ER first met novelist Pearl Buck (1892-1973) in 1924, when Buck, a graduate student in
English, helped welcome ER to Cornell University as a guest lecturer. For the next
twenty-five years Buck and ER corresponded intermittently, often on the subjects of
China and Indian independence, and during World War II ER even turned to Buck for
expertise on Chinese affairs following Madame Chiang Kai-Shek’s visit to the White
House. On several occasions, moreover, ER discussed Buck and her work in My Day, as
she did July 26, 1937, when she favorably recommended Buck’s essay,“On Discovering
America,” to her readers.1
Thus aware of ER’s interest in Asia and Asian-American relations, Buck turned to
her for assistance in replying to a letter from “an intelligent Japanese woman,” Telon
Mogi, who had written Buck after reading her 1931 novel, The Good Earth. In her letter,
Mogi expressed both admiration and bewilderment at the Americans who had come to
live in her hometown of Kanagawaken as a part of the postwar occupation force, and
confessed astonishment at the comfortable lifestyle they carried with them. To Buck she
related this experience through a description of her encounter with the American military
family who had taken up residence next door to her:
A family of an American officer is living in the house next door to mine, and just
imagine how great was my expectation when I first called on them. Opening
their front door was to me opening a door to a new world. When I set one foot
into that house, I stepped into a new civilization. In Japan only millionaires had
such a kitchen. And now no Japanese can afford to have such a kitchen due to
the electricity shortage. I could not help screaming wonderful! …The hostess
said with glitter in her eyes, that to have a single stain on this white linen would
be a greatest shame on them, American house-wives. In her bed-room, were
beautifully draped curtains which she had sewn herself. The house was changed
almost out of recognition. As if by some magic, it has been turned into a most
beautiful, charming house. I was struck by the house-keeping ability of
American women…These American wives are enjoying within one week an
amount of pleasure which we cannot hope to have in a year’s time. We, povertystricken Japanese women could not even feel envious. I was overwhelmed and
aghast.
The American officer’s wife to whom Mogi referred in this passage also surprised her by
revealing a lack of curiosity about Japan and its people. “Sitting in this comfortable and
bright living room,” Mogi wrote,
…I felt dry and dreary as if I were wandering about a desert, and I cannot but
feel some measure of anxiety, disappointment and loneliness as to the future of
America which should be the centre of the world civilization. Why has not
higher intellingence been born out of such abundant resources? This is a serious
weakness for America. That the moral and spiritual civilization is not in parallel
with the material and mechanical civilization is suggestive of something grave
for the future forwards which America is leading…In my three years experience,
the greater part of the Americans who came with the Occupation do not
understand Japan and would not try to do so. Certainly these people are not the
kind of people who possess high American Culture.
In forwarding this letter, Buck wrote that she hoped ER might“take a little time to write
her a letter which will explain to her something of our life and civilization.”2
ER replied directly to Mogi 3 October 1949.
Eleanor Roosevelt to Telon Mogi
3 October 1949 [New York]
My dear Mrs. Mogi:
Miss Pearl Buck has sent me a copy of the letter which you wrote to her and has
asked me to answer you.
I understand very well how a Japanese woman would feel who is talking to an
American woman who has very little intellectual background and who had moved as
much of her material background as she could to Japan with her. I am sure she felt she
must show her Japanese neighbors the value of the things which American democracy
had developed, forgetting that material developments are important, but not as important
as developments which touch the mind and the soul.
There are many women, even among those who now accompany their husbands
to Japan and live there temporarily, who would have been able to look less bored as you
tried to talk about a variety of subjects of interest to you and who really have a desire to
know more and to understand Japan. I think you must also realize that since Pearl Harbor
Day there has had to be a recognition in this country of the fact that while the people of
Japan may not have actually been responsible for what their government was doing, still
to the people of the United States who had long lived under a democracy and had become
accustomed to taking responsibility for their government’s actions, have a sense that the
Japanese must be held responsible for beginning the war between our two countries. That
would lead to a certain artificial contact with anyone you might meet over there. They
would not want to hurt your feelings and yet they would feel that it would be difficult to
talk on any real subjects because this barrier of antagonism would pay between.
I imagine you have given very little thought to this possibility but you must
remember that to us forgetting is difficult.
I understand very well the greatness of Pearl Buck’s heroine in Good Earth.
Oran’s self-restraint is “a characteristic virtue of the Orient”, and not so well understood
as it should be among us in this country.3 That, however, is not the barrier between you
and the women whom you are now meeting. I think it is more apt to be the fact that they
can not forget recent events, and it will be some time before they can wipe out the
thought of the responsibility of the Japanese people for bringing about the war between
our two countries.
Very sincerely yours,
TLc AERP, FDRL
1
Madame Chiang, the wife of Nationalist leader Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, toured
the US November 1942-May 1943 to rally support for China’s battle against Japanese
occupation (for more on this visit, see ERP, vol. 1, 98n3). After Chiang left Washington,
Buck wrote ER a memorandum of her knowledge of the Chiang family and the state of
Chinese politics. Buck foresaw a “bloody civil war” after the retreat of Japan, and warned
of Chiang Kai-Shek’s lack of support in comparison to the communists (MD, 26 July
1937; Conn, 79, 196-97, 271-72).
2
Pearl S. Buck to ER, 19 September 1949, AERP, FDRL; Telon Mogi to Pearl Buck, 12
May 1949, AERP, FDRL.
In her letter to Buck, Mogi praised the novelist’s portrayal of O-lan (the original English
spelling of the character’s name), the heroine of The Good Earth. Mogi cited “Oran” as
an exemplar of “self-control” and “self restraint,” and lamented, “as far as I know, there
is not one American who understood it” (Telon Mogi to Pearl Buck, 12 May 1949,
AERP, FDRL).
3