A YANKEE IN MEIJI JAPAN
The Crusading Journalist Edward H. House
by JAMES L. HUFFMAN
Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003. 328 pages, $60 (hardcover), $24.95 (paperback)

reviewed by Yasuhiro Makimura

James Huffman's well-written biography of the American journalist Edward House is a welcome addition to the list of English-language books on Meiji Japan (1868-1911). House, who was born near Boston in 1836, lived an adventurous life, earning his professional reputation first as a reporter during the U.S. Civil War, and then in Japan, where he went after the war and spent most of the rest of his life. The biography alternates between House's life and short narrative passages on Japan. Thus, for example, the reader can learn about some of major challenges Japan faced between 1876 and 1881 and then follow, in meticulous detail, how House lived as an editor of an English-language weekly in Japan from 1877 to 1880. It is fortunate that Huffman, a professor of history at Wittenberg University, chose this forgotten, nineteenth-century journalist as a subject for biography, because an examination of House's life helps to illuminate the values and the society of the time.

The book is structured so that the odd-numbered chapters cover the historical background while the even-numbered chapters chronicle House's personal life. After the introduction, chapter one examines the Maria Luz incident of 1872, the first newsworthy event House covered in Japan. In chapter two, the reader learns of House's early years, in Boston, when he was interested in music and the arts. But he was not immune from the greatest issue of his day, namely slavery, and thus as a young man, he threw himself into the role of an antislavery advocate. In chapter three, Huffman describes similarly momentous events in Japanevents that led to the end of the Tokugawa shoguns and the beginning of the Meiji Restoration.

Chapter four follows House from his arrival in Japan in 1870, as a columnist for the New York Tribune and a part-time professor of English literature at the newly created Tokyo University, to his departure in 1873. The focus then shifts to the political scene inside Japan from 1870 to 1875, in particular the Korean debate. In chapter six, Huffman examines House's participation in Japan's short expedition to Taiwan in 1874. After a brief return to the United States, House came back to Japan and joined Japanese forces on their military excursion. House's reports and writings clearly demonstrate that he felt sympathy for Japan. A first-rate journalist, he cultivated relationships with men in high positions, the most prominent being Shigenobu Ôkuma, who was then finance minister and who eventually became prime minister. In these early years in Japan, House had found a new cause to fight for, one that would remain a lifelong dedication: Japan's struggle against what he considered were the various injustices facing an Asian country trying to adapt to the modern world.

An analysis of the last military rebellion in modern Japan, the Satsuma rebellion of 1877, and the government's decision to promulgate a constitution in 1881, is followed by a detailed description of House's years as the editor of the Tokio Times from 1877 to 1880. It was as editor of the Tokio Times, a weekly English-language newspaper partly funded by the Japanese government, that House found his best platform. In those three and a half years, he continued to rail against various injustices, chief among them the "Unequal Treaty" system, which denied Japan tariff autonomy and legal jurisdiction over Westerners. It is also worth noting that House took up feminist issues as well, an equally rare topic of debate in the nineteenth century.

Continuing the odd-even division of the chapters, Huffman goes on to describe mid-Meiji society from 1881 to 1885 and then shifts the focus back on House, who returned to America in 1880. On this trip, he brought with him his adopted daughter, a Japanese girl named Koto. He also returned with a severe case of gout. While his public role as a writer would never diminish, his gout would bother him for the rest of his life. Back in the United States, he met with old friendsincluding Mark Twainand continued to write on behalf of Japan, working as Ôkuma's secretly paid agent to try to improve Japan's image among American officials. Unfortunately, the Tokio Times, which was "temporarily" suspended in 1880 when House left for America, shuttered forever when Ôkuma was ousted from the government in 1881. Thus when House returned to Japan in 1882, there was no job waiting for him, and his gout had worsened to such an extent that his legs were paralyzed. Yet his productivity remained; he continued to write on behalf of Japan and lived on a pension from a Japanese government grateful for his services over the years.

The last four chapters continue to alternate between the situation in Japan and House's life. Chapters eleven and thirteen cover the political events in Japan from 1885 to 1892 and from 1893 to 1901, respectively. Chapters twelve and fourteen follow House between 1886 and 1892 and then between 1892 and 1901. House himself continued to travel back and forth between America and Japan, but he spent his last years (1892-1901) in Japan. Those years were not filled with joy; his friendship with Twain had shattered in 1889, gout severely hindered his movement, and his daughter, who had always been at his side and nursed him for so long, married in 1896. Nevertheless, he continued his energetic efforts in writing on behalf of Japan, championing equality of the sexes, and denouncing missionary activity. The last, in particular, roused opposition, for it was a position adamantly against the grain of the Victorian world.

Huffman's biography is a detailed, factual narrative that flows smoothly, allowing the reader to follow House's life as it is set against a complicated historical background. However, for those who may be more interested in topical discussions, or for those who already know the historical background, a more thorough treatment of some of the themes might have been more satisfying. This biography will appeal to those who are interested in the journey of a nineteenth-century Western journalist and man of letters in the political and social context of Meiji Japan.