1979-80 The 14th annual convention was held at the University of Tokyo, Komaba Campus (College of General Education), on April 3-4, 1980. As the university had pioneered in developing the American Studies program in the early 1950's, the convention appropriately focused through two symposiums on the present situation of American Studies in Japan. The first symposium, chaired by Katsuhiro Jinzaki (Literature, Hiroshima University), discussed problems in American studies as an educational pro- gram. Five panelists, who had had experience in planning and managing an American studies program, spoke on curriculums and teaching methods for American studies developed in their respective institutions. The panclists were Yoshimitsu Ide (History, University of Tsukuba), Ichiro Iwano (History, Nanzan University), Kensaburo Shinkawa (History, University of Tokyo), Jukichi Suzuki (Literature, Hokkaido University), and Shinji Takuwa (Litera- ture, Kyushu University). The symposium served as a point of departure for a series of workshops which were held in June, September and December, 1980, under the auspices of the Chu-Shikoku Regional American Studies Association with the collaboration of our Association. The second symposium, chaired by Nagayo Homma (History, University of Tokyo), reviewed the present state of research in American studies. The panelists were Kiyotaka Aoyagi (Social studies, International Christian Uni- versity), Koichiro Fujikura (Law, Doshisha University), Yasuo Hashiguchi (Literature, Kyushu University), Wataru Omori (Political science, University of Tokyo), and Eisaku Kihira (History, Nanzan University). They, representing different disciplines, made critical appraisals of past achievements and sug- gested new areas and problems to be explored. Aside from these two symposiums, another symposium was held under the title of "The 1960's: A Transfiguration of American Society." With Tatsuro Nomura (Social history, Aichi Prefectural University) in the chair, four pan- elists participated: Hiroya Bamba (Economics, Doshisha University), Yasuo Furuya (Religion, International Christian University), Shigeo Hamano (Litera- ture, Tohoku University) and Hideyo Naganuma (Social studies, Tsuda Col- lege). In another session of the convention, two presented papers in the field of literature: Koichi Ikeda (University of Tokyo) on Herman Melville and
193
Yoshiko Takita on Laura I. Wilder. The guest speaker for the Convention Dr. Gerald Benjamin, Associate Professor of Political Science at the S University of New York, currently a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Tokyo. He spoke on the 1980 Presidential election. As for business matters, the newly elected Board of Directors met on the second day of the convention. Chaired by outgoing President Kinuko Kubota, the Board elected Makoto Saito as President, and Akira Imazu and Motoo Kaji as Vice-Presidents. Five executive directors were also elected, Tadashi Aruga, Nagayo Homma, Takashi Hirano, Yoshimitsu Ide and Nobunao Matsuyama. The Board then elected former President Kenichi Nakaya (1974-76) an honorary member as a token of their recognition of his outstanding contri- bution to the Association. In the business session which immediately followed the Board meeting, Mr. Nakaya made a short speech in response to the citation read by Makoto Saito. As for the other activities of the Association during the year, Vol. 14 of the Amerika kenkyū ( American Review ), the annual publication of the Association, was published in March, 1980. The volume featured "Pluralism in America," with four contributed articles: Atsushi Shirai, "America: the Cradleland of Socialism"; Tadatoshi Saito, "American Pluralism and the American Negro— with emphasis on Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin"; Nobuyuki Honna, "On the Linguistic and Cultural Contact between Anglo- and Mexican-Americans in he Southwest—with special reference to bilingual education"; and Satae Shinoda, "Japanese-American Literature: A Brief History." Other articles contributed to the volume were: Kazumi Fujimoto, "The Formation of the Party and Its Organizational Structure in Virginia during the Nineteenth Century"; Midori Yamamoto, "Thoreau's 'A week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers': Structural and Thematic Unity"; Noriaki Nakai, "Coverdale's Narrative: A Portrait of the Artist as a Nineteenth Century American in the Blithedale Romance"; Takashi Sasaki, "Women in American Literature at the Turn of the Century: Continuity and Change"; and Eiichi Shindo, "The Mars and Mercuries in American Diplomacy: The Open Door Policy Revisited (in English)." All the articles, except for the last, were written in Japanese. The publication of newsletters on a quarterly basis is another activity carried on by the Association. In 1979-80, Nos. 53-56 of the JAAS Newsletter were published. Occasionally the Association sponsors seminars and symposiums, usually inviting a guest speaker. In 1979, two seminars and one symposium were held: a seminar with Professor Morton White on the philosophy of the American Revolution, a seminar with Professor Irving Louis Horowitz on the recent trends in American politics, and a symposium with Dr. Daniel Boorstin on trends in American studies in Japan. Another project started by the Association in 1979 was to assist a project team of the American Historical Association led by Professor Louis Hanke in editing a "Guide to the study of U.S. History outside the U.S., 1945-1980." Our Association will supply for this international bibliography an annotated bib- liography of representative Japanese works. For this purpose a committee was set up with Nagayo Homma as chairman.
1980-81
The 15th annual convention met at Konan Women's University on March 30-31, 1981, on the beautiful hillside of Mt. Rokko in Kobe city. The program included a general session for selected topics, a symposium, and four separate group sessions. The general session for selected topics was chaired by Motoo Kaji who introduced four reporters to read their papers: Teruhiko Mukai (Literature, Niigata University), Izumi Ogura (Literature, University of Tokai), and Hiro- aki Shinozaki (History, Junshin Women's Junior College). Following the general session was a symposium, chaired by Nagayo Homma, on "Japan and the United States: A Comparison of Their Cultures." Those who sat as panelists were Hideo Tanaka (Law, University of Tokyo), Yasuo Sakakibara (Economics, Doshisha University), Kenzaburo Ohashi (Literature, Tsurumi University), and Shigeru Usami (International relations, Tokyo Un- iversity of Foreign Studies). As for the four group sessions, discussions were carried on on each of the following: (1) Europe and America, (2) Cities and American Culture, (3) American Popular Novels, and (4) Conservatism and Liberalism in Con- temporary America. In the first session, the chairman was Makoto Saito and reporters were Takeshi Sasaki (Political thought, Tokyo Dental and Medical University), Reiji Matsumoto (Political thought, University of Tsukuba), and Toshio Watanabe (Literature, University of Tokyo). In the second session, chaired by Kosuke Shimura (History, Hiroshima University), Yasuo Masai (Geography, University of Tsukuba), Tsuneo Ayabe (Anthropology, Uni- versity of Tsukuba) and Tajiro Iwayama (Literature, Doshisha University) read their papers. The third session, with Koji Oi as chairman, heard the reports from Shinichi Shigihara (Literature, Kyoto University), Akio Oura (Literature, Chuo University) and Kazuhito Hayashi (Literature, Kobe Jogakuin Uni- versity). The final session, chaired by Tadashi Aruga (History, Hitotsubashi University), gave the floor to three discussants: Akira Takahashi (History, Osaka City University), Jun Furuya (Political science, Hokkaido University) and Takashi Konami (Economics, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies). The 15th volume of the Amerika kenkyu, published in March, 1981, was a special edition on "American Families." Six articles were featured to deal with the topic: Shigeo Hamano, "Living between Corruption and Rebellion: Fam- ilies in Jewish American Literature from the 1880's to the 1930's"; Yasuki Absalom!" Fusako Ogata, "College Courses on Marriages during the 1920's"; Sayo Kaji, "The American Social Security System and the Family"; Kazuko 
Ohta, "Ethnic Families and the 'American Family' "; Natsuki Aruga, "New
Trends in the Historical Writings on the American Family." wo other articles contributed to the volume were: Kenkichi Omi and Yasuo 
of the volume is a bibliographical list of the volumes already published in the
eenth Century” and Osamu Ishii, “The New Deal and Japan.” At the end
Sakakibara, “Economic D past years. As for the JAAS Newsletter, Nos. 57-60 were published for the year 1980-1981. In the field of seminars and lectures, Dr. Garry Wills offered a lecture on June 27, 1980 on his own writing: Inventing America; Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. On July 11, a lecture was offered by Dr. Ronald Inglehart of lecture was provided during the year on December 12, this time in the field of literature, by Dr. Roger Asselineau of the University of Paris, the Sorbonne. He spoke on " 'Dreaming in the Grass'—or the Transcendentalist Constant in American Literature." of the editing of two supplementary volumes to Genten Amerika-shi [ A Doc- original edition, compiled in six volumes, will remain as it is, excepting the last
volume, which will be replaced by two new volumes: Volume 6 (to cover the twenty years 1941-60) and Volume 7 (1961-77). Each volume contains a historical survey for the period concerned, the Japanese text of some 30-35 selected historical documents, and commentaries on each of those documents. Iwanami Shoten, the publishers for the original edition, will also publish the new volumes. (R EIKO A OKI )