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Frederik L. Schodt ‘68
L
ate this spring, I received a surprise
phone call from Consul General
Nagamine in San Francisco, asking
me if I would accept an award for having
“contributed to the introduction and
promotion of Japanese contemporary
popular culture in the United States
of America.” For a second I felt a bit
confused. I had never heard of an award
for promoting popular culture. I wasn’t sure
Lifetime
I really deserved it. And I always thought
one won prestigious awards at the end of
one’s life, and since I’m only 59 I feared it
might be a bad omen. But I only hesitated
Achievement
a few seconds, and of course told him I
would accept.
The award is the “Order of the Rising
Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette,” issued by
the Emperor. In Japanese it’s the 旭日小
綬章, pronounced “kyokujitsu shojusho,”
and it sounds even more impressive
ASIJ’s imperial honors recipients are recognized because of the air of Imperial mystery
and majesty that the difficult-to-read
for their cross-cultural contributions kanji impart. It has been around since
1875 and is given to both Japanese and
foreigners for contributions to culture, in
general. It consists of a commemorative
plaque and a medal showing the rising
sun with rays, crowned by a paulownia
leaf and suspended from a ribbon. There
are many ranks of this award, and medals
are differentiated with neck ribbons or
cordons, pins, or colors of rays. Mine was in
the fourth class, which puts me in company
with illustrious people such as William Elliot
Griffis, Sadao Watanabe, Hideyo Noguchi,
and George Takei, to name a few, all of
which is very humbling.
I suspect that I was granted this award
because of the increased global awareness
of Japanese popular culture. I have been
translating manga, and writing about
manga and anime for over 30 years now,
and in that time both have gone from being
niche entertainment to huge industries with
fans all over the world. When I wrote my
first book on manga in 1983, titled Manga!
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Order of the Rising Sun
Manga! The World of Japanese Comics,
I luckily lost a friendly argument with my
editor, Peter Goodman, about using the
word “manga” in the title. I was afraid it
would cause the book to be filed in library
card catalogs (archaic 20th century things
now!) next to “manganese,” or that people
would think it was about Italian food.
Today, both manga and anime are officially
recognized in most American dictionaries
as part of our modern lexicon.
I only attended ASIJ for a few years
between 1965 and 1968, and it was a very
different time then. Oddly, I don’t recall
seeing many manga. Certainly none of my
friends read them overtly. Studying Japanese
at ASIJ wasn’t as popular then as it is now,
either. When I arrived (via Australia, after
having studied French for a couple of years),
the guidance counselor advised me not to
take Japanese because I was nearly sixteen,
American universities might not accept my
credits, and it wouldn’t do me much good in
the future. So I continued with French.
Today I’ve forgotten French, but I eke
out a living interpreting and translating
Japanese, and writing about Japan and
America. Given the way high school
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ALUMNI PROFILE:
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photos by William Cummings and Chris Schodt
psychology works, today I sometimes think
my guidance counselor told me the right
thing. If told to study Japanese, I might
have rebelled and never developed any real
interest in it. Instead, I became fascinated
by Japanese and in college plunged into
the study of it. In large part, my fascination
stemmed from the international atmosphere
of ASIJ, from having had great teachers
(such as Ray Downs ‘50), and from the
wonderful friends I made, many of whom
were born and raised in Japan, bilingual,
and who introduced me to Japanese
popular culture.
On June 26, 2009 the local consulate
hosted a conferment ceremony for
me. It turned into a fabulous bash with
over one hundred people. Several ASIJ
graduates—including classmates Daigaku
(David Rummé ) and Marty Honda—also
attended. Marty and I sometimes play in
a band together in the San Francisco Bay
Area, and he accompanied me on bass and
violin as I attempted to sing “Sukiyaki (Ue
wo muite)” and the “Astro Boy” theme
song, the first Japanese pop songs to
become hits in America.
For me, it was all joy.
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Peter Grilli ‘59
Order of the Sacred Treasure
A A
SIJ classmates may remember
Peter Grilli ’59 as president of the
Honor Society, editor of Chochin,
and a distinguished student who went on
to Harvard University where he pursued
Japanese studies and took courses from
Edwin Reischauer ’27. Arriving in Tokyo as a
5-year old in 1947 with his parents Maurice
and Elise, and a younger sister, Diane ’62,
his childhood experience in Japan shaped
his life and work in a profound way. In fact,
although Grilli has lived in the US most of the
time since high school graduation, he feels
intimately tied to this country. “In a sense,”
he says, “I have never really ‘left’ Japan.”
Currently President of the Japan Society
of Boston, Peter Grilli began his career as
an editor of books on Japan at Weatherhill
Publishing Co. and subsequently moved
on to become director of education,
film and performing arts at the Japan
Society of New York. He pioneered in the
introduction of Japanese traditional art
forms to American audiences, bringing the
Grand Kabuki on three occasions to the
Metropolitan Opera House and bunraku
puppet theater to the New York City Center.
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His work in developing film series for the
Society led him to produce several award-
winning documentary films, among them
biographies of the eminent composer
Toru Takamitsu and the renowned film
director Akira Kurosawa. Peter Grilli has
also served as director of the Donald
Keene Center of Japanese Culture at
Columbia University and is a prolific author
of books and articles on Japan.
Peter Grilli’s story, however, is unique in
the annals of imperial awards. In 2003, in
recognition of his achievements in cultural
exchange between Japan and the United
States and his contributions to promoting
friendship and understanding between
the two countries, he was awarded the
Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays
with Neck Ribbon. Interestingly, his father,
Marcell (1907–1990), longtime Japan
Times music critic who made important
contributions to cultural exchange between
Japan and the United States, also received
the Order of the Sacred Treasure in 1986,
making this father and son the only multi-
generational honorees in ASIJ history and
perhaps in the history of the honors,
photos courtesy of Peter Grilli
which date back to the Meiji period.
Further recognition is in store for Peter
Grilli. On December 18, 2009, in Tokyo, Grilli
will receive the Shigemitsu Mamoru Award
for International Cultural Communications.
The honor is named for the wartime
foreign minister who signed the surrender
documents ending World War II and later
worked tirelessly to get Japan accepted into
the United Nations. Only the third person
to ever receive this award, he joins Donald
Keene, the prominent scholar of Japanese
literature and professor emeritus at
Columbia University and the late Kenneth
Butler, the longtime director of the Inter-
University Center for Japanese Language
Studies as a recipient.
Grilli recently attended the Class of
1959’s 50th Reunion in San Francisco. He
commented, in his class reunion book,
that “It has been a long journey from ASIJ
in 1959, and it has been an extraordinary
trip—varied, constantly stimulating, and
always fun!” Peter and his wife, Susan, are
based near Boston in Harvard, MA., in a
modern house inspired by Japanese design.
In work and in life, Japan is never far away.
Fred G. Notehelfer ‘57
photos courtesy of Fred Notehelfer
fter graduating from ASIJ in 1957,
I went to Harvard College with the
goal of becoming a painter. While at
Harvard I was treated very kindly by Edwin
O. Reischauer ‘27 and his wife Haru ’33
(Ann Reischauer ‘57 had been a classmate
of mine at ASIJ). Reischauer asked me one
day why I was not studying anything on
Japan, particularly with my background.
So in self-defense I took the year-long East
Asian History Survey which he and John
Fairbank taught, and which we students
called “Rice Paddies.” That got me very
interested in Japanese and Chinese history.
Thereafter I studied Japanese formally,
including a year at ICU in 1960, where I
recall I was presented Jay Rockefeller’s bed
with great fanfare at Tsuji House.
Finishing Harvard in 1962, I went on
to Princeton to do my doctoral work in
Japanese history with Marius B. Jansen and
received my PhD in 1968. Much of the
middle sixties found me back in Japan doing
research, but I also took the advice of Mark
Bloch to see Japan from the ground up, so
I walked from Tokyo to Kyoto with a friend
from Geidai. On my way home from Japan
Order of the Rising Sun
in 1966, I met my wife, Ann, who was
returning to Vancouver from Great Britain,
on the same Pacific Orient Line steamer.
We enjoyed three years in Princeton,
where I taught until 1969. The year prior I had
taken a position in the History Department
at UCLA, but stayed at Princeton to finish
my first book. In the fall of 1969 we moved
west. For the forty years from 1968 to 2008
I taught at UCLA.
In 1969 UCLA was still a “minor player”
in the field of Asian History, but by 2006 its
Asian History field was ranked third in the
nation by US News and World Report. It
was a pleasure to be part of this process and
to see a university built during one’s lifetime.
I always enjoyed working with students,
both undergraduates and graduates, and
among them were a number of ASIJers.
When I first arrived, Southern California
was something of a “desert” for Japanese
studies, but with the help of colleagues at
USC, UC Santa Barbara, Occidental and the
Claremont Colleges, we founded the lively
Southern California Japan Seminar which
was the mainstay of the Japanese studies
community of the region. With time I helped
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found the Joint Center of East Asian Studies
linking UCLA and USC. Then came the
Center for Japanese Studies at UCLA, which
I helped found in 1991 and which I directed
until 2007. Many prominent Japanese
Americans, including Herbert and Helen
Kawahara, George and Sakaye Aratani,
and Paul and Hisako Terasaki generously
provided funds to endow the center (now
the Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies)
which has become one of the major sites for
Japanese studies in the United States.
Beyond my research work on Japan,
I also remained active nationally and
supported programs and institutions critical
to the field of Japanese studies. One of these
was the Inter-University Center for Japanese
Language Studies (now in Yokohama). For
five years I served as Chair of the Board
of Governors of this important language
institute and helped to guide it through
difficult financial waters. For a time I also
served on the board of the Japan-America
Society of Southern California.
I mention the foregoing because the
Japanese government award was given to
me for contributions in three areas: 1) my
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research work on Japan; 2) my efforts
to develop Japanese studies locally and
nationally; and 3) for my contributions to
Japanese-American relations.
In March of 2008 I retired from UCLA
and my wife and I now live on Salt Spring
Island off the coast of British Columbia in
Canada. Retiring was a very conscious
decision. It was time, as Pete Seger put
it, to “hand the guitar to young hands
stronger.” Then, I wanted to go back to
painting, something I had started at ASIJ
many years earlier and have not had the
time to pursue properly since. We also
enjoy hiking in the Canadian Rockies.
Few things have pulled us back to
Los Angeles from our idyllic island life,
but one was the award, which Consul
General Junichi Ihara presented to me
at the Consul General’s Residence on
May 12, 2009. With the award came a
splendid party, and as I told those present,
the award should really have gone to the
broader community of scholars, donors
and participants who had made this
interesting journey possible. I know that
my parents, who spent their lives in Japan
as missionaries, would have enjoyed
being there. I suspect they might even
have been proud.
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John M. Powles ‘66
Order of the Rising Sun
photos courtesy of John Powles
B
orn in Canada, I spent most of my first
18 years in Japan. Home-schooled by
my mother for grade 1 in Niigata,
I attended US military school in Nagoya,
arriving at The American School in Japan for
grades 4 through 12. Following graduation
from ASIJ in 1966, I took a general arts
program focusing in Asian studies at the
University of British Columbia. In my third
year I was recruited to work for the Canadian
government at the International Exposition in
Osaka (Expo ‘70).
But my life in Japan really began with my
grandparents who set out from Montréal
in 1916 to become Anglican missionaries in
the town of Takada on the Niigata-Nagano
border. My father, Cyril, and his five siblings
were all born in Japan and home-schooled
by their mother until the age of 15. The
children returned to Montréal to complete
high school and to attend McGill University.
My father and mother, Marjorie, met at
McGill and were married in Winnipeg
in 1946. Having decided to go to Japan
as missionaries, both attended Harvard’s
Japanese language school where one of
their professors was ASIJ alumnus Edwin
Reischauer ‘27. I was born in Winnipeg,
shortly before my parents and I embarked
on what was—in the immediate post-
World War II Pacific—a circuitous ship
route to Japan, taking almost three
months and routing through Shanghai the
day Mao marched into that city. Arriving
in Yokohama, our family proceeded to
Takada where my father assisted in re-
establishing the church and kindergarten.
Three years later we moved to the city of
Niigata, then three years later to Nagoya.
In the winter of 1957-58 we moved to
Tokyo and I joined Mr. Swindell’s 4th
grade class at ASIJ. With the exception of
grade six spent in the Boston-area while
my father did graduate work at Harvard,
ASIJ was my educational home through
high school graduation.
From the standpoint of my Japanese
education, I was lucky because I arrived
at ASIJ speaking Japanese and having
experienced Japan outside of Tokyo. This
was true for less than half my classmates.
ASIJ had the educational responsibility
of making the “Japanese experience”
meaningful; not an easy challenge when
up against 1960s-era teens! Some of
my most memorable experiences were
the Japan Language Area and Program
(JLAP) started by Ray Downs ’50.
My career started as a host in the
Canadian Pavilion at Expo ‘70 in Osaka.
Work there led to my first career phase,
with the Canadian government, advancing
to a management position where I was
responsible for all international expositions
in which Canada participated. These
included the three expos in Japan: 1970
in Osaka, 1975 in Okinawa and 1985 in
Tsukuba. In late 1985, I was seconded as
Chief Operating Officer for the government
corporation responsible for building and
operating Canada’s host pavilion at Expo
86 in Vancouver. This provided a logical
break from my government career and as
the expo wound down I started looking
around for options.
In May 1987, I joined the Council
of Forest Industries of British Columbia
as Asia Manager and Director of Japan
Operations, based in Tokyo. In reality,
the job was “95% Japan” with about
“5% Korea” making up the “Asia” and
was focused on introducing new housing
techniques while generally promoting the
broader use of wood in construction. It was
a fascinating time to be working in Japan—
in the midst of the real estate bubble and
during a period when Japan Inc became
convinced that anything was possible. But
the social aspect of the job was probably the
most fascinating, taking me into every nook
and cranny of Japanese society—meeting
the presidents of the largest Japanese
corporations and being invited into the
homes of Japan’s small home builders
and their clients. These efforts were not
without reward. In 1994, I was the first
non-Japanese to receive the Ministry of
Construction Award for my efforts to better
Japanese housing and I also served as the
Canadian representative on the Japanese
Prime Minister’s Import Advisory Board and
as the President of the Canadian Chamber
of Commerce in Japan.
For eight of the past 11 years I have
been president of the Canada-Japan
Society. This has given me entrée to high
level visiting Japanese business and political
delegations and has led to a number of
other voluntary appointments, particularly
with the local universities and colleges
as well as government. The University
of British Columbia houses one of the
most famous Japanese gardens outside
Japan. In the early 2000s, I was asked to
chair a committee to coordinate a major
renovation of the garden and to chair the
committee planning the University’s “Year
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of Japan.” In 2003, I became head of the
External Advisory Committee for the Asia
Pacific Management Cooperative Program
at Capilano University, a unique (at the
time) program offering a post-graduate
certificate in Asia Pacific management,
including a co-op placement program
with Asian and Asian-based foreign
companies. This cross-Canada program
recruits engineering and science students
and places them with major Japanese
corporations involved in advanced science
and technology research.
In 2005, I was appointment by the
Premier of British Columbia to head the
Japan Market Advisory Group under the
aegis of the Asia Pacific Trade Council.
This was a two-year project culminating
in a report to the province recommending
ways in which trade and investment ties
with Japan could be enhanced. The
report was well received and a few of
the recommendations have been acted
upon. This activity, in terms of profile,
was also the culmination of over thirty
years working in the Canada-Japan
field as a government official, industry
representative, consultant and volunteer.
In October 2008, the Japanese
Government announced that I would
receive the Imperial Order of the Rising
Sun Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon in
recognition of my lifelong work in this
field. Through the experience of my
upbringing and the language and cross-
cultural skills I acquired, I have been able
to provide a bridge between Canada
and Japan and hope that some of my
activities have improved
that relationship.
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