Haiku

ESSAY Haiku by C. Vann Woodward arly in 1953, while I was atJohns Hopkins, I received an invitation from the University ofTokyo to teach a class on the South during Reconstruction in the following summer term. I replied that I would like to accept their invitation, but added diat in view oftheir students' probable lack ofbackground, I thought it better to make my course treat the South in die nineteendi century. Their reply was extremely polite but quite firm in asking that my subject be confined to the South during Reconstruction. With some puzzlement I agreed. The puzzlement was cleared up shordy after I arrived and reported for duty. By far the most popular movie in town was Gone with the Wind, Japan was under reconstruction by Yankees, and the Japanese identified with the defeated Soudi. Facing a room full of rapt and attentive students, who seemed to understand my American English with southern accent, I held forth for the term. It was agreed that I give no examination and no grades, but I was asked to wind up widi an address to a university-wide audience, which seemed to go offwell. During the term I lunched daily widi Japanese colleagues at their faculty dining hall. At lunch toward the end of the term, I remarked diat I had read a lot in an English newspaper about anti-American feeling and demonstrations in Tokyo but had not witnessed any and asked where I could find it. Silence was followed by the customary titter covering embarrassment. Then one friend, who later visited me in the States, smiled slowly and said, "My dear colleague, you have been living at die center ofit since you have been with us." l9 ...