—Daddy, she said shyly, I don’t feel like cooking this Sunday….—Of course, I answered. Would you like to eat at the cafeteria at Fort Sam?—Oh, I crave for something reallydee-licious, her qualifier for something she would truly enjoy.—Ok, I’ll look for something…we can afford.
My last assignment before quitting the Army was at Valley Forge Army Medical Center, in the Pennsylvania boondocks. We found an apartment in Phoenixville,1 where the locals (population near 14,000) clearly divided the motto E pluribus unum into three distinct war zones: Slovak, Pole, and across-the-tracks. The Slovakian and the …
The headline Portraits and memories of those who survived the war, in the Book Section of the online Japan Times,1 caught my attention immediately. The title of the reviewed book was a real teaser: “FROM ABOVE,” by Paule Saviano. The observation that the author had used a Hasselblad camera with …
On April 4, 2012, the East San Gabriel Vally Japanese Community Center in West Covina, under the direction of Mrs. Pearl Omiya, organized a ceremony to recognize the contributions of Mrs. Reiko Hirama Moreno, one of her most remarkable members. Two Japanese Cherry Trees were dedicated to her, in memory …
Read Part 5 >>EL MUNDO TRESSeveral anthropologists assure us that Japanese influence on Mesoamerican cultures began in prehistory.1 In Mexico, writer-poet-painter José Juan Tablada (1871-1945),2 is seen as the most notable exponent of Japonisme.3 In his youth, Tablada attended the Mexican Military College for a few months and then entered …
Read Part 4 >>AND IN THE NEW WORLDThere was a brief period of interest in ‘Things Japanese’ in America, prior to the Civil War (1861 –1865). Undoubtedly, James McNeill Whistler1 (1834-1903), and Mary Cassatt2 (1844-1926), both expatriates by choice were heavily affected by Japonisme. However, John La Farge (1835-1910) should …
Read Part 3 >>JAPANESQUEAcross the Channel, some distinguished British diplomatic officials became assiduous students of the Japanese language, history, life and manners. Then, after personally experiencing Japan, they began publishing their own works.
Read Part 2 >>In 1872, French art critic Philippe Burty (1830-1890) decided to call the new vogue Japonisme—to so christen a new field of study—artistic, historic and ethnographic.1 However, there are other contenders for the first use of the term. Some sources attribute it to French author Jules Claretie, (1840-1913) while …
Read Part 1 >>AMOUR AT FIRST SIGHTWhatever the reasons Perry and supporters had, to force the “opening of Japan,” they never even imagined what effect their action would have on Europe’s and, eventually, America’s creative minds. It was as if breaching the already porous Sakoku had caused an en-masse escape …
HAJIMEMASHITE!
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