Hope Anderson is a class of 1981 Wellesley alumna and founder to the Hope Anderson Fund.
Why did you decide to major in Japanese?
Although initially I thought I might major in English, I vastly preferred the history courses I took freshman year, including one on pre-modern Japanese history taught by Barbara Molony, then a graduate student at Harvard. I took every course she taught during her two years at Wellesley and wrote my senior thesis under her advisement. Prof. Molony encouraged to me to go Harvard my junior year, where I resurrected the Japanese language I’d forgotten in the trauma of leaving Japan at 13. (I grew up in Tokyo, arriving as a baby, and had never lived in the United States until then.) At Harvard I worked as a research assistant to Ezra Vogel, then head of the Japanese Studies program and another mentor. All of this allowed me to reconnect with Japan, a country I love and still consider my home.
How did being a Japanese major shape your time at Wellesley?
During my sophomore year, I took two courses in Buddhism from Jim Kodera of the Religion Department, who later sat on my orals committee. When we met at a College event 25 years later, he stunned me by remembering details of my thesis on Japanese immigration to Hawaii. Because there were virtually no courses on Japan other than Barbara Molony’s, I knew I had to spend a year elsewhere. I chose Harvard, where I had a boyfriend and many friends and was well known in the Japanese Studies department. My leaving was necessary for another reason: I had written in the Wellesley News about the dearth of Japanese courses and was publicly criticized by the powerful head of the Chinese Studies department. I felt that there was hostility for all things Japanese and this was the reason there were no Japanese language courses at Wellesley, or anything left for me to take in my field. This episode and my difficulties in pursuing my studies later inspired me to set up a fund for Japanese Studies.
How did majoring in Japanese influence your career after Wellesley?
The fact that I was the only person accepted by Berkeley in Japanese history in 1986 was testament to my training and hard work both at Wellesley and Harvard. Berkeley also admitted me into the doctoral program as well as the master’s program, a rare occurrence. Although personal circumstances–a terrible divorce and single motherhood–forced me to take a leave of absence and later withdraw from grad school, I went back to work as Program Officer for Japan and Korea at The Asia Foundation. When I moved to Los Angeles and began making films, my training was put to use in researching and writing documentaries. My degree continues to influence everything I do, including writing fiction.
Check out the posts below from Hope’s blog “Under the Hollywood Sign”
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Setsuko Hara: Ozu’s Muse, Forever Young
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The Japanese Masterpiece at the Heart of “Breaking Bad”: Akira Kurosawa’s “Ikiru”
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Lost in Translation: American Movie Critics on Japanese Films
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Nagisa Oshima and the Japanese New Wave
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“Like Father, Like Son”: What Was Lost In Translation, And What Wasn’t
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What’s in a Title?–How American Movies are Renamed (or Not) Abroad
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Death of a Cinematic Genius: Nagisa Oshima, 1932-2013