Edwin Oldfather Reischauer ( / ˈ r aɪ ʃ aʊ . ər / RYSHE -ow-ər ; October 15, 1910 – September 1, 1990) was an American diplomat, educator, and professor at Harvard University . Born in Tokyo to American educational missionaries, he became a leading scholar of the history and culture of Japan and East Asia. Together with George M. McCune , a scholar of Korea, in 1939 he developed the McCune–Reischauer romanization of the Korean language.
146-600: Reischauer became involved in helping create US policy toward East Asia during and after World War II. President John F. Kennedy appointed Reischauer as the United States Ambassador to Japan , where he served from 1961 to 1966. Reischauer founded the Japan Institute at Harvard University in 1973 and was its founding director. It was later named in honor of him. Reischauer was born in Tokyo, Japan ,
292-562: A AB from Oberlin in 1931. On his 75th birthday, Reischauer recalled publicly that his aim in life after graduating in 1931 was to draw American attention to Asia . Reischauer earned his PhD from Harvard University in 1939. He was a student of the Russian-French Japanologist Serge Elisséeff , who had been the first Western graduate of the University of Tokyo . His doctoral dissertation
438-561: A US Marines military helicopter, creating indelible imagery of the so-called Hagerty Incident ( ハガチー事件 , Hagachii jiken ) that was transmitted by newswires around the world. MacArthur had hoped that the image of the car surrounded by protesters would incentivize the Japanese government to crack down harder on the protests. However, his actions backfired by suggesting instead that Eisenhower's safety would be at risk if he continued with his plans to visit Japan. On June 15, as part of
584-537: A " playboy ", describing his performance in the Senate and the House as "pathetic" on another occasion, saying that he was "smart enough, but he doesn't like the grunt work". Author John T. Shaw acknowledges that while his Senate career is not associated with acts of "historic statesmanship" or "novel political thought," Kennedy made modest contributions as a legislator, drafting more than 300 bills to assist Massachusetts and
730-575: A 1960 revision of the original 1952 Security Treaty , and eventually grew to become the largest popular protests in Japan's modern era. At the climax of the protests in June 1960, hundreds of thousands of protestors surrounded Japan's National Diet building in Tokyo on nearly a daily basis, and large protests took place in other cities and towns all across Japan. On June 15, protestors smashed their way into
876-538: A Bachelor of Arts in government, concentrating on international affairs . That fall, he enrolled at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and audited classes, but he left after a semester to help his father complete his memoirs as an American ambassador. In early 1941, Kennedy toured South America. Kennedy planned to attend Yale Law School , but canceled when American entry into World War II seemed imminent. In 1940, Kennedy attempted to enter
1022-496: A Japanese youth, in an apparent assassination attempt. Shiotani had a history of mental illness and had Ménière's disease , a disorder of the inner ear. He felt that he had not been properly treated by the American occupation and wished to draw attention to this cause by assassinating Reischauer. The attacker apparently acted alone and had no connection to any group. In the aftermath of the violence, Japan's Minister of Public Safety
1168-420: A badly burned crewman to the island with a life jacket strap clenched between his teeth. From there, Kennedy and his subordinate, Ensign George Ross, made forays through the coral islands, searching for help. When they encountered an English-speaking native with a canoe, Kennedy carved his location on a coconut shell and requested a boat rescue. Seven days after the collision, with the coconut message delivered,
1314-502: A brief stint in journalism, Kennedy represented a working-class Boston district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953. He was subsequently elected to the U.S. Senate , serving as the junior senator for Massachusetts from 1953 to 1960. While in the Senate, Kennedy published his book, Profiles in Courage , which won a Pulitzer Prize . Kennedy ran in the 1960 presidential election . His campaign gained momentum after
1460-468: A career diplomat. He also invited Ikeda to be the first foreign leader to visit the United States in his term in office, and at their 1961 summit, promised Ikeda he would henceforth treat Japan more like a close ally such as Great Britain. In Japan, the protests spurred a new wave of right-wing activism and violence, including the assassination of Socialist Party chairman Inejirō Asanuma during
1606-521: A dangerous global conflict. The April 1960 revolution in Korea that forced US-backed strongman Syngman Rhee from power proved an inspiration to Japanese protesters, as it showed that autocratic governments could be defeated by popular protests, even if they had the backing of the United States. Then on May 1, the U-2 Incident shattered the amiable "Spirit of Camp David" that had prevailed between
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#17327720719201752-534: A few minutes later, radical left-wing activists from the nationwide student federation Zengakuren smashed their way into the Diet compound itself, precipitating a long battle with police, who beat the unarmed students bloody with their batons in front of mass media reporters and television cameras. The police finally succeeded in clearing the Diet compound after 1 a.m., but in the struggle, a young female Tokyo University student and Zengakuren member named Michiko Kanba
1898-546: A heart ailment. Author James A. Michener introduced the widower to Haru Matsukata at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo in 1955. They married on January 16, 1956. They learned that, as teenagers, they had attended the same Tokyo high school. Haru confessed to having had a secret crush on him. Together they became a formidable team. They jointly designed their house in Belmont, Massachusetts . It
2044-418: A nationwide listening tour in Japan; although he did not reach his goal of visiting all 47 prefectures by the end of his time in office, he did manage to visit 39 of them. Reischauer's great efforts to charm the Japanese people were jocularly nicknamed the "Reischauer Offensive" ( Raishawā rosen ) by the Japanese press (sometimes alternatively, the "Kennedy-Reischauer Offensive"). Reischauer's time as ambassador
2190-508: A philanthropist and socialite. His paternal grandfather, P. J. Kennedy , was an East Boston ward boss and Massachusetts state legislator . Kennedy's maternal grandfather and namesake, John F. Fitzgerald , was a U.S. congressman and two-term mayor of Boston . All four of his grandparents were children of Irish immigrants. Kennedy had an older brother, Joseph Jr. , and seven younger siblings: Rosemary , Kathleen , Eunice , Patricia , Robert , Jean , and Ted . Kennedy's father amassed
2336-537: A politician, and at that time he suffered from extreme shyness. Kennedy found "most of his fellow congressmen boring, preoccupied as they all seemed to be with their narrow political concerns." The arcane House rules and customs, which slowed legislation, exasperated him. Kennedy served in the House for six years, joining the influential Education and Labor Committee and the Veterans' Affairs Committee . He concentrated his attention on international affairs, supporting
2482-433: A popular undergraduate survey of East Asian history and culture. The course, which was known as "Rice Paddies", was the basis for their widely influential textbooks, East Asia: The Great Tradition (1958) and East Asia: The Modern Transformation (1965). Reischauer wrote both for fellow scholars and for the general public, including Japan: Story of a Nation , which was published in several editions. He served as director of
2628-484: A preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut . Rose had wanted John and Joe Jr. to attend a Catholic school , but Joe Sr. thought that if they were to compete in the political world, they needed to be with boys from prominent Protestant families. John spent his first years at Choate in his older brother's shadow and compensated with rebellious behavior that attracted a clique. Their most notorious stunt
2774-414: A private fortune and established trust funds for his nine children that guaranteed lifelong financial independence. His business kept him away from home for long stretches, but Joe Sr. was a formidable presence in his children's lives. He encouraged them to be ambitious, emphasized political discussions at the dinner table, and demanded a high level of academic achievement. John's first exposure to politics
2920-402: A result of the first debate. The debates are now considered a milestone in American political history—the point at which the medium of television began to play a dominant role. Kennedy's campaign gained momentum after the first debate, and he pulled slightly ahead of Nixon in most polls. On Election Day, Kennedy defeated Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the 20th century. In
3066-493: A revision, negotiations began in 1958, and the new treaty was signed by Eisenhower and Kishi at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on January 19, 1960. From a Japanese perspective, the new treaty was a significant improvement over the original treaty, committing the United States to defend Japan in an attack, requiring prior consultation with the Japanese government before dispatching US forces based in Japan overseas, removing
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#17327720719203212-469: A senator "the most corrupting job in the world." He complained that they were all too quick to cut deals and please campaign contributors to ensure their political futures. Kennedy, with the luxury of a rich father who could finance his campaigns, could remain independent of any special interest, except for those in his home state of Massachusetts that could align against his reelection. According to Robert Caro , Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson viewed Kennedy as
3358-422: A series of televised debates . An estimated 70 million Americans, about two-thirds of the electorate, watched the first debate on September 26. Kennedy had met the day before with the producer to discuss the set design and camera placement. Nixon, just out of the hospital after a painful knee injury, did not take advantage of this opportunity and during the debate looked at the reporters asking questions and not at
3504-416: A series of " teas " at hotels and parlors across Massachusetts to reach out to women voters. In the presidential election, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower carried Massachusetts by 208,000 votes, but Kennedy narrowly defeated Lodge by 70,000 votes for the Senate seat. The following year, he married Jacqueline Bouvier . Kennedy underwent several spinal operations over the next two years. Often absent from
3650-583: A sizable Black population, Kennedy was not particularly sensitive to the problems of African Americans. Robert Kennedy later reflected, "We weren't thinking of the Negroes of Mississippi or Alabama—what should be done for them. We were thinking of what needed to be done in Massachusetts." Most historians and political scientists who have written about Kennedy refer to his U.S. Senate years as an interlude. According to Robert Dallek , Kennedy called being
3796-459: A televised election debate in the fall of 1960. Asanuma's assassination weakened the JSP, which was further riven by conflicts over the conduct of the anti-Treaty protests, leading to the splitting off of the breakaway Democratic Socialist Party . The Anpo protests also influenced a series of transformations in Japanese art and literature, as disillusionment with the failure of the protests to stop
3942-476: A third party. The Japanese government began pushing for a revision to the treaty as early as 1952. The Eisenhower administration, however, resisted calls for revision until a growing anti-US military base movement in Japan culminated in the Sunagawa Struggle of 1955-1957, whereby a US Air Force base expanded into a nearby village. Popular outrage in Japan escalated even further in the aftermath of
4088-644: A village on Cape Cod , where they swam, sailed, and played touch football. Christmas and Easter holidays were spent at their winter retreat in Palm Beach, Florida . In September 1930, Kennedy, 13 years old, was sent to the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut , for 8th grade. In April 1931, he had an appendectomy , after which he withdrew from Canterbury and recuperated at home. In September 1931, Kennedy started attending Choate ,
4234-536: A “sheer liability” and that the United States could turn them into an “asset” by enlisting them in the U.S. military. He reasoned that Japanese American soldiers would be useful for propaganda purposes – that is, to demonstrate to the world and particularly the “yellow and brown peoples” that the United States was not a racist nation. During the war, Reischauer served as a Japan expert for the US Army Intelligence Service . A myth developed after
4380-436: Is often claimed that television viewers overwhelmingly believed Kennedy, appearing to be the more attractive of the two, had won, while radio listeners (a smaller audience) thought Nixon had defeated him. However, only one poll split TV and radio voters like this and the methodology was poor. Pollster Elmo Roper concluded that the debates raised interest, boosted turnout, and gave Kennedy an extra two million votes, mostly as
4526-675: Is operated and used today as the Edwin O. Reischauer Memorial House . In 1973, Reischauer was the founding Director of the Japan Institute at Harvard University. It was renamed the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies in his honor when he turned 75, in 1985. Reischauer was also honored in 1985 by the opening of the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), part of Johns Hopkins University . Speaking at
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4672-719: The 1953 Worcester tornado ), except on certain occasions when the national interest was at stake. In 1954, Kennedy voted in favor of the Saint Lawrence Seaway which would connect the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, despite opposition from Massachusetts politicians who argued that the project would hurt the Port of Boston economically. In 1954, when the Senate voted to condemn Joseph McCarthy for breaking Senate rules and abusing an Army general, Kennedy
4818-858: The American embassy in London , where his father was serving as President Franklin D. Roosevelt 's ambassador to the Court of St. James's . The following year, Kennedy traveled throughout Europe, the Soviet Union , the Balkans , and the Middle East in preparation for his Harvard senior honors thesis. He then went to Berlin, where a U.S. diplomatic representative gave him a secret message about war breaking out soon to pass on to his father, and to Czechoslovakia before returning to London on September 1, 1939,
4964-631: The Anpo struggle ( 安保闘争 , Anpo tōsō ) in Japanese, were a series of massive protests throughout Japan from 1959 to 1960, and again in 1970, against the United States–Japan Security Treaty , which allows the United States to maintain military bases on Japanese soil. The name of the protests comes from the Japanese term for "Security Treaty," which is Anzen Hoshō Jōyaku ( 安全保障条約 ) , or just Anpo ( 安保 ) for short. The protests in 1959 and 1960 were staged in opposition to
5110-530: The Boston Council from 1946 to 1955 as district vice chairman, member of the executive board, vice-president, and National Council Representative. To appeal to the large Italian-American voting bloc in Massachusetts, Kennedy delivered a speech in November 1947 supporting a $ 227 million aid package to Italy. He maintained that Italy was in danger from an "onslaught of the communist minority" and that
5256-499: The Democratic presidential nomination . Though some questioned Kennedy's age and experience, his charisma and eloquence earned him numerous supporters. Kennedy faced several potential challengers, including Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, Adlai Stevenson II , and Senator Hubert Humphrey . Kennedy traveled extensively to build his support. His campaign strategy was to win several primaries to demonstrate his electability to
5402-473: The Fish and Wildlife Service budget, modernizing reserve-fleet vessels , tax incentives to prevent further business relocations, and the development of hydroelectric and nuclear power in Massachusetts. Kennedy's suggestions for stimulating the region's economy appealed to both parties by offering benefits to business and labor, and promising to serve national defense. Congress would eventually enact most of
5548-576: The Girard Incident of 1957, in which US Army Soldier William S. Girard, for his own amusement, fired an empty grenade shell at a housewife salvaging scrap near the military base where he was stationed, and killed her. Girard was convicted of manslaughter along with being subsequently demoted, and the US Supreme Court case Wilson v. Girard . This made animosity towards the status quo even more apparent. The United States agreed to
5694-701: The Harvard–Yenching Institute and chairman of the Department of Far Eastern Languages. For his farewell lecture at the Yenching Institute in 1981, students had to compete for seats with faculty colleagues, university officials, and a television crew from Japan. In that crowded scene, he said, "As I remember, there were only two graduate students interested in East Asian studies when I first came here: myself and my brother." Reischauer
5840-734: The McCune–Reischauer system for romanization of the Korean language , which became the most-widely used system for many years. Reischauer called Hangul , the Korean alphabet, "perhaps the most scientific system of writing in general use in any language." The statistical overview of writings by and about Reischauer, OCLC / WorldCat encompasses some 300 works in more than 1000 publications in 18 languages and more than 23,000 library holdings. John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK ,
5986-569: The National Defense Education Act in 1959 to eliminate the requirement that aid recipients sign a loyalty oath and provide supporting affidavits. Kennedy cast a procedural vote against President Eisenhower's bill for the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and this was considered by some to be an appeasement of Southern Democratic opponents of the bill. Kennedy did vote for Title III of the act, which would have given
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6132-864: The Naval Reserve Officer Training School in Chicago and at the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center in Melville, Rhode Island . His first command was PT-101 from December 7, 1942, until February 23, 1943. Unhappy to be assigned to the Panama Canal , far from the fighting, Kennedy appealed to Massachusetts senator David Walsh , who arranged for him to be assigned to the South Pacific . In April 1943, Kennedy
6278-549: The PT-109 crew were rescued. Almost immediately, the PT-109 rescue became a highly publicized event. The story was chronicled by John Hersey in The New Yorker in 1944 (decades later it was the basis of a successful film ). It followed Kennedy into politics and provided a strong foundation for his appeal as a leader. Hersey portrayed Kennedy as a modest, self-deprecating hero. For his courage and leadership, Kennedy
6424-620: The Truman Doctrine as the appropriate response to the emerging Cold War . He also supported public housing and opposed the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 , which restricted the power of labor unions. Though not as vocally anti-communist as Joseph McCarthy , Kennedy supported the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 , which required communists to register with the government, and he deplored
6570-839: The US Ambassador to Japan , proposed a plan to enable the US both to keep its military bases and to introduce nuclear weapons in Okinawa after the reversion of the US-occupied islands to Japanese sovereignty. Reischauer based his strategy on the symbolic political importance of reversion for Japan's conservative ruling party, but argued that the US did not have to "give Japan any real say in the use of our bases." He said that "if Japan would accept nuclear weapons on Japanese soil, including Okinawa , and if it would provide us with assurances guaranteeing our military commanders effective control of
6716-535: The party bosses , who controlled most of the delegates, and to prove to his detractors that a Catholic could win popular support. Victories over Senator Humphrey in the Wisconsin and West Virginia primaries gave Kennedy momentum as he moved on to the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. When Kennedy entered the convention, he had the most delegates, but not enough to ensure that he would win
6862-583: The " loss of China ." During a speech in Salem, Massachusetts on January 30, 1949, Kennedy denounced Truman and the State Department for contributing to the "tragic story of China whose freedom we once fought to preserve. What our young men had saved [in World War II], our diplomats and our President have frittered away." Having served as a boy scout during his childhood, Kennedy was active in
7008-696: The 1960 Anpo treaty's automatic renewal. Although shorter in duration, these later protests also achieved significant size. The original US-Japan Security Treaty had been forced on Japan by the United States as a condition for ending the US military occupation of Japan following the end of World War II . It was signed on September 8, 1951, along with the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty , formally ending World War II in Asia. The Security Treaty went into effect on April 28, 1952, in tandem with
7154-523: The Attorney General powers to enjoin, but Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson agreed to let the provision die as a compromise measure. Kennedy also voted for the "Jury Trial Amendment." Many civil rights advocates criticized that vote as one which would weaken the act. A final compromise bill, which Kennedy supported, was passed in September 1957. As a senator from Massachusetts, which lacked
7300-832: The Cuban government of Fidel Castro in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion and Operation Mongoose . In October 1962, U.S. spy planes discovered Soviet missile bases had been deployed in Cuba. The resulting period of tensions, termed the Cuban Missile Crisis , nearly resulted in nuclear war . In August 1961, after East German troops erected the Berlin Wall , Kennedy sent an army convoy to reassure West Berliners of U.S. support, and delivered one of his most famous speeches in West Berlin in June 1963. In 1963, Kennedy signed
7446-405: The Diet compound itself, leading to a violent clash with police. During the confrontation, a female Tokyo University student, Michiko Kanba , was killed. In the aftermath of this incident, a planned visit to Japan by US president Dwight D. Eisenhower was cancelled, and conservative prime minister Nobusuke Kishi was forced to resign. A second round of protests occurred in 1970 at the time of
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#17327720719207592-722: The Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12: "I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party candidate for president who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters—and the Church does not speak for me." He promised to respect the separation of church and state , and not to allow Catholic officials to dictate public policy. The Kennedy and Nixon campaigns agreed to
7738-802: The McClellan Committee) with his brother Robert, who was chief counsel, to investigate racketeering in labor-management relations. The hearings attracted extensive radio and television coverage where the Kennedy brothers engaged in dramatic arguments with controversial labor leaders, including Jimmy Hoffa , of the Teamsters Union . The following year, Kennedy introduced a bill to prevent the expenditure of union dues for improper purposes or private gain; to forbid loans from union funds for illicit transactions; and to compel audits of unions, which would ensure against false financial reports. It
7884-797: The National Diet, the US Embassy, and the Prime Minister's Official Residence in Tokyo occurred on a near daily basis, and large-scale protests were staged in city centers all over Japan. In June, the Sōhyō labor federation carried out a series of nationwide general strikes. The June 15 strike involved 6.4 million workers across the country, making it the largest strike in Japan's history. On June 10, Eisenhower's Press Secretary James Hagerty arrived at Tokyo's Haneda Airport to make advance preparations for Eisenhower's impending arrival. Hagerty
8030-496: The New England region (some of which became law). In 1958 , Kennedy was re-elected to the Senate, defeating his Republican opponent, Boston lawyer Vincent J. Celeste, with 73.6 percent of the vote, the largest winning margin in the history of Massachusetts politics. In the aftermath of his re-election, Kennedy began preparing to run for president by traveling throughout the U.S. with the aim of building his candidacy for 1960. On January 2, 1960, Kennedy announced his candidacy for
8176-429: The Pacific. He oversaw a professional advertising campaign that ensured ads went up in just the right places the campaign had a virtual monopoly on [Boston] subway space, and on window stickers ("Kennedy for Congress") for cars and homes and was the force behind the mass mailing of Hersey's PT-109 article. Though Republicans took control of the House in the 1946 elections , Kennedy defeated his Republican opponent in
8322-428: The Police Bill, and Kishi was forced to withdraw it. This victory emboldened the protestors, and rather than disbanding, the anti-Police Bill coalition remained active and recruited new member organizations to oppose the revised Security Treaty, which was in the final stages of negotiation. Rebranding itself the People's Council for Preventing Revision of the Security Treaty ( Anpo Jōyaku Kaitei Soshi Kokumin Kaigi ) in
8468-459: The Senate in 1952 against Republican three-term incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. with the campaign slogan "KENNEDY WILL DO MORE FOR MASSACHUSETTS". Joe Sr. again financed his son's candidacy (persuading the Boston Post to switch its support to Kennedy by promising the publisher a $ 500,000 loan), while John's younger brother Robert emerged as campaign manager. Kennedy's mother and sisters contributed as highly effective canvassers by hosting
8614-445: The Senate, he was at times critically ill and received Catholic last rites . During his convalescence in 1956, he published Profiles in Courage , a book about U.S. senators who risked their careers for their personal beliefs, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1957. Rumors that this work was ghostwritten by his close adviser and speechwriter , Ted Sorensen , were confirmed in Sorensen's 2008 autobiography. At
8760-547: The South, and blamed the right-to-work provision for giving the South an unfair advantage over Massachusetts in labor costs. In May 1953, Kennedy introduced "The Economic Problems of New England", a 36-point program to help Massachusetts industries such as fishing , textile manufacturing , watchmaking , and shipbuilding , as well as the Boston seaport. Kennedy's policy agenda included protective tariffs , preventing excessive speculation in raw wool, stronger efforts to research and market American fish products, an increase in
8906-470: The United States and the Soviet Union since Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev 's visit to the United States the previous September. In the aftermath of the incident, the Soviet Union disinvited Eisenhower from his planned visit to the USSR the coming summer and the brief thaw in the Cold War came to an end. It also came to light that some of the U-2 spy planes that were used to surveil the Soviet Union were based at US bases in Japan, further fueling fears that in
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#17327720719209052-422: The United States, Reischauer attracted the attention of Kennedy's transition team when he wrote an article about the protests in the prominent policy journal Foreign Affairs called "The Broken Dialogue with Japan." In this article Reischauer rejected the notion, put forth by the Eisenhower administration, that the protests had been a communist plot. Instead, he argued that the protests reflected real grievances on
9198-467: The Warrior River at Choiseul Island , taking ten marines aboard and delivering them to safety. Under doctor's orders, Kennedy was relieved of his command on November 18, and sent to the hospital on Tulagi. By December 1943, with his health deteriorating, Kennedy left the Pacific front and arrived in San Francisco in early January 1944. After receiving treatment for his back injury at the Chelsea Naval Hospital in Massachusetts from May to December 1944, he
9344-405: The anti-Treaty coalition's 24th united action, hundreds of thousands of protestors marched on the National Diet in Tokyo. In the late afternoon, the protestors were attacked by right-wing ultranationalist counter-protestors, who rammed them with trucks and attacked them with wooden staves spiked with nails, causing dozens of injuries from moderate to severe, including several hospitalizations. Just
9490-461: The army's Officer Candidate School . Despite months of training, he was medically disqualified due to his chronic back problems. On September 24, 1941, Kennedy, with the help of the director of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) and the former naval attaché to Joe Sr., Alan Kirk, joined the United States Naval Reserve . He was commissioned an ensign on October 26, 1941, and joined the ONI staff in Washington, D.C. In January 1942, Kennedy
9636-426: The base of Kolombangara around 2:00 a.m., and attempted to turn to attack, when PT-109 was rammed suddenly at an angle and cut in half by the destroyer Amagiri , killing two PT-109 crew members. Avoiding surrender, the remaining crew swam towards Plum Pudding Island , 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southwest of the remains of PT-109 , on August 2. Despite re-injuring his back in the collision, Kennedy towed
9782-440: The camera. Kennedy wore a blue suit and shirt to cut down on glare and appeared sharply focused against the gray studio background. Nixon wore a light-colored suit that blended into the gray background; in combination with the harsh studio lighting that left Nixon perspiring, he offered a less-than-commanding presence. By contrast, Kennedy appeared relaxed, tanned, and telegenic, looking into the camera whilst answering questions. It
9928-502: The campus newspaper, but had little involvement with campus politics, preferring to concentrate on athletics and his social life. Kennedy played football and was on the JV squad during his sophomore year, but an injury forced him off the team, and left him with back problems that plagued him for the rest of his life. He won membership in the Hasty Pudding Club and the Spee Club , one of Harvard's elite " final clubs ". In July 1938, Kennedy sailed overseas with his older brother to work at
10074-481: The case of a nuclear war, Japan might become a target. Meanwhile, in the National Diet the revised treaty faced an arduous path to ratification. Although the opposition Japan Socialist Party (JSP) controlled only about a third of the seats in the Diet, and thus lacked the votes to prevent ratification, the Socialists used a variety of parliamentary tactics to drag out debate, in hopes of preventing ratification before Eisenhower's planned arrival on June 19, and giving
10220-400: The clause preauthorizing suppression of domestic disturbances, and specifying an initial 10-year term, after which the treaty could be abrogated by either party with one year's notice. Because the new treaty was better than the old one, Kishi expected it to be ratified in relatively short order. Accordingly, he invited Eisenhower to visit Japan beginning on June 19, 1960, in part to celebrate
10366-544: The country was the "initial battleground in the communist drive to capture Western Europe." To combat Soviet efforts to take control in Middle Eastern and Asian countries like Indochina , Kennedy wanted the United States to develop nonmilitary techniques of resistance that would not create suspicions of neoimperialism or add to the country's financial burden. The problem, as he saw it, was not simply to be anti-communist but to stand for something that these emerging nations would find appealing. Almost every weekend that Congress
10512-537: The day that Germany invaded Poland ; the start of World War II . Two days later, the family was in the House of Commons for speeches endorsing the United Kingdom's declaration of war on Germany. Kennedy was sent as his father's representative to help with arrangements for American survivors of the torpedoing of SS Athenia before flying back to the U.S. on his first transatlantic flight. While Kennedy
10658-418: The decade of the 1960s, left-wing activists looked forward to the end of the revised treaty's initial 10-year term in 1970 as an opportunity to try to persuade the Japanese government to abrogate the treaty. In 1970, in the wake of the 1968–69 Japanese university protests in Japan, a number of student groups, civic groups, and the anti-Vietnam War organization Beheiren held a series of protest marches against
10804-461: The dedication ceremonies in Baltimore , Senator Jay Rockefeller , one of Reischauer's former students, described Reischauer as being "what a teacher is meant to be, one who can change the life of his students." At the same event, Japan's ambassador, Nabuo Matsunaga, read a personal message from Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone : "I know of no other man who has so thoroughly understood Japan." For
10950-403: The end of the occupation of Japan. The original Security Treaty had no specified end date or means of abrogation, allowed US forces stationed in Japan to be used for any purpose without prior consultation with the Japanese government, had a clause specifically authorizing US troops to put down domestic protests in Japan, and did not commit the United States to defend Japan if Japan were attacked by
11096-725: The extension was approved, when Kishi then called for immediate ratification of the treaty. With only members of Kishi's own party present, the revised Security Treaty was approved by the Lower House of the Diet with no debate and only a voice vote . According to Japanese law, if the Upper House failed to vote on the treaty, which seemed highly likely given the political chaos, the treaty would automatically take effect 30 days later on June 19, just in time for Eisenhower's arrival. Kishi's "anti-democratic" actions during this May 19th Incident ( 五・一九事件 , Go-ichi-kyū jiken ) stunned
11242-442: The extra-parliamentary protests more time to grow. With Eisenhower's visit approaching, Kishi became increasingly anxious to ratify the treaty in time. Moreover, the Diet session was scheduled to end almost a month earlier, on May 26. Late in the evening on May 19, Kishi took the desperate measure of suddenly and unexpectedly calling for a 50-day extension of the Diet session, in defiance of longstanding parliamentary norms and over
11388-610: The fall general election campaign, the Republican nominee and incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon held a six-point lead in the polls. Major issues included how to get the economy moving again, Kennedy's Catholicism, the Cuban Revolution , and whether the space and missile programs of the Soviet Union had surpassed those of the U.S. To address fears that his being Catholic would impact his decision-making, he told
11534-743: The first nuclear weapons treaty . He presided over the establishment of the Peace Corps , Alliance for Progress with Latin America, and the continuation of the Apollo program with the goal of landing a man on the Moon before 1970. He supported the civil rights movement but was only somewhat successful in passing his New Frontier domestic policies. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas . His vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson , assumed
11680-639: The first televised presidential debates in American history, and he was elected president, narrowly defeating Republican opponent Richard Nixon , the incumbent vice president. Kennedy's presidency saw high tensions with communist states in the Cold War. He increased the number of American military advisers in South Vietnam , and the Strategic Hamlet Program began during his presidency. In 1961, he authorized attempts to overthrow
11826-408: The general election, taking 73 percent of the vote. As a congressman, Kennedy had a reputation for not taking much interest in the running of his office or his constituents' concerns, with one of the highest absenteeism rates in the House, although much was explained by illness. George Smathers , one of his few political friends at the time, claimed that he was more interested in being a writer than
11972-627: The general public can only regard it as a tragedy that politics has prevented the recommendations of the McClellan committee from being carried out this year," Kennedy announced. That same year, Kennedy joined the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee . There he supported Algeria's effort to gain independence from France and sponsored an amendment to the Mutual Defense Assistance Act that would provide aid to Soviet satellite nations. Kennedy also introduced an amendment to
12118-514: The general public. His personal life has been the focus of considerable sustained interest following public revelations in the 1970s of his chronic health ailments and extramarital affairs . Kennedy is the most recent U.S. president to have died in office . John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born outside Boston in Brookline, Massachusetts , on May 29, 1917, to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. , a businessman and politician, and Rose Kennedy ( née Fitzgerald),
12264-413: The high level of Sinological scholarship that a graduate student was expected to demonstrate. By October 1940, Reischauer had become aware of the possibility of war with Japan. He wrote a memorandum for the U.S. Navy pointing out that very few Americans knew the kind of written Japanese that was used in military situations and hardly any could read Japanese that had been handwritten in a hurry. His solution
12410-1086: The islands in time of military crisis, then we would be able to keep our bases on the islands, even though 'full sovereignty' reverted to Japan." These "became key elements [of] the 1969 U.S.-Japan Okinawa Reversion Agreement," effectively making "U.S. military presence more or less permanent and maintaining the option to introduce nuclear weapons." In a 1981 article, Time reported: "Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Edwin O. Reischauer revealed that ...U.S. naval vessels carrying nuclear weapons have routinely visited Japanese ports—with Tokyo's tacit approval." The secret memo also revealed Reischauer's proposed countermeasures to quell "nationalistic reaction" to continuing US military presence in Okinawa. In his 2010 article, "'Secret' 1965 Memo Reveals Plans to Keep U.S. bases and Nuclear Weapons Options in Okinawa After Reversion," Steve Rabson, author and lecturer on Okinawan literature, history, and culture, wrote: To reduce
12556-491: The last decade of his life, Reischauer was afflicted by a variety of ailments and illnesses related to the hepatitis infection he had contracted from tainted blood following the attempt on his life while serving as US Ambassador to Japan. As a result of these ailments, Reischauer had to withdraw from active teaching and lecturing. Finally, in 1990, Reischauer succumbed to complications of hepatitis-C. Reischauer promoted US foreign policy both in public and in government on Japan and
12702-557: The local language. As Ambassador, Reischauer worked to repair the recent rift in US-Japan relations. Reischauer made "equal partnership" the watchword of his time as ambassador, and constantly pushed for more equal treatment of Japan. He advocated and helped arrange a summit meeting between Kennedy and new Japanese prime minister Hayato Ikeda in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1961. Historian Nick Kapur has argued that this summit
12848-534: The memo revealed a "condescension toward Japanese people" and a "purely instrumentalist and manipulative stance." In the abstract to his article, "The Reischauer Memo: Mr. Moto, Hirohito, and Japanese American Soldiers," Fujitani wrote: Already at this early date in the war, Reischauer proposed retention of the Japanese emperor as head of a postwar “puppet regime” that would serve U.S. interests in East Asia . He also argued that Japanese Americans had until then been
12994-528: The nation and even much of his own party. Kishi received criticism from across the political spectrum, with even conservative newspapers calling for his resignation. In late May and into June, the anti-Treaty protests greatly increased in size, as many ordinary citizens took to the streets to express their outrage, and the aims of the protests expanded from protesting the Security Treaty to ousting Kishi and "protecting democracy." Large protests around
13140-523: The national popular vote, by most accounts , Kennedy led Nixon by just two-tenths of one percent (49.7% to 49.5%), while in the Electoral College , he won 303 votes to Nixon's 219 (269 were needed to win). Fourteen electors from Mississippi and Alabama refused to support Kennedy because of his support for the civil rights movement ; they voted for Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, as did an elector from Oklahoma. Forty-three years old, Kennedy
13286-495: The nations of the world to join to fight what he called the "common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself." He added: All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin." In closing, he expanded on his desire for greater internationalism: "Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of
13432-472: The newly ratified treaty. If Eisenhower's visit had proceeded as planned, he would have become the first sitting US president to visit Japan. Many on the Japanese left, and some on the right, were united in hoping to chart a more neutral course in the Cold War , and thus hoped to get rid of the treaty and the U.S.–Japan Alliance entirely. Therefore, even though the revised treaty was manifestly superior to
13578-425: The nomination. Stevenson—the 1952 and 1956 presidential nominee—remained very popular, while Johnson also hoped to win the nomination with support from party leaders. Kennedy's candidacy also faced opposition from former President Harry S. Truman , who was concerned about Kennedy's lack of experience. Kennedy knew that a second ballot could give the nomination to Johnson or someone else, and his well-organized campaign
13724-618: The opportunity, but there is not a word of truth to it. As has been amply proved by my friend Otis Cary of Doshisha in Kyoto, the only person deserving credit for saving Kyoto from destruction is Henry L. Stimson, the Secretary of War at the time, who had known and admired Kyoto ever since his honeymoon there several decades earlier. A secret memorandum, declassified in 1996, detailed a conversation among top US military and civilian officials on July 16, 1965, in Tokyo. Reischauer, then serving as
13870-520: The opposition of many members of his own ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). When Socialist Diet members staged a sit-in in the halls of the Diet, Kishi took the unprecedented step of calling 500 police officers into the Diet chambers and having opposition lawmakers physically removed from the premises. Thereafter, with only members of his own party present, he passed the extension of the Diet Session. A final shock came after midnight, just after
14016-587: The original treaty, these groups decided to oppose ratification of the revised treaty. Kishi anticipated that such protests might arise, and in the fall of 1958 attempted to pass a "Police Duties Bill" which would have given police in Japan new powers of warrantless search and seizure in order to target protesters ahead of treaty ratification. However, this proved to be a miscalculation, as the law reminded many in Japan of pre-World War II authoritarianism and provoked widespread popular outrage. A nationwide coalition of political and civic organizations coalesced to oppose
14162-478: The part of the Japanese in relation to US, and were exacerbated by a failure by American leaders to reach out to Japanese opinion leaders and try to understand Japanese concerns. Reischauer argued forcefully that only skillful and nuanced diplomacy could repair this "broken dialogue." On the advice of his advisors, Kennedy decided that Reischauer himself would be the best candidate for the job, and nominated Reischauer to be his first (and only) ambassador to Japan. This
14308-598: The presidency . Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination, but he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby two days later. The FBI and the Warren Commission both concluded Oswald had acted alone, but conspiracy theories about the assassination persist. After Kennedy's death, Congress enacted many of his proposals, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Revenue Act of 1964 . Kennedy ranks highly in polls of U.S. presidents with historians and
14454-468: The presidency. After Joe's death, the assignment fell to JFK as the second eldest. Boston mayor Maurice J. Tobin discussed the possibility of John becoming his running mate in 1946 as a candidate for Massachusetts lieutenant governor , but Joe Sr. preferred a congressional campaign that could send John to Washington, where he could have national visibility. At the urging of Kennedy's father, U.S. Representative James Michael Curley vacated his seat in
14600-467: The presidential nomination, Kennedy gave his well-known " New Frontier " speech: For the problems are not all solved and the battles are not all won—and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier. ... But the New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises—it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. At the start of
14746-581: The program. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Audubon Society supporter, wanted to make sure that the shorelines of Cape Cod remained unsullied by industrialization. On September 3, 1959, Kennedy co-sponsored the Cape Cod National Seashore bill with his Republican colleague Senator Leverett Saltonstall . As a senator, Kennedy quickly won a reputation for responsiveness to requests from constituents (i.e., co-sponsoring legislation to provide federal loans to help rebuild communities damaged by
14892-542: The prominent Kennedy family in Brookline, Massachusetts , Kennedy graduated from Harvard University in 1940, joining the U.S. Naval Reserve the following year. During World War II , he commanded PT boats in the Pacific theater . Kennedy's survival following the sinking of PT-109 and his rescue of his fellow sailors made him a war hero and earned the Navy and Marine Corps Medal , but left him with serious injuries. After
15038-403: The protest movement. Nevertheless, the largest single day of protests in the entire movement took place on June 18, the day before the treaty would automatically take effect. Hundreds of thousands of protesters surrounded the National Diet, hoping to somehow stop the treaty at the last moment. The protestors remained in place until after midnight, when the treaty automatically took effect. With
15184-415: The protests and the humiliating cancellation of Eisenhower's visit brought US-Japan relations to their lowest ebb since the end of World War II. However, the incoming administration of President John F. Kennedy responded by taking a more gentle approach to US-Japan relations. Kennedy appointed sympathetic Japan expert and Harvard University professor Edwin O. Reischauer as ambassador to Japan, rather than
15330-552: The rest of Asia after World War II and during the Vietnam War . On September 14, 1942, three years before the end of World War II, Reischauer, then an instructor in Far Eastern languages at Harvard University, wrote the "Memorandum on Policy towards Japan." It laid out a plan on how the US could attain its postwar objective of "winning the peace" in Asia. According to late 20th-century Japanese historian Takashi Fujitani,
15476-487: The risk of “disturbances” in Okinawa, Reischauer proposed an increase in U.S. aid, revision of the Price Act to increase compensation for owners of land the U.S. had seized for base construction, and a loosening of the ban on flying the Japanese flag. It is difficult to measure precisely his influence at the time, but all three of these recommendations became U.S. policy. With George M. McCune , Reischauer in 1939 published
15622-585: The school yearbook and was voted the "most likely to succeed." Kennedy intended to study under Harold Laski at the London School of Economics , as his older brother had done. Ill health forced his return to the U.S. in October 1935, when he enrolled late at Princeton University , but had to leave after two months due to gastrointestinal illness. In September 1936, Kennedy enrolled at Harvard College . He wrote occasionally for The Harvard Crimson ,
15768-727: The son of Helen Sidwell (Oldfather) and August Karl Reischauer , Presbyterian educational missionaries. His father helped found the Tokyo Woman's Christian University along with Nitobe Inazō and Yasui Tetsu . His mother founded the Japan Deaf Oral School, the first of its kind in Japan. He and his younger brother Robert attended the American School in Japan before going to the United States for college. Both did graduate work in Asian studies. Edwin graduated with
15914-536: The southern tip of the Solomon's Kolombangara Island. Intelligence had been sent to Kennedy's Commander Thomas G. Warfield expecting the arrival of the large Japanese naval force that would pass on the evening of August 1. Of the 24 torpedoes fired that night by eight of the American PTs, not one hit the Japanese convoy. On that moonless night, Kennedy spotted a Japanese destroyer heading north on its return from
16060-423: The spring of 1959, the coalition coordinated a series of "united actions" in which thousands of local "joint struggle councils" around the nation would take part in coordinated protest activity on specified days. Over the rest of 1959 and into 1960, the protest movement continued to gradually grow larger, especially as heightening Cold War tensions inspired fear that the new treaty would lock Japan into one side of
16206-566: The start of his first term, Kennedy focused on fulfilling the promise of his campaign to do "more for Massachusetts" than his predecessor. Although Kennedy's and Lodge's legislative records were similarly liberal, Lodge voted for the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 and Kennedy voted against it. On NBC 's Meet the Press , Kennedy excoriated Lodge for not doing enough to prevent the increasing migration of manufacturing jobs from Massachusetts to
16352-552: The state delegation to the party's presidential nominee, Adlai Stevenson II , at the Democratic National Convention in August. Stevenson let the convention select the vice presidential nominee . Kennedy finished second in the balloting, losing to Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, but receiving national exposure. In 1957, Kennedy joined the Senate's Select Committee on Labor Rackets (also known as
16498-737: The strongly Democratic 11th congressional district of Massachusetts to become mayor of Boston in 1946. Kennedy established legal residency at 122 Bowdoin Street across from the Massachusetts State House . Kennedy won the Democratic primary with 42 percent of the vote, defeating nine other candidates. According to Fredrik Logevall, Joe Sr. spent hours on the phone with reporters and editors, seeking information, trading confidences, and cajoling them into publishing puff pieces on John, ones that invariably played up his war record in
16644-430: The student movement, as heated disagreements over who was to blame for the failure to stop the treaty led to infighting. In the immediate aftermath of the protests, the previously unified nationwide Zengakuren student federation disintegrated into numerous warring factions, paving the way for the rise of the radical New Left sects that would play a leading role in the 1968-69 Japanese university protests . Throughout
16790-644: The summer of 1942, at the request of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, Reischauer started running a top-secret course at Arlington Hall in Virginia. Arlington Hall had been a women's college, but it was taken over by the US Army Signal Intelligence Service in June 1942 and functioned like Bletchley Park in England as a secret cryptanalysis centre. Reischauer had a 40-year teaching career at Harvard. He and John King Fairbank developed
16936-514: The treaty in force and Kishi's resignation becoming official on July 15, the protest movement lost momentum. Although the anti-Treaty coalition held a few more "united actions," turnout was low, and the movement died away. The 1960 Anpo protests had ultimately failed to stop the revised US-Japan Security Treaty from taking effect, but they did force the resignation of the Kishi Cabinet and the cancellation of Eisenhower's planned visit. Kishi
17082-417: The treaty led more artists and writers to experiment with new types of artistic and literary forms. Japanese students who were in college or graduate school between 1960 and 1970 and protested against the Security Treaty are often remembered as the "Anpo Generation" (安保世代, Anpo sedai ), suggesting the defining role the anti-Treaty protests had in their lives. However, the protests had a splintering effect on
17228-539: The war and its origins, and quickly became a bestseller. In addition to addressing Britain's unwillingness to strengthen its military in the lead-up to the war, the book called for an Anglo-American alliance against the rising totalitarian powers. Kennedy became increasingly supportive of U.S. intervention in World War II, and his father's isolationist beliefs resulted in the latter's dismissal as ambassador. In 1940, Kennedy graduated cum laude from Harvard with
17374-414: The war that he had prevented the US from a nuclear bombing of Kyoto . Robert Jungk , in his memoir about the war and atomic scientists, claimed that Reischauer convinced his boss to persuade Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson not to bomb Kyoto, and to have it crossed off the black list of potential sites. Reischauer specifically denied that popular myth: I probably would have done this if I had ever had
17520-502: The world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. The address reflected Kennedy's confidence that his administration would chart a historically significant course in both domestic policy and foreign affairs. The contrast between this optimistic vision and the pressures of managing daily political realities would be one of the main tensions of the early years of his administration. Anpo Protests 1970 The Anpo protests , also known as
17666-679: Was " Nittō guhō junrei gyōki : Ennin's Diary of His Travels in T'ang China, 838–847," a study and translation of the Japanese monk Ennin 's travelogues on his journeys in China during the Tang dynasty . Ennin's work, Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law ( 入唐求法巡礼行記 ; Middle Chinese : Nyip-Dang gjuw-pjop zwin-léi hæng-kì ), is written in Classical Chinese . Reischauer's work shows
17812-417: Was a break with precedent, because previous ambassadors to Japan had been career State Department officials who had no special connection with Japan. In fact, State Department officials viewed strong connections with an ambassador's host country with suspicion and opposed Reischauer's nomination on these grounds. However, Kennedy prevailed and Reischauer became the first US ambassador to Japan who actually knew
17958-533: Was a friend of William Randolph Hearst , arranged a position for his son as a special correspondent for Hearst Newspapers ; the assignment kept Kennedy's name in the public eye and "expose[d] him to journalism as a possible career." That May he went to Berlin as a correspondent, covering the Potsdam Conference and other events. Kennedy's elder brother Joe Jr. had been the family's political standard-bearer and had been tapped by their father to seek
18104-439: Was a success, and led to a substantial realignment of the US-Japan alliance in the direction of greater mutuality. Reischauer hoped to return the favor by having Kennedy become the first sitting US president to visit Japan. Kennedy was agreeable, and initial preparations were made, but Kennedy was assassinated before he could make the visit and Secretary of State Dean Rusk went in his place in early 1964. Reischauer also embarked on
18250-509: Was able to earn the support of just enough delegates to win the presidential nomination on the first ballot. Kennedy ignored the opposition of his brother Robert, who wanted him to choose labor leader Walter Reuther , and other liberal supporters when he chose Johnson as his vice-presidential nominee. He believed that the Texas senator could help him win support from the South . In accepting
18396-550: Was an upperclassman at Harvard, he began to take his studies more seriously and developed an interest in political philosophy . He made the dean's list in his junior year. In 1940, Kennedy completed his thesis, "Appeasement in Munich", about British negotiations during the Munich Agreement . The thesis was released on July 24, under the title Why England Slept . The book was one of the first to offer information about
18542-506: Was appointed US Ambassador to Japan by President John F. Kennedy in the spring of 1961, at a time when US-Japan relations were at a low point following the massive 1960 protests in Japan against the US-Japan Security Treaty . In the immediate aftermath of the protests, Reischauer had traveled to Japan and spoken with various Japanese friends and associates to get a Japanese point of view on the protests. After returning to
18688-581: Was assigned to Motor Torpedo Squadron TWO, and on April 24 he took command of PT-109 , then based on Tulagi Island in the Solomons . On the night of August 1–2, in support of the New Georgia campaign , PT-109 and fourteen other PTs were ordered to block or repel four Japanese destroyers and floatplanes carrying food, supplies, and 900 Japanese soldiers to the Vila Plantation garrison on
18834-548: Was assigned to the ONI field office at Headquarters, Sixth Naval District , in Charleston, South Carolina . His hope was to be the commander of a PT (patrol torpedo) boat , but his health problems seemed almost certain to prevent active duty. Kennedy's father intervened by providing misleading medical records and convincing PT officers that his presence would bring publicity to the fleet. Kennedy completed six months of training at
18980-457: Was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal , and the injuries he suffered during the incident qualified him for a Purple Heart . After a month's recovery Kennedy returned to duty, commanding the PT-59 . On November 2, Kennedy's PT-59 took part with two other PTs in the rescue of 40–50 marines. The 59 acted as a shield from shore fire as they escaped on two rescue landing craft at the base of
19126-437: Was compelled to resign. Reischauer received a blood transfusion and recovered from his wound, but the transfusion he received in the hospital was tainted with hepatitis C virus, which would lead to a variety of ailments for Reischauer in future years, and ultimately contribute to his death 26 years later. Reischauer married (Elinor) Adrienne Danton in Tokyo on July 5, 1935. They had three children together. She died in 1955 of
19272-565: Was easy. They cut my PT boat in half." On August 12, 1944, Kennedy's older brother, Joe Jr. , a navy pilot, was killed on an air mission. His body was never recovered. The news reached the family's home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, a day later. Kennedy felt that Joe Jr.'s reckless flight was partly an effort to outdo him. To console himself, Kennedy set out to assemble a privately published book of remembrances of his brother, As We Remember Joe . In April 1945, Kennedy's father, who
19418-417: Was exploding a toilet seat with a firecracker. In the next chapel assembly, the headmaster, George St. John, brandished the toilet seat and spoke of "muckers" who would "spit in our sea," leading Kennedy to name his group "The Muckers Club," which included roommate and lifelong friend Lem Billings . Kennedy graduated from Choate in June 1935, finishing 64th of 112 students. He had been the business manager of
19564-479: Was in session, Kennedy would fly back to Massachusetts to give speeches to veteran, fraternal, and civic groups, while maintaining an index card file on individuals who might be helpful for a campaign for statewide office. Contemplating whether to run for Massachusetts governor or the U.S. Senate , Kennedy abandoned interest in the former, believing that the governor "sat in an office, handing out sewer contracts." As early as 1949, Kennedy began preparing to run for
19710-485: Was killed. After this violent June 15th Incident ( 六・一五事件 , Roku-ichi-go jiken ) , pressure mounted on Kishi to cancel Eisenhower's visit. Kishi hoped to secure the streets for Eisenhower's visit by calling out the Japan Self Defense Forces and tens of thousands of right-wing thugs that would be provided by his friend, the yakuza -affiliated right-wing "fixer" Yoshio Kodama . However, he
19856-515: Was picked up in a black car by US Ambassador to Japan Douglas MacArthur II (the nephew of the famous general ), who deliberately provoked an international incident by ordering that the car be driven into a large crowd of protesters. The protesters surrounded the car, cracking its windows, smashing its tail lights, and rocking it back and forth for more than an hour while standing on its roof, chanting anti-American slogans and singing protest songs. Ultimately, MacArthur and Hagerty had to be rescued by
20002-574: Was released from active duty. Beginning in January 1945, Kennedy spent three months recovering from his back injury at Castle Hot Springs , a resort and temporary military hospital in Arizona. On March 1, 1945, Kennedy retired from the Navy Reserve on physical disability and was honorably discharged with the full rank of lieutenant. When later asked how he became a war hero, Kennedy joked: "It
20148-576: Was seen as a success, and he stayed in the role until 1966, continuing on under the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson . However, his time as ambassador ended on two notes of tragedy. Toward the end of his ambassadorship, Reischauer increasingly had to defend the US war in Vietnam , and increasingly felt uncomfortable doing so, ultimately leading to his resignation. In addition, Reischauer was hospitalized in March 1964 after being stabbed by Shiotani Norikazu,
20294-546: Was succeeded as prime minister by Hayato Ikeda , who took a much more conciliatory stance toward the political opposition, indefinitely shelved Kishi's plans to revise the Japanese Constitution , and announced the Income Doubling Plan to redirect the nation's energies away from contentious political struggles and toward a nationwide drive for rapid economic growth. The anti-American aspect of
20440-411: Was talked out of these extreme measures by his cabinet, and thereafter had no choice but to cancel Eisenhower's visit and take responsibility for the chaos by announcing his own resignation on June 16. On June 17, newspapers across the nation, which had previously supported the protestors in their struggle to oust Kishi, issued a joint editorial condemning violence on both sides and calling for an end to
20586-451: Was the youngest person ever elected to the presidency (though Theodore Roosevelt was a year younger when he succeeded to the presidency after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901). Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president at noon on January 20, 1961. In his inaugural address , he spoke of the need for all Americans to be active citizens: "Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country." He asked
20732-501: Was the 35th president of the United States , serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War , and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba . A Democrat , Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the United States Congress prior to his presidency. Born into
20878-539: Was the first major labor relations bill to pass either house since the Taft–Hartley Act of 1947 and dealt largely with the control of union abuses exposed by the McClellan Committee but did not incorporate tough Taft–Hartley amendments requested by President Eisenhower. It survived Senate floor attempts to include Taft-Hartley amendments and passed but was rejected by the House. "Honest union members and
21024-586: Was the only Democrat not to cast a vote against him. Kennedy drafted a speech supporting the censure. However, it was not delivered because Kennedy was hospitalized for back surgery in Boston. Although Kennedy never indicated how he would have voted, the episode damaged his support among members of the liberal community in the 1956 and 1960 elections. In 1956, Kennedy gained control of the Massachusetts Democratic Party , and delivered
21170-415: Was to create a Japanese language school to train linguists in advance. Reischauer's warning did not go unheeded. It landed on the desk of Lieutenant (later Commander) Albert Hindmarsh of the U.S. Navy, and he agreed that there were indeed few competent Japanese-speaking officers available. The result was the creation of the U.S. Navy Japanese Language School, which spent most of the war at Boulder, Colorado. In
21316-822: Was touring the Boston wards with his grandfather Fitzgerald during his 1922 failed gubernatorial campaign. With Joe Sr.'s business ventures concentrated on Wall Street and Hollywood and an outbreak of polio in Massachusetts , the family decided to move from Boston to the Riverdale neighborhood of New York City in September 1927. Several years later, his brother Robert told Look magazine that his father left Boston because of job signs that read: " No Irish Need Apply ." The Kennedys spent summers and early autumns at their home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts ,
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