Future of friendly relations between Japan and U.S. shaky?

Sept. 17, 2009

Future of friendly relations between Japan and U.S. shaky?

One little Japanese girl died in 1911 before going to America with her adoptive parents, a U.S. missionary and his wife, but people in Tokyo’s Azabu-Juban firmly believe her soul lives with a monument built in her memory in their town. Kimi Iwasaki, or Kimi-chan, died of illness at the age of nine at a Methodist orphanage in an area which is now a part of Azabu-Juban, uptown Tokyo. Local people, led by a group of shop owners, hoped to build a statue of Kimi-chan as a symbol of their “town of smile.” Her statue was set at a square in the heart of the town in February 1989. The 65-centimeter-high statue later became an icon of a charity, which has so far drawn about 11 million yen of donation.
Kimi’s story is only a tiny episode in more than 150 years of relations between Japan and the United States, but people in Azabu-Juban remember her story as their treasure.
The United States concluded a treaty with Japan under the Tokugawa shognate regime in 1854, becoming the first Western country to do so. The first chief of mission came to present his credentials to the shogunate exactly 150 years ago, in 1859. The treaty pulled Japan out of two and a half centuries of isolation under the Tokugawa regime. The Meiji government, which toppled the shogunate, strived for Japan’s modernization by inviting foreign scholars and engineers in various fields. Europeans made major roles in establishing political, social and other core systems in Japan. Americans were less visible in these fields, but they left their footprints mainly as educators and religious leaders. Charles W. Huett and his wife Emma, said to be Kimi’s adoptive parents, were among U.S. missionaries who disseminated Protestantism in Japan. They operated mainly in Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, early in the 20th century.
Kimi is said to be the model of a famous children's song. Titled “A little girl wearing red shoes,” the song was published in 1922 with the lyrics written by poet Ujoh Noguchi. Kimi’s mother, Kayo, was an unmarried mother. When she decided to marry a young settler farmer in Hokkaido, she sent Kimi away to be raised by the Huetts through her father-in-law. At least she believed so, and her daughter was to go to America with the adoptive parents. But Kimi’s poor health (she had contracted tuberculosis) kept her from traveling to America. Kayo later came to know Ujoh, the poet who wrote the lyrics, and told him about her daughter. She believed this became the song.

The little girl was wearing red shoes, and she has been taken by a foreigner to his country.

She got on a boat at Yokohama, and she has been taken by a foreigner to his country.

She must be blue-eyed now and she must be living in the foreigner’s country.

Whenever I see red shoes and whenever I see foreigners, I think about the little girl.
(A personal translation)

Relations between Japan and the United States have continued to develop while undergoing unfortunate incidents, notably the Pacific War from 1941 to 1945 or more recently, frictions over the U.S. military presence in Japan. But Japan-U.S. relations are expected to enter a new phase under Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s fresh regime, inaugurated this week. Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan put an end to the pro-Washington Liberal Democratic Party’s almost uninterrupted rule for the past 50 years in recent parliamentary elections.
Hatoyama hopes to establish a truly equal partnership between Japan and the United States. He is expected to move to review important security pacts with the United States. This has led observers to warn that relations between the two countries may become shaky from now on. In an attempt to eliminate U.S. policymakers’ concern about his policy stance, Hatoyama assured U.S. President Barack Obama in a recent telephone conversation that he is not anti-American. Actually, Hatoyama, the U.S.-educated scholar-turned politician, cites President John F. Kennedy as his most admired person.
Kimi’s episode came to be known in 1979, when a TV program producer in Hokkaido released a book about the girl’s fate based on her half-sister’s accounts and his own survey. The theory shown in the book was later challenged by one writer, who argued the story was a fabrication with no evidence linking Kimi to the U.S. missionary or the song. The criticism was “incorrect and really regrettable,” said Kimitoshi Yamamoto, a local shop owner who serves as manager for the charity in Azabu-Juban.
Kimi-chan’s statue was set at the square, Patio Juban, on a rainy day, recalls Yamamoto. Passers-by and shoppers were limited with many shops closed for a regular holiday. Someone placed 18 yen near Kimi-chan’s feet in the evening of the day. This was the start of a charity, said Yamamoto. Small amounts of money were found near the bronze and red granite statue almost everyday since then. The money from unknown donators has been contributed mainly to UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.
Local elementary school children visit Kimi-chan’s statue as part of curriculums to study about their community. The children say, “I feel sorry for Kimi-chan,” and this reminds them of the preciousness of their life with their mothers and families, according to Yamamoto. “Kimi-chan is dead, but she tells us many things,” he said.
Relations between Japan and the United States have become solid and matured as a result of decades-long grass-roots interchanges across the Pacific on top of bilateral political and economic pacts. Their relations are unlikely to be damaged easily as Hatoyama is expected to devote his energies initially to forming ties of mutual trust with President Obama.

An author’s note: Following is a melody for the first four bars of the song, “A Little Girl Wearing Red Shoes”: CD-EflatF-G-G/G-AflatF-G-G/G-C-Eflat-C/D-D-D-x. C, D and E in the third and fourth bars are one octave higher.