Matsukata Haru
Haru Matsukata (Mrs. Edwin Oldfather Reischauer, US Ambassador to Japan) was born in 1915 in Japan and died in 1958 in La Jolla, San Diego Co., California. She studied at Principia College in Illinois. She later worked as a newspaper reporter in the United States before meeting Reischauer in Japan, whom she met in 1955 and married in 1956. They returned to Harvard later the same year. She was the granddaughter of Prince Matsukata Masayoshi. On her father's side, Haru was the grandchild of Prince Matsukata Masayoshi, one of the genro or "founding fathers" of modern Japan; on her mother's side, she was the grandchild of Rioichiro Arai, who came to the United States in 1876 to initiate the direct trade of silk between the U.S. and Japan.
In 1961 she returned to Japan with her husband when he was appointed ambassador to Japan. They lived in Japan until 1966 and then went back to the United States, where she was to take an active role as a director of the Japan-America Student Conference. Her biography, “Samurai and Silk: A Japanese and American Heritage” by was made into a TV film "Long Shadows" (American Playhouse 1994).
In 1961 she returned to Japan with her husband when he was appointed ambassador to Japan. They lived in Japan until 1966 and then went back to the United States, where she was to take an active role as a director of the Japan-America Student Conference. Her biography, “Samurai and Silk: A Japanese and American Heritage” by was made into a TV film "Long Shadows" (American Playhouse 1994).
Date & Place:
in USA