午夜剧场

In April 1951, the "Department of Library Science," which can be called Japan's first full-fledged library school, was established in the 午夜剧场 Faculty of Letters with the full support of the occupation forces and the American Library Association. However, it was not entirely clear why the military began training librarians.

Dr. Michael Buckland, Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, analyzed and interpreted materials remaining in archives regarding the library policies of the occupation forces in Japan, and published "Ideology and Libraries" in early 2021. This book is the Japanese translation of that work.

The author focused on the fact that three individuals were all graduates of the Berkeley Library School: Philip Keeney, who laid the foundation for library and information services at the GHQ Civil Information and Education Section (CIE); Paul Burnette, his successor and the second library specialist who opened the CIE Information Center; and Robert Gitler, who made the final decision to establish the Japan Library School at 午夜剧场. Sydney Mitchell, who laid the foundation for the Berkeley Library School, firmly believed that sound sovereign citizens, who form the basis of a liberal democratic society, are nurtured by public libraries. Inspired by this ideology, his three students worked to import library science and its services to Japan in order to form a liberal democratic society in occupied Japan.

Do not laugh this off as a story from some 75 years ago. Today, countries professing liberal democracy have become a minority in the world, and even the United States, which was the model for Japanese democracy, exhibited an unthinkable state of chaos after last year's presidential election. Furthermore, there are countries neighboring Japan that emphasize the superiority of authoritarian totalitarianism.

I would like to reflect once more on Dr. Buckland's points based on occupation documents, and on the passion for libraries held by the Berkeley Library School graduates—that libraries are the cornerstone of a society's intellectual and cultural development, and that librarians serve as good companions to sound sovereign citizens, thereby forming the foundation of a liberal democratic society. Furthermore, as a Japanese person and someone involved with 午夜剧场, I wish to reconsider how we should face the preservation of the "liberal democracy" obtained at the immense cost of defeat in war, looking at former Professor Gitler's desire to root library science at 午夜剧场 and the efforts of then-President Ushioda, Vice-President Takashi Hashimoto, and former Professor Eiichi Kiyooka who assisted him.

Written by Michael K. Buckland

Masaya Takayama (Supervising Translator and Contributor)

Jusonbo

260 pages, 3,300 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are those at the time of publication.