In Memoriam
Alfred Smoular (1911-1994)

Alfred Smoular, longtime ASJ member and a member of the Council, died of a heart attack on November 28, 1994, at the age of 83; he is survived by his wife Keiko. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

Alfred Smoular was born on February 14th, 1911. He graduated from the University of Paris with a diploma from the Institute of Ethnology, and joined the staff of the Trocadero Ethnographical Museum (now the Musee de l'Homme), in charge of the Tibetan Department. He first came to Japan in 1934, and was co-founder with K. Matsuo of the magazine "France-Japon." When World War II began he returned to France to fight with the resistance movement, alongside Jean-Paul Sartre. He was captured and sent to Auschwitz, and always kept the tattoo that identified him as an inmate of the Nazi death camp. Later he was decorated by the French government for his wartime activities. After the war he returned to Japan for good in 1951 as Far East correspondent for the French news agency Agence France-Presse and for "Paris-Match" (for which he was a wartime correspondent in Korea) and other publications, and was a familiar denizen of the Foreign Correspondents' Club. Among his publications are "Histoire de la Litterature Japonaise", written in collaboration with K. Matsuo and Ryuko Kawaji (Paris, 1935), "L'Art de Tenkei Tachibana" (Tokyo, 1977), "Nippon wa gokai sarete iru - kokusaiha Furansujin no Nippon Yohgoron" (Tokyo, 1988), and "Sont-ils des humains a part entiere? L'intoxication anti-Japonaise" ("Are they fully human? - The poisoning of minds against Japan"; Lausanne, L'Age d'Homme, 1992), a copy of which he presented to the ASJ library. He joined the ASJ in 1959, and was on the Council from 1976, serving on the membership committee.

An old friend of his, the Greek ambassador Mr. George Sioris, wrote the following "Adieu to Alfred Smoular", the bulk of which was carried by the "Japan Times" on December 11, 1994:

I could never have anticipated that a few lines I had been thinking of writing as a brief commentary on Alfred Smoular's book on Japan, "L'intoxication anti-Japonaise", would coincide with his sudden demise. Alfred left us a few days ago, discreetly and quietly, in the same way as he spent so many decades of his life in Japan.

Alfred, whose main personality trait was absolute modesty and a deep sense of proportion and tolerance, would certainly not have approved of any sort of eulogy by way of obituary remarks. So I limit myself to some personal reminiscences and a few thoughts on his book.

I remember him as a gentle but able and active foreign correspondent, almost thirty years ago, when our paths crossed in Tokyo for the first time. I still recall how much his judgment was valued in the foreign community and in Japanese circles as well.

This time, our common participation in the activities of the Asiatic Society of Japan brought us once more together. His presence at our Council meetings was a reflection of his character: again, always discreet and aiming at accommodation and compromise. Even just a few days before his death and despite some visible signs of tiredness, he had joined our meeting. Up to the end he remained committed, enthusiastically dedicated to the volunteer and scholarly spirit of this historic institution which brings together like-minded people with a strong interest in Asia and Japan in particular.

His above-mentioned book on Japan is an astute analysis of various established "cliches" about this country, a country which had so much fascinated him that he, a Parisian, made it his home for so many years. Its pages clearly show the rigorous original training of the writer as an ethnologist, under the guidance of great teachers like Marcel Mauss and Paul Rivet. What he sets out to achieve in this study is a refutal of established "myths", by way of astute methodology based on "affirmation through negation". It is not a one-sided pleading for Japan nor a simple literary exercise, but a sincere attempt to differentiate between reality and myth or "intoxication", as he writes. Through many years of exhaustive effort, Smoular had assembled voluminous materials of shallow or biassed portraits of Japan. At some point thereafter as he told me shortly before his passing away, he felt an irresistible need to reexamine this evidence and demolish its erroneous accretions, wherever he detected their occurrence. Even in dedicating a copy to me, he very sincerely pointed out that his pages "were sometimes sharp but always written in good faith."

In certain cases, when prejudice, error or partiality on the part of various observers of Japan, French and others, assume dimensions too unacceptable to common sense and too divorced from truth, Smoular's refutal becomes a little more severe than usual. But no reader may discern in it any personal animosity or lack of professional integrity. His only aim is to put everything into proper focus and perspective and to correct painful distortions. This is certainly achieved because of the writer's wide knowledge, analytical perception and, especially, his spirit of tolerance which permeates every page of the work.

For those who had the privilege of knowing Alfred Smoular, these pages of measure, wisdom and modesty will always reflect the gentleness of this French journalist, writer and scholar who had such a deep knowledge and love of Japan. Alfred will always remain a vivid example of the finest tradition of French orientalism.