U-M Group To Take Full Supplies For Setting Up Center In Japan

400 Pounds Of Rice!

U-M Group To Take Full Supplies For Setting Up Center In Japan

Carrying household goods and a six-month supply of food including-of all things-400 pounds of rice, the group named to open the University’s new research center in Japan will said from San Francisco Sunday, Feb 12.

The rice will provide the party’s food on field trips away from the center, since the researchers are pledged not to procure Japanese food staples.

In the party which will staff the center in Okayama are Dr. Richard K. Beardsley, assistant professor of anthropology; Dr. Robert E. Ward, political science instructor; and John Douglas Eyre, graduate student in geography. All three will be accompanied by their wives, and Beardsleys’ daughters, Elizabeth, six, and Kathryn, two, also will make the trip.

Preceding them will be Dr. Robert B. Hall, director of the University’s Center for Japanese Studies, who will sail Feb. 3. Dr. Hall was in Japan last summer making arrangements for the buildings the branch will occupy in the first research center of its kind established overseas.

On ‘Inland Sea’

The Center is located on Honshu, north of the islands of Kyushu and Shikoku, about 100 miles north-east of the atom-bombed Hiroshima. The site, on the Inland Sea, was chosen because it represents “the cradle of Japanese culture.” The researchers will determine the social effects of Japan’s violent transformation, within a century, from a feudal to an industrial civilization.

Planning the new establishment has been like preparing a small army for an invasion, Dr. Hall said today. Gen. MacArthur’s headquarters approved the project with the understanding that it would be self-sufficient and would not burden the Japanese economy.

With foresight and diplomacy, Dr. Hall first asked the three wives to make lists of what they would need to set up their quarters and maintain their families for a year.

Supplies Gathered

The lists were turned over to various University departments for checking and procurement. The food list was submitted to dietitions to check for balance and vitamin content. Half of the supply of more than 300 food items, all canned or otherwise preserved, will be sent on later.

The U-M plant department took care of household and kitchen lists; the School of Public Health made suggestions on medical supplies; and the purchasing department procured all items.

Clothing and other personal items were left to the families.

The party will drive from Ann Arbor to San Francisco to board the steamship General Gordon for Yokahama. They will complete the trip to Okayama in automobiles which are part of their equipment.