“A Prince Among the Jews”
“He said that after the Western powers defeated Japan (he spoke of this more openly than I had ever heard any Japanese do), he had had the on, the obligation, to Westernize himself. He had gone on to learn Western culture. And, he said, in the six years of his study, he discovered one supreme fact; that the Jews were the key to Western civilization. The truth incarnated in Judaism, a truth of being rather than of theory, is the central meaning of history. …
Prince Mikasa entered Tokyo University in 1947 and studied in the department of European history until 1950. “The prince, at first, was not interested in Hebraic studies. His initial interest was in the Reformation. He was aware that Communism came out of the Christian world. He felt he wanted to begin with the Reformation. After a year, he came to my office one day, unannounced, and asked how he could best pursue the study of the Reformation. I told His Highness that to study the Reformation, he must learn more about Christianity, the history of early Christianity and the history of the Hebrew religion.” It was also with Professor Ohata, noted a later biographer, that Prince Mikasa “studied the original texts of the Old Testament and ancient Hebrew history.”
According to Professor Ohata, Prince Mikasa then decided to study Hebrew for the rest of his life and maintained a particular interest in the biblical prophets of Israel…
In July 1968, the International Association for the History of Religions hosted their bi-decade conference in Jerusalem on the topic of “Types of Redemption.” Though Prince Mikasa did not attend in person, he served as honorary president of the gathering and sent opening remarks that were shared at the conference. He wrote:
It is a privilege and honor for me to send a word of greeting to you all assembled at the westernmost end of Asia from its easternmost extremity on this happy occasion”
There is so much in here that I really appreciate encountering. I’m so used to narratives of Westerners “discovering” ancient truths from other cultures, or Westerners distantly claiming expert scholarship of another culture, that I I’ve gotten really cynical about “cultural exchange” — especially because, as an American, it’s impossible to disentangle it from a certain kind of cultural imperialism.
I want to read more about this from more perspectives. How were his views received in Japan, how did people in the Middle East feel when his organization came to dig up there ruins, what successes did he make in establishing a sense of commonality across Japanese and Jewish communities, what did he add to the scholarship?
