The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
CredoResearch digital collections in Credo

Collecting area: Japan

Passin, Herbert

Herbert Passin Collection

1944-1955
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 565

A distinguished scholar of contemporary Japan, Herbert Passin was born in Chicago on Dec. 16, 1916. After completing a doctorate in anthropology in 1941, Passin was inducted into the Army and sent to the Army’s Japanese language school in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for training. Assigned to duty in Tokyo in December 1945, he became chief of the Public Opinion and Sociological Research Division under Gen. Douglas MacArthur. During his tour of duty, Passin coordinated a series of sociological studies of Japanese village life to help guide U.S. Occupation policy, particularly as it dealt with land and labor reform.

The Passin Collection contains reports and notes of sociological surveys of two Japanese villages, Yuzurihara and Yawatano, conducted by U.S. Occupation authorities in 1946 and 1947, along with a wartime report by Arthur Meadow of “Japanese character structure based on Japanese film plots and thematic apperception tests on Japanese Americans,” and a post-war letter from the novelist Takami Jun.

Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser, Oct. 2007

Subjects

Japan--History--Allied occupation, 1945-1952Japan--Sociology--Occupation

Contributors

Passin, Herbert

Types of material

Letters (Correspondence)
Stockbridge, Levi, 1820-1904

Levi Stockbridge Papers

1841-1878
4 boxes 2 linear feet
Call no.: RG 003/1 S76
Depiction of Levi Stockbridge, ca.1853
Levi Stockbridge, ca.1853

Born in Hadley, Mass., in 1820, Levi Stockbridge was one of the first instructors at Massachusetts Agricultural College and President from 1879-1882. Known for his work on improving crop production and for developing fertilizers, Stockbridge was an important figure in the establishment of the college’s Experiment Station. After filling in as interim President of MAC in 1879, he was appointed president for two years, serving during a period of intense financial stress. After his retirement in 1882, he was named an honorary professor of agriculture.

The Stockbridge Papers include correspondence, personal notebooks, travel diary, journal as a farmer (1842-1845), writings, lectures, notes on experiments, clippings, photocopies of personal and legal records, and biographical material, including reminiscences by Stockbridge’s daughter. Also contains auction records, notebook of Amherst, Massachusetts town records (1876-1890), and printed matter about Amherst and national elections, including some about his candidacy for Congress on Labor-Greenback party ticket 1880. Also contains papers (13 items) of Stockbridge’s son, Horace Edward Stockbridge (1857-1930), agricultural chemist and educator, including a letter (1885) from him to the elder Stockbridge, written from Japan while he was professor at Hokkaido University.

Subjects

Agriculture--Experimentation--HistoryAgriculturists--Massachusetts--HistoryAmherst (Mass.)--Politics and government--19th centuryGreenback Labor Party (U.S.)--HistoryJapan--Description and travel--19th centuryLegislators--Massachusetts--History--19th centuryMassachusetts Agricultural CollegeMassachusetts Agricultural College--StudentsMassachusetts Agricultural College. PresidentMassachusetts Cattle CommissionMassachusetts--Politics and government--1865-1950Stockbridge family

Contributors

Stockbridge, Horace E. (Horace Edward),1857-1930Stockbridge, Levi, 1820-1904

Types of material

Diaries
Totman, Conrad D.

Conrad D. Totman Papers

1800-2005
65 boxes 53 linear feet
Call no.: MS 447
Depiction of Conrad Totman in his office
Conrad Totman in his office

A scholar of the history and culture of early modern Japan, Conrad Totman began his career as a student of ornamental horticulture at the University of Massachusetts. After graduation in 1953, Totman served in the army for three years in South Korea where got his first taste of Japanese culture during leave. His experiences in Japan piqued his scholarly interest, and upon his return to the states with his new wife Michiko, he finished college at UMass and did his graduate work at Harvard where he received a doctorate in 1964 for a study of politics during the Tokugawa period. Totman held academic positions at UC Santa Barbara, Northwestern, and Yale before retiring in 1997.

The bulk of the collection documents Professor Totman’s education and professional work as a scholar and teacher of Japanese history. Dispersed throughout is a treasure trove of information on Japan in general, and particularly on his specialties: early modern Japan and forestry and environmental management. An enormous, highly influential, and cherished part of Totman’s life is his family, and the Totman clan is well represented in this collection. Reams of genealogical material document the rich heritage of the Totman family, including the transcribed love letters and diaries of his paternal grandmother and biographies of Totman ancestors, as well as hundreds of letters written between Michiko and her family in Japan.

Subjects

Afforestation--Japan--Akita-ken--HistoryAgriculture--Japan--HistoryAgriculture--Korea--HistoryConway (Mass.)--GenealogyDairy farms--MassachusettsFamily farms--United StatesFarm life--United StatesForest management--Japan--Akita-ken--HistoryForest policy--JapanForests and forestry--JapanHuman ecology--Japan--HistoryHuman ecology--Korea--HistoryJapan--Civilization--American influencesJapan--Environmental conditionsJapan--History--1952-Japan--History--Restoration, 1853-1870Japan--History--Tokugawa period, 1600-1868Japan--Politics and government--1600-1868Korea--American influencesKorea--Environmental conditionsKorea--History--1948-1960Lumber trade--Japan--HistoryTokugawa, Ieyasu, 1543-1616Totman familyUnited States--Army--Medical personnel--Correspondence

Contributors

Drew, Raymond Totman, 1923-1981Lewis, Gertrude Minnie, 1896-Totman, Conrad DTotman, Ruth J

Types of material

GenealogiesLetters (Correspondence)MemoirsPhotographs
Wheeler, William

William Wheeler Papers

1876-1930
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: RG 002/3 W54
Depiction of William Wheeler, ca.1876
William Wheeler, ca.1876

The civil engineer William Wheeler was a member of the first graduating class of Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1871, and was one of its most prominent alumni of the nineteenth century. In 1876, Wheeler joined MAC President William Smith Clark and two other alumni of the college in helping to found the Sapporo Agricultural College in Japan (now Hokkaido University), succeeding Clark as president of SAP from 1877 to 1879. In later life, he was a successful hydraulic engineer and long-time trustee of MAC (1887-1929).

A small, tightly focused collection, the Wheeler Papers consist largely of letters written home by Wheeler while working at the Sapporo Agricultural College, 1876-1880. Typically long and descriptive, the letters include excellent accounts of travel in Japan and Wheeler’s impressions of Japanese culture, but they provide detailed insight as well into the work involved in establishing Sapporo Agricultural College.

Subjects

Agriculture--JapanClark, William Smith, 1826-1886Hokkaido (Japan)--Description and travel--19th centuryHokkaido DaigakuJapan--Description and travel--19th centuryMassachusetts Agricultural CollegePenhallow, D. P. (David Pearce), 1854-1910Sapporo (Japan)--Description and travel--19th century

Contributors

Hudson, WoodwardWheeler, William, 1851-1932

Types of material

Letters (Correspondence)
Yamashita, Yoshiaki, 1865-1935

Yoshiaki Yamashita Photograph Album

ca.1904
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: PH 006
Depiction of Yoshiaki and Fude Yamashita, ca.1904
Yoshiaki and Fude Yamashita, ca.1904

From 1903 to 1906, Professor Yoshiaki Yamashita of Tokyo traveled the United States providing instruction in the new martial art of judo. In Washington, D.C., he provided instruction for the sons and daughters of the nation’s political and business elite and was brought to the White House to teach President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1905-1906, Yamashita was employed by the U.S. Naval Academy to train midshipmen, but after his contract ended in the fall 1906, he returned to Japan and continued to teach judo until his death on October 26, 1935. He was posthumously awarded the 10th degree black belt, the first ever so honored.

The Yamashita photograph album contains 53 silver developing out prints apparently taken to illustrate various judo throws and holds, along with Yamashita’s calling card and four documents relating to his time teaching judo in Washington.

Gift of Caroline Watson, Dec. 2007

Subjects

Judo--PhotographsKawaguchi, SaburoYamashita, FudeYamashita, Yoshiaki

Types of material

Photograph albumsPhotographs