Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

96 • GRIFFIS, WILLIAM ELLIOT
GRIFFIS, WILLIAM ELLIOT (1843–1928). American yatoi (expert)
in Japan during the early Meiji Era, religious leader, and author
of several books. After serving in a Pennsylvania regiment during
the American Civil War, William Elliot Griffis entered
Rutgers College in New Jersey, then affiliated with the Dutch Reformed
Church. After becoming an instructor, he met and taught
several Japanese students who came to Rutgers College on the recommendation
of Guido Verbeck, an American teacher and missionary
of the Dutch Reformed Church in Japan. Griffis traveled to
Japan in 1871 and was put in charge of education in Echizen Prefecture,
and later became a professor at Tokyo Kaisei Gakko (later
called Tokyo University). His sister, Margaret Clark Griffis, joined
him in Japan and promoted women’s education. After returning to
the United States, Griffis earned a doctorate in theology from
Union College in New York and served as pastor in churches in
New York and Boston. He became a prolific author, with most of
his writings on Japan, Japan–America relations, and Holland. His
best-known work, The Mikado’s Empire, originally published in
1876, went through several printings and editions and became the
most widely read book on Japan in the United States in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries.
GUIDELINES FOR U.S.–JAPAN DEFENSE COOPERATION,
1978. At a summit between Prime Minister Takeo Miki and President
Gerald Ford in August 1975, the two men agreed to consult regarding
appropriate forms of defense cooperation in order to prepare for joint
engagement in case of emergency. For this purpose, in August 1976,
the United States and Japan established the Subcommittee for Defense
Cooperation (SDC) under the auspices of the Japan–U.S. Security
Consultative Committee (SCC). Finally, in November 1978, the SDC
formulated the Guidelines for U.S.–Japan Defense Cooperation. “The
aim of these Guidelines is to create a solid basis for more effective and
credible U.S.–Japan cooperation under normal circumstances, in case
of an armed attack against Japan, and in situations in areas surrounding
Japan. The Guidelines also provided a general framework and policy
direction for the roles and missions of the two countries and ways
of cooperation and coordination, both under normal circumstances and