Tanaka visits alma mater, meets old friends in Philadelphia

Japan Policy & Politics, June 23, 2001

PHILADELPHIA, June 17 Kyodo

Japanese Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka talked about boyfriends, nurtured an interest in modern dance, and had a wish to attend university in the United States during the two years she studied at a Philadelphia high school in the early 1960s.

''She was very quiet the first year because she didn't speak English very well. And when her English improved, we got talking a lot,'' said Katherine Rovetti, one of her friends in the graduating class of 1963 at Germantown Friends School (GFS).

''We would hang out in the library and just talk about personal things as well as studies. We used to talk about boyfriends and whatnot, and I asked her how to say 'I love you' in Japanese,'' recalled Rovetti, nee Reynolds.

Rovetti said they went to see some colleges together in their senior year because Tanaka at that time was thinking of continuing her education in the U.S., but was called back suddenly to Japan by her father, the late former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, before graduation.

Rovetti said she was not in the least surprised that Tanaka became foreign minister, noting that she is ''very capable.''

Denny Heck agreed. ''When you look back and think about it, there were indications. She has great charisma and a presence. She had kind of an inner calm and dignity. It was evident then that she was very special,'' she said.

Rovetti and Heck, whose maiden name is Mellor, shared their memories of going to school with Tanaka with reporters just as the foreign minister was being given a brief tour of her alma mater by its headmaster Richard Wade.

At the library, Tanaka sat on a wooden chair, saying, ''I remember this smell. It's just like it was back then,'' according to Japanese Foreign Ministry officials.

Upon meeting her old friends shortly after at a reception hosted by the school, Tanaka exchanged hugs and handshakes with Rovetti, Heck and a handful of former classmates who came to see her for the first time in 13 years.

The visit by Tanaka was her first since attending a 25-year reunion in 1988 along with her husband, Naoki.

''They've all become old men and women,'' the cheery Tanaka, speaking in Japanese, told reporters accompanying her on the trip.

But later, after she sat down to talk with her former classmates inside one of the school's buildings, she drew laughter by responding, ''The same,'' when asked by one of them whether she thought they had changed.

One of them remarked, ''That's a very diplomatic answer.''

Tanaka then gave a short speech, expressing appreciation for the wealth of experience she was able to gain from the time she studied at the school.

''Let me say that the way of life, the way of thinking, the spiritualism I learned here have had a major influence on me. They are certainly my valuable assets,'' Tanaka said, reading from a draft she prepared on the train from Washington to Philadelphia in the morning.

''Through my school life at GFS, where spiritualism, simple life, love and peace were emphasized, I learned to listen to others before forming my own views and then to communicate my views to others. I hold this philosophy dear to my heart,'' she said.

Ella Schaap, Tanaka's host mother during the time she spent in Philadelphia, also attended the reception.

Earlier in her one-day trip to Philadelphia, Tanaka made a brief stop at Fairmount Park, where some cherry trees planted in March have been partly dedicated to her.

Schaap and Felice Fischer, curator of the East Asian collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, jointly donated $500 for a cherry tree-planting project in the name of Tanaka in early May in commemoration of her appointment as Japan's first female foreign minister April 26.

Thus, she became an honorary joint owner of the 100 cherry trees which were planted in the park this year by the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia, whose project envisions planting a total of 1,000 cherry trees in the 10-year period starting in 1998.

Tanaka also attended a luncheon hosted by Rene d'Harmoncourt, head of the Philadelphia Museum of Arts, where she used to visit occasionally during the time she studied at GFS.

Although the foreign minister had been initially scheduled to tour the museum and visit the Academy of Music, she canceled those plans so she could return earlier to Washington and make final preparations for her meetings with U.S. government officials.

On Monday, Tanaka is scheduled to have separate talks with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick before completing her three-day visit to the U.S.