Lafcadio Hearn: Interpreter of Japan

Abstract

IN A RECENT BIBLIOGRAPHY of books on Japan Lafcadio Hearn is described as famous writer . . who, more than anyone else, is responsible for the traditional view of Japan.' Nearly two decades of Japanese military aggression in China and the Pacific have destroyed the picture of the quaint, childlike Japanese, which has been superseded by the equally false view of the Japanese as subhuman barbarians. The labeling of Hearn's writings as romantic nullifies their value for the postwar reader, so that those who seek an accurate account of the development of modern Japan may be deterred from consulting Hearn's books on Japan. But, while it is true that Hearn sentimentalized and misrepresented certain aspects of Japanese culture, his works as a whole present a detailed and informative picture of Japan during the latter part of the Meiji Era. Hearn's colorful career, the history of an erratic and impulsive personality, has imparted an aura of romance to his writings on Japan, but he was not a mere rhapsodist over things Japanese. His love for Japan did not prevent him from being a clear-sighted reporter of Japanese customs, and, on occasion, a capable analyst of Japanese culture. It is unjust and misleading to view Hearn as a mere fabricator of exotic tales. One of his contemporaries, Basil Hall Chamberlain, Professor of Japanese Philology at Tokyo Imperial University, commended Hearn for his scientific accuracy as well as for his brilliance of style.2 Even Japanese writers who have attacked the view of Japan do not dismiss Hearn's work as completely invalid, although they believe that his picture of Japanese life is misleading.3 At the present time, despite the discrediting of the view during World War II, Hearn's final and most com-