T. E. books for Japanese Children

YAGITANI Ryōko

Last Updated 14 FEB. 2011 [ver.3.0]

When I exchanged letters with a Japanese Lawrencian, she told me about her first encounter with T. E..That was early in the 1960's in a biography for children, written by NAKANO Yoshio (1903-1985). NAKANO was the very first biographer of T. E. in Japanese in 1940. Had he also left any juvenilia on T. E.? Looking for a clue, I went to public libraries, where I found several books on T. E. for young people published, as part of a series, between 1956 and 1988.

NAKANO Yoshio, the Pioneer


The first book was written by NAKANO[*1], entitled Lawrence of Arabia in THE WORLD LITERATURE SERIES FOR BOYS AND GIRLS in 50 volumes published by Tōkyō-Sōgensha between 1953 and 1956. As an epoch-making series of good quality, it achieved a fair success and pioneered literature collections for children. The forty eighth volume (1956) is composed of six non-fiction stories of famous explorers like Captain Scott, Heinrich Schliemann, Sven Hedin, Edward Whymper, Soviet explorers of the Arctic and T. E. Lawrence. Some of the stories are written by Japanese authors and some are based on autobiographies. NAKANO, an ex-professor of English Studies as well as a leading critic of his time, wrote on Captain Scott and T. E.. T. E.'s whole life is condensed into sixty pages including quotations from the biographies by Robert Graves and Liddell Hart, as well as T. E.'s works. NAKANO describes this tragic hero very sympathetically.

'He will come back soon.' No Arabs doubted that. When they heard of his death, after a motorcycle accident, no one believed the news. 'Aurans will return.' Some Arabs still believe it. Aurans is somewhere watching over the Arabs. When the Arabs are in a crisis, he will come back to the desert to save them. They never doubt that. Lawrence has died, but he still lives in the hearts of the Arabs (p.192).


[shogakukan] I could not find T. E. in any of literature collections untill 1975. Another series of THE WORLD LITERATURE COLLECTIONS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS in 55 volumes published from Shōgakukan, Tōkyō, took up T. E. in the forth volume, the second collection of British stories. A juvenile writer KONDŌ Ken (1913-1989) wrote a 46 pages story entitled Lawrence, Lord of the Desert (PHOTO right), which evidently inspired by NAKANO books. Other stories in the same volume includes The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley, Scottish folktales, Robin Hood and a minor entertainment by Guy Boothby.

Each of the stories has a reading guidance for children and their parents. The key words to understand T. E. story are "humanity" and "historical facts". The editor suggests that it is better to think that T. E.'s hope of getting freedom of Arab people regards as that of development of all human beings. As far as I know, this is the only book which puts T. E. between fictional characters like Robin Hood.

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The Craze for Non-Fiction in the 1960's


It was the 1960's when Japan had economically developed at a breakneck speed. In the same period, non-fiction collections for children were all the rage. Over ten different collected editions introducing children to historical expeditions and world scientific discoveries were printed by several publishers at this time. However, while biographical collections have been published constantly, non-fiction went out of fashion after the 1970's, save for a few minor reprints.

NAKANO's story appears again in one such collection, WORLD JUNIOR NON-FICTION SERIES in 15 volumes, Kōdansha, Tōkyō. When this collection was published in 1961-62, NAKANO seemed to have no intention of preparing a revised biography of T. E., so he allowed the republication of his 1956 piece. Oddly enough now, the story claims to be by Lawrence, translated by NAKANO!

In 1964 the fourth volume of CHILDREN'S NON-FICTION in 20 volumes, Komine Shoten, Tōkyō, came out including another T. E. story. Each volume is crammed with eight or nine tales, with only thirty pages devoted to each including Lawrence of Arabia in the fourth volume. The portrayal of T. E. for 9-11 year olds, written by KANBE Junkichi (b.1920), a professional juvenile writer, is too naive to justify criticism. I'll merely add that the seventeenth volume of this collection covers Ibn Saud, Lord of the Desert.


[kodansha] Now we must return to NAKANO Yoshio. In 1963, ten months after David Lean's film, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, was released in Tōkyō, NAKANO published a revised edition of his 1940 biography, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. This new 1963 edition was in print for thirty three years, and attained a sale of over four hundred thousand copies (both of editions in all). It was clealy the most well-known, compact and accessible book about T. E. in Japan then. Three years later, he wrote a novel about T. E.'s life for WORLD'S MASTERPIECES FOR BOYS AND GIRLS (15 volumes, Kōdansha, Tōkyō). All 196 pages of this eleventh volume in the series (PHOTO left) are dedicated to Lawrence of Arabia, with about a hundred and fifty photos and illustrations, which brighten up the story.

NAKANO unaccountably makes T. E. responsible for the authorship again and depicts T. E. from womb to tomb, vividly as a tragic hero, who was faithful to the Arabs. One might well imagine how NAKANO enjoyed creating another filmscript by glancing over the scene of Lowell Thomas' encounter with T. E., in WITH LAWRENCE IN ARABIA (pp.5-6).


One day, Thomas visits Ronald Storrs, the military governor of Jerusalem.
'Do you know a man called Aurans in Bedwin dress? Who is he?'
Storrs stares in surprise at Thomas. 'How dare you call yourself a war correspondent? Of course it is Lawrence, Emir Dynamite.'
'Lawrence? Emir Dynamite?' Thomas mumbles those words and suddenly he jumps up out of his chair.
'Is he Lawrence? Do you mean that?'
Lawrence! A man named 'Emir Dynamite' after his countless explosions on the railway! A leader of the Arab Revolt! Uncrowned King! Thomas remembers various rumours about Lawrence. 'Are you quite sure about him?'
Instead of answering Thomas, Storrs opens the door leading to the next room, where a man sitting back ino a chair, is absorbed in reading a bulky book. This man is 'Aurans'. He looks at the two intruders by turns without saying a word.
'Mr Lowell Thomas, an American correspondent wants me to introduce you.'
'Oh, dear.' Lawrence looks coolly upon this young correspondent who has a lively face. 'Now, you must have satisfied your curiosity about me.' He says ironically to Thomas a few moments later, after Thomas has been staring at his face.
'No! not yet!', Thomas still stares Lawrence straight in the eye with great seriousness. 'I want to know everything about you. What you were, what you are, what you will be.'(pp.15-17)


This is the only book for children which touches upon the elopement of T. E.'s parents, however, words like 'illegitimate' or 'love child' are not used much less any mention of the Deraa episode. Anyway, it is well worth reading. [*2]

Apart from T. E., THE WORLD'S MASTERPIECES collection deals with subjects like space technology, the Japanese Olympic volleyball team, Antarctica, John F. Kennedy and the FBI, which represent children's interests in the 1960's.


[Noda Kaisaku] In 1969, Kaiseisha, Tōkyō, published an abridged translation of REVOLT IN THE DESERT. Again, this book is one of a collection of non-fiction works in 20 volumes; the seventh volume (PHOTO left) contains THE OREGON TRAIL by Francis Parkman, an American historian, and REVOLT, which has been retitled Lord of the Desert. For the young readers the text has been simplified, so that I doubt that it may be classified as a 'translation'. NODA Kaisaku (b.1920), the translator, is rather notorious as an unreliable adapter of a SHERLOCK HOLMES series for children. He does not romanticize T. E. and writes simply and sincerely about him. A still from the David Lean film is used as a frontispiece.

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Biographical History Books


Together with non-fiction and biographies there are juvenilia, a collection of historical stories that came out in the 1950's telling personal stories written not by novelists but by academic scholars, which became popular after the 1970's.

In 1972, Sa-e-ra Shobō, Tōkyō, published a collection called, FOOTSTEPS OF NATIONS in 8 volumes. The British, in the fifth volume by Professor NAKAMURA Hidekatsu (b.1917), a noted scholar of the history of the English Parliament, are presented in a series of short stories about notable people like King Alfred, Shakespeare, King Charles I, Cromwell, Queen Victoria and Florence Nightingale. He chose T. E. to explain Britain's unprincipled colonial policy and devotes ten pages to him. Incidentally, Professor NAKAMURA has written another short biography of T. E. this time for adults in STORIES OF EUROPEAN HISTORY, Kawadeshobō-shinsha, Tōkyō, 1958.

The eleventh volume of TALES OF HISTORY OF THE WORLD (12 volumes, Gakken, Tōkyō, 1983) has a curious choice of subjects: Pablo Picaso, Adolf Hitler, Anne Frank, Eleanor Roosevelt and a man, described under the title of the Storm of the Middle East. Does anyone have an idea who this is? It isn't T. E., Feisal nor Ibn Saud. It is Kemal Ataturk, Turkish national leader and founder of modern Turkey, who is much less well known than T. E. in Japan. T. E. has a small part to play in this fifty four pages story, as an honest Englishman.

Two years later, the same publisher (Gakken) prepared another collection, THE BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF THE WORLD in 10 volumes, with more colourful pictures and short explanations of important words like 'Arab' and 'Damascus' in the margin of every page. The ninth volume is written around the theme of the growth of nationalism, with brief lives of 'men of dedication', like Mahatma Gandhi, Sun Wen, Lenin and T. E.. A high school teacher writes about T. E. in thirty five pages, focusing on his activities in Arabia with a lot of photos and drawings. Some of the judgements about him, such as, "Lawrence was not swayed by the interests of his own country and devoted himself passionately to working for the independence of the Arabs (p.165)", seem very naive. The historical background to the Great War is very deftly dealt with however. It gets a good grade as history.

It is obvious that all the above books have been following the 'tragic-hero' line pioneered by NAKANO Yoshio. However, the latest book to mention T. E. is not. It is in a collection on, THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD AND JAPAN in 12 volumes, Ōtsuki Shoten, Tōkyō, 1988. Since this collection are intended for adults as well as young people, it publishes all the true and 'painful' facts, quoting from various reminiscences of his contemporaries. T. E. is in the ninth volume, which deals with modern wars and revolutions between the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 and the Great Depression of 1929. Professor KASAHARA Tokushi (b.1944), the author, points out that we have only known T. E. from the European viewpoint as in NAKANO's books. But, he points out, there is another T. E. from the Arab point of view, in Suleiman Mousa's T. E. LAWRENCE: AN ARAB VIEW, which was published in Japan in 1988, just before this book came out. He says that, "history depends on where we stand. The story of Lawrence of Arabia tells us how importance it is to look at different views of history" (pp.81-82). This is the most balanced of Japanese children's books.

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Conclusion


Examining the above bibliography, I realized that NAKANO's book and Lean's film had had great influence on books about T. E. for children as indeed on books about him for adults, in Japan. None of 'the British Big Four' --- i.e. Florence Nightingale, David Livingstone, Charles Darwin, nor Isaac Newton [*3] had any particular booster, or popular films like T. E. had. Nor has Henry Stanley, Howard Carter, George Stephenson, Captain Scott, Winston Churchill, Captain Cook, Charlie Chaplin or Alexander Fleming. Each of them is generally regarded as having achieved a recognized historical status. T. E. has not. His reputation is undergoing a change and the image of the 'tragic hero', popularized by NAKANO, and the Lean film, is now out-of-date. Even in the children's world he has had his day.

Nowadays it is not easy to find anything about T. E. in the children's room of a public library in Japan. I have yet to find any books referring to T. E. published after 1989; we may fail to find the name of 'Lawrence' on the cover of any book for young people in the future. I am not very sorry about this because this genre is too limited to capture his many sided nature or his eccentricity. The only thing that does sadden me, however, is that the fewer times 'Lawrence of Arabia' is mentioned in books for children, the less will these Japanese children have a chance to know anything about Arabia and the Arabs in the twentieth century.


© YAGITANI Ryōko, JAPAN 1997, 2001 and 2011

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Notes

[*1] It seems that NAKANO had written his first T. E. book for children just after his 1940 biography. This presumption is based upon the memory of a friend's mother, who had read NAKANO's T. E. book for children in the 1940's. Unfortunately I have been unable to confirm this in any library catalogue. However, NAKANO left many children's books adapted from the English: GULLIVER'S TRAVELS and THE JUNGLE BOOK, none of which is in any of NAKANO's bibliographies either. The Second World War also badly damaged many books published before 1945 in Japan.

[*2] Dr. Philip O'Brien of the Wardman Library at Whittier College, Los Angeles, U. S. A., once tried to get this book from the National Diet Library (NDL) in Tōkyō on interlibrary loan but was unsuccessful, simply because all books for children in the National Diet Library are not available for interlibrary loan!

[*3] These names are suggested from checking the Hibiya Library catalogue, which lists 62,435 children's books. Hibiya Library holds the largest collection of books for children in Tōkyō.

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