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

NIIJIMA, JO • 189
the Peace Reservation Agency. However, except for the headquarters,
the organization continued under the name of “National Police Force”
until it was abolished on 15 October and the Police Reserve Force formally
came into being.
NEW PACIFIC COMMUNITY INITIATIVE. In June 1993, President
Bill Clinton announced his New Pacific Community initiative,
placing U.S.–Japan relations at the center and promoting economic
cooperation through the Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC), democracy and human rights across the region. The United
States had until then not made a serious commitment to the APEC,
but President Clinton changed this stance and began to seriously engage
with the rapidly growing East Asian economy. Following strong
U.S. pressure on the APEC, the organization held a summit conference
in Seattle in 1993. Making use of this initiative, the United
States sought to change the economic structure of each East Asian nation
through “liberalization of trade, investment, and exchange rate”
in order to establish firm grounds for shaping Asia in a fashion favorable
to the U.S. multinational corporations. Objecting to holding
this conference, Malaysia was absent from the APEC summit meeting.
In the end, Clinton’s initiative was unsuccessful, but U.S. tactics
toward Asia became clearer.
NIIJIMA, JO (ALSO KNOWN AS JOSEPH HARDY NEESHIMA;
1843–1890). From a middle-level ranking samurai family of Annaka
domain (Gunma Prefecture), Niijima became interested in Western science
and Christianity after seeing Western ships in Edo Bay and reading
translations of Western books. Among the first Western books he
read were Robinson Crusoe, Historical Geography of the United States,
and the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Desiring to learn more
about Western science and Christianity, he secretly left Japan in 1864 by
stowing away on a foreign ship, and arrived in Boston several months
later. The wealthy Alphaeus Hardy and his family were impressed with
young Niijima’s determination and became his benefactors for the several
years he remained in the United States. Niijima went to Amherst
College in Massachusetts, where he studied Latin, Greek, geography,
and botany, though Christianity was his primary interest. Graduating
from Amherst College in 1870, Niijima and Taro Kusakabe, who