Paul Rusch in Postwar Japan: Evangelism, Rural Development, and the Battle against Communism by Andrew T. McDonald and Verlaine Stoner McDonald (review)

In May 2017, I had an opportunity to volunteer at the Model Lab School at Eastern Kentucky University. I was there as an interpreter for a guest from Japan: Mr. Genki Ueno, an artist from Hokuto City, Yamanashi Prefecture, who was scheduled to teach several classes at the Lab School. As I translated Mr. Genki's lectures from Japanese into English to the 5th and 7th graders, and as I helped the children wrestle with lumps of clay for their projects, I learned that the visit was a part of an annual artist exchange between Madison County and Hokuto City. It was therefore a pleasure to read and review a book about Paul Rusch (1897–1979), the inspiration behind this exchange program.

A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Rusch first arrived in Tokyo in 1925. His mission, through the YMCA, was to rebuild the churches that had been destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. He remained in Japan and dedicated most of life to projects that he believed would improve Japan, initially through the Tokyo chapter of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew (BSA) that he created at Rikkyo University in 1927, and then through Seisen–Ryo, the mountain retreat in Hokuto City that later expanded into an experimental farm project. He tirelessly commuted across the Pacific to the U.S. to raise funds for his projects. Even in advanced age and ailing health, Rusch refused to stop his work for Seisen–Ryo.

In one account, the story of Paul Rusch is about a foreigner—a Westerner, to be more precise—who stayed for an extended period in Japan and became an "expert." Many have done this in the past. There have been architects such as Josiah Conder and Antonin Raymond, who aspired to bring the "West" to modernizing Japan. Cultural connoisseurs like Edward Morse and Ernest Fenollosa, on the other hand, lamented the loss of "traditional" Japan and collected what they deemed authentically Japanese to bring back to the U.S. for safekeeping. What is remarkable about Paul Rusch is his audacity, determination, and lack of expertise. He sought to transform all of Japan and the Japanese, first through faith as a Christian missionary, and later through what he coined "practical Christianity" and "democracy in a kimono" (p. 135, 181).

Indeed, during the Allied Occupation (1945–1952), the American occupiers' goal was to deliver democracy to Japan. But even after Japan recovered from the devastation of the war, fully democratized, and emerged as a world economic power, Rusch still held on to his belief that the Japanese people needed to be salvaged through his brand of democracy. Rusch never acquired adequate command of Japanese, despite his lengthy stay in Japan. His knowledge of Japan, then, was always filtered through his handlers who consistently aimed to please him.

What Rusch did possess were exceptional networking skills and opportunities. His networks in Japan grew from the Japan Episcopal Church contacts to quickly include social elites, prime ministers, and members of the imperial family. His American networks grew first through the Church, and later, in the U.S. Army.

Rusch was also an opportunist. In the years leading up to Japan's military clash with the U.S., Rusch, still living in Japan, acted as an apologist for the Japanese military's aggressions in Asia—a stance that gave him privilege when he was detained once war broke out. Upon returning to the U.S. in 1942, Rusch promoted himself as an expert on Japan and joined the Military Intelligence Service. In this capacity, he supported the expansive aerial bombing that devastated Japan. Back in Tokyo as a part of the Allied Occupation Forces, Rusch used his vast networks in the Japanese political world to access intelligence material, which he used to aid Douglas MacArthur's mission...