The drama written into the yellowed pages of the archives never ceases to amaze me. One of the joys of being a scholar is to bring it out from its hiding place in the stacks to inform contemporary debates. In March, the United States and Japan are planning a celebration of their alliance based on what had been forgotten pages of their history.
A few years ago I stumbled upon an event that had previously received little attention – a trip by U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to Japan in 1962. President John F. Kennedy sent his brother to Tokyo to solidify what at the time were tumultuous U.S.-Japan relations (after anti-American protests had recently rocked Tokyo).
One of the most dramatic moments of the trip was an event at Okuma auditorium at Waseda University. There RFK faced a throng of angry students. Shouting escalated; some students began to throw chairs; the visiting Americans feared a riot. But a calm RFK extended his hand to a heckler and invited him onstage to debate. The US Attorney General awed the crowd (and the country, watching on TV at home) with his graciousness and respect.
I wrote about Kennedy’s visit to Tokyo in my article in National Interest (July 2013), and in my op-ed in the New York Times–published on the fiftieth anniversary of RFK’s speech at Okuma. I argued that the encounter there – and the RFK trip and Kennedy years more broadly –marked a turning point in U.S.-Japan relations: Washington and Tokyo’s diplomacy during those years helped a faltering alliance get back on track.
As fate would have it, a few months after I published this article, President Obama nominated Caroline Kennedy (JFK’s daughter and RFK’s niece) to be U.S. Ambassador to Japan. My research had illustrated that the Kennedy family had an important legacy in U.S.-Japan relations—a legacy that the new ambassador would continue.
In March 2014, the JFK Library of Boston sponsored a panel discussion based on my research. And in Tokyo this March, the JFK Library will partner with the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo to celebrate the Kennedy legacy in US-Japan relations, co-hosting a symposium entitled “The Torch Has Been Passed: JFK’s Legacy Today.” The symposium will culminate in an event at the Okuma auditorium, where RFK so memorably visited sixty-three years ago.
The event will include addresses by Ambassador Caroline B. Kennedy, former President Bill Clinton, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. I am thrilled that my research reminded the United States and Japan of Okuma’s symbolism in the our alliance, and even more thrilled to be in Okuma auditorium for the event in March.