Army Orientations and Student Handbooks: Two Perspectives on Student Exchange during the US Occupation of Japan

Abstract

In 1951, the largest cohort of Japanese exchange students in history arrived in the United States. Between 1949 and 1952, around 787 Japanese nationals received Government Aid and Relief in Occupied Areas (GARIOA) scholarships, intended to cultivate a learned group of people to spread American ideas in Japan. The purpose was to provide Japanese university graduates with first-hand experience of US democracy; earning advanced degrees was secondary. The Army produced elaborate orientations and films to explain this goal to GARIOA recipients, who were among the only Japanese able to travel abroad and attend US universities. Because students found Army materials insufficient in preparing them for the challenges of studying and living in the United States and because they wanted to use the GARIOA program to their own ends, they wrote their own handbooks. A prime example is A Handbook for Japanese Students Going to America (Beikoku seikatsu sama zama), 1956, by the Exchange Student Association (Beikoku ryūgakusei kai). This article argues that Army orientations and student handbooks described Occupation-era educational exchange from two different perspectives and helped both groups to achieve their version of success and to engage in a larger conversation about the political role of exchange students in Cold War diplomacy.