonial era,
I visited Japanese ports, usually Kobe and Yokohama, en route
to Manila from San Francisco. In 1938 on my one and only summer
at home in Baguio… I saw both Japanese ports twice and encountered
a very suspicious attitude on the part of Japanese officialdom
(as well as having to provide stool samples on the eastward return
to prove that I hadn't picked up any tropical diseases). In 1903-4
Japanese skilled labor was used in the construction of the Benguet
(now Kennon) Road from the lowland railhead to the hill station
of Baguio. Many remained, and more joined them. The 1940 census
showed that in Baguio and its suburbs there were 1064 Japanese
citizens as contrasted with 635 Americans. There was a Japanese
school. Japanese radio stations like JOAK provided strong signals
at night. Taiwan was only a few hundred kilometers north…
Japanese were active in retailing and vegetable farming. My hair
was cut by Japanese women barbers."
The first Japan-America Student Conference was initiated in 1934
in Tokyo by a group of Japanese students who wanted to promote
mutual understanding, trust, and friendship between Japan and
the United States and who also wanted to practice their English.
The American delegates found the intercommunication so valuable
that they wished to sustain the spirit of the Tokyo meeting and,
accordingly, organized a second meeting at Reed College in Portland,
Oregon in 1935. Subsequently, it was decided to hold the conference
annually and to hold it alternately in Japan and the United States.
Thus, the 7th JASC, the last until after WWII, was held in Japan. 58 American delegates (34 men and 24 women) joined 110 Japanese delegates (74 men and 36 women). The names and academic affiliations of all the delegates are listed in Appendix A. The Americans were also accompanied by a Counselor, Dr. Francis Bacon, Counselor of Men, University of Southern California and a Chaperon, Dr. Catherine Beers, Professor of Zoology, University of Southern California. The conference organization and the full schedule of activities are also found in Appendix A.
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