Wonderful article however your write, “By 1905, Americans were even eating at Japanese noodle houses, where a bowl of udon “noodle soup” (ramen by another name) was only a nickel.” However, as I understand it udon is not another word for ramen, it’s an entirely different dish. Whereas ramen probably has its roots in China (lamian) and was popularized after WWII, udon is considered more of a traditionally Japanese dish.
You’re exactly right. I’ve corrected it to make that distinction clearer.
I love this two-parter! And I wanted you to know I used some of knowledge I gleaned from the series in a presentation I did for my women’s group last night … I was discussing the Yellow Peril, and cited your musing that only a few years before it erupted, Americans were quite fond of things from the East. So, thanks!
You’re very welcome. I’m glad I was able to provide you and your friends with some food for thought.
Very interesting! I spent 45 minutes reading the two parts, I thought the longform written word art-form has been lost, great writing.
I was delighted to find this article after hearing your interview on “Here and Now.” I was so excited to hear someone talk about the first group of samurai that came to the US. You even mentioned Ogimi, Motoichiro! He is my great grandfather! There is so much more to his story. I have pictures of him and I believe we have some of his academic writings! So few people know about this first group of Japanese. So fun to see his name in print!
Interesting history! However, the town in Oregon is spelled “Pendleton”, not “Pendelton”.
D’oh! Thank you for pointing this out. I’ve fixed it.
Great story! My Japanese wife of 45 years is presently the manager of a sushi restaurant in downtown Perth, Western Australia. She was totally fascinated with your article as was this displaced Yankee who spent 20 years in Japan. Domo arigato!
There was a bestselling romance/science fiction/spy novel, Kingdom of the Slender Swords, by the female author Hallie Erminie Rives, which came out in 1910. It’s a wonderful story with mad Western scientists being fought by heroic Americans (and their flying machine), an equally heroic and handsome Imperial Navy officer doing spy work, and a long-suffering and beautiful Japanese Christian girl. (The Gutenberg HTML version includes colored illustrations.) It’s not totally uncritical of Japan, as there’s a very vivid depiction of the nastier side of the Yoshiwara “pleasure quarter” (ie, the bit where women were sold there by their families and sometimes imprisoned in brothels), and there’s some very good observation and description among the fun.
The author loved loved loved Japan (in a fashion recognizable to any US anime fan!), and ended up marrying a US State Department guy who worked there, becoming Mrs. Wheeler Post. There’s a wonderful picture on a blog somewhere of her wearing kimono, albeit the fashionably Westernized kimono of the time; it’s now included in her Wikipedia entry.
Now, the interesting thing is that Rives was a Southerner and the daughter of a Confederate colonel, and one of her first novels had been highly controversial, because it actually included an apologia for lynching. Meanwhile (and to be fair, this was several years after her controversial book) she apparently had no problem with Japanese people at all, and did fine during her husband’s State Department career. People don’t fall into neat boxes with their sins and likings.
Anyway, my point (which was lost) is that Rives definitely described Japanese men as totally hot! (Okay, mostly Imperial Navy officers got the drool. But the Imperial Navy did have the pick of young men for their academy, and they didn’t seem to pick ’em ugly.) She frequently describes Japanese men with “long, almond-shaped eyes” and “white” or “bronze” complexions as “good-looking.” She also describes a Japanese girl as looking like “a moonlighted night” and being “palely olive” of skin.
The other point is that the novel does mention that the US had some “anti-Jap torchlight processions,” but that Japan was “plucky” and didn’t deserve that kind of prejudice.
And did I mention that the European mad scientist had an atomic bomb?
As for the food at the US Embassy: “It was a home-like meal, albeit thin slices of lotos-stem floated in Barbara’s soup, the lobster had no claws, and the _entree_ was baked bamboo.”
Wonderful article however your write, “By 1905, Americans were even eating at Japanese noodle houses, where a bowl of udon “noodle soup” (ramen by another name) was only a nickel.” However, as I understand it udon is not another word for ramen, it’s an entirely different dish. Whereas ramen probably has its roots in China (lamian) and was popularized after WWII, udon is considered more of a traditionally Japanese dish.
You’re exactly right. I’ve corrected it to make that distinction clearer.
I love this two-parter! And I wanted you to know I used some of knowledge I gleaned from the series in a presentation I did for my women’s group last night … I was discussing the Yellow Peril, and cited your musing that only a few years before it erupted, Americans were quite fond of things from the East. So, thanks!
You’re very welcome. I’m glad I was able to provide you and your friends with some food for thought.
Very interesting! I spent 45 minutes reading the two parts, I thought the longform written word art-form has been lost, great writing.
I was delighted to find this article after hearing your interview on “Here and Now.” I was so excited to hear someone talk about the first group of samurai that came to the US. You even mentioned Ogimi, Motoichiro! He is my great grandfather! There is so much more to his story. I have pictures of him and I believe we have some of his academic writings! So few people know about this first group of Japanese. So fun to see his name in print!
Interesting history! However, the town in Oregon is spelled “Pendleton”, not “Pendelton”.
D’oh! Thank you for pointing this out. I’ve fixed it.
Great story! My Japanese wife of 45 years is presently the manager of a sushi restaurant in downtown Perth, Western Australia. She was totally fascinated with your article as was this displaced Yankee who spent 20 years in Japan. Domo arigato!
There was a bestselling romance/science fiction/spy novel, Kingdom of the Slender Swords, by the female author Hallie Erminie Rives, which came out in 1910. It’s a wonderful story with mad Western scientists being fought by heroic Americans (and their flying machine), an equally heroic and handsome Imperial Navy officer doing spy work, and a long-suffering and beautiful Japanese Christian girl. (The Gutenberg HTML version includes colored illustrations.) It’s not totally uncritical of Japan, as there’s a very vivid depiction of the nastier side of the Yoshiwara “pleasure quarter” (ie, the bit where women were sold there by their families and sometimes imprisoned in brothels), and there’s some very good observation and description among the fun.
The author loved loved loved Japan (in a fashion recognizable to any US anime fan!), and ended up marrying a US State Department guy who worked there, becoming Mrs. Wheeler Post. There’s a wonderful picture on a blog somewhere of her wearing kimono, albeit the fashionably Westernized kimono of the time; it’s now included in her Wikipedia entry.
Now, the interesting thing is that Rives was a Southerner and the daughter of a Confederate colonel, and one of her first novels had been highly controversial, because it actually included an apologia for lynching. Meanwhile (and to be fair, this was several years after her controversial book) she apparently had no problem with Japanese people at all, and did fine during her husband’s State Department career. People don’t fall into neat boxes with their sins and likings.
Anyway, my point (which was lost) is that Rives definitely described Japanese men as totally hot! (Okay, mostly Imperial Navy officers got the drool. But the Imperial Navy did have the pick of young men for their academy, and they didn’t seem to pick ’em ugly.) She frequently describes Japanese men with “long, almond-shaped eyes” and “white” or “bronze” complexions as “good-looking.” She also describes a Japanese girl as looking like “a moonlighted night” and being “palely olive” of skin.
The other point is that the novel does mention that the US had some “anti-Jap torchlight processions,” but that Japan was “plucky” and didn’t deserve that kind of prejudice.
And did I mention that the European mad scientist had an atomic bomb?
As for the food at the US Embassy: “It was a home-like meal, albeit thin slices of lotos-stem floated in Barbara’s soup, the lobster had no claws, and the _entree_ was baked bamboo.”
Excellent articles. I really enjoyed these.