Michael C. Hickey(Bloomsburg University of
Pennsylvania, USA, Foreign Visiting Fellow, SRC, 2000)
In the autumn fields
When the heedless wind blows by
Over the pure-white dew,
How the myriad unstrung gems
Are scattered everywhere around Ogura Hyakunin Isshu [One Hundred Poems
by One Hundred Poets]
This beautiful autumn day makes me want to
ride my bicycle along the Toyohira River or hike up Mt. Maruyama taking
photographs of the kami. Saying goodbye to Hokkaido will be difficult.
These four months have been lovely, and the SRC has more than lived up
to its excellent reputation.
I have worked on two projects here - a history
of the 1917 revolution in Smolensk Province and a study of Smolensk's
Jews in the 19th and 20th centuries. I've finished several articles and
book-chapters on 1917, but work on local Jewish history occupied most
of my attention. I've drafted three chapters of my book Sown With
Tears: The Jews of Smolensk (covering Jewish settlement in Smolensk
Province before the 1860s, the local community in the Late Imperial
period, and local politics during the 1917 revolution) and completed a
rather long article manuscript on community demographics.
The author beside lake
Kuttara, Hokkaido
The SRC has been a great place to write thanks
to Tonai-san dedicated library staff, but
also because of the remarkably efficient Nihei-san, Okubo-san, and
everyone in the SRC office who keeps the place running like a clock. On
those rare occasions when I had computer problems, Muroga-san and
Nashizawa-san responded quickly and with good humor - no matter how
bizarre the request. Susan and I will remember fondly many acts of
kindness by the SRC, hardworking staff members, who do so much to make
daily life easier for the visiting fellows.
Of the many resources available to foreign
fellows at the SRC, I think that the support of colleagues is the most
important. Murakami-san has a gift for making visiting fellows feel
comfortable, as he did during our expedition to watch fireworks during
Summer Festival. I am indebted to the personal and professional
kindness of Matsuzato-san and continue to marvel at the range and rigor
of his scholarship. Our lives here were made easier and incalculably
more pleasant thanks to the Tabatas: Tabata-san graciously answered
dozens of questions via e-mail before our arrival and smoothed our
transition to life and work in Sapporo; our generous friend Tabata
Tomoko has patiently helped us with everything from vacations to trips
to the doctor (and knows every good restaurant in Sapporo). The
Yamamuras have made learning about Hokkaido fun, from climbing
volcanoes to visiting onsen and cooking edamame. The Iedas have been
kindly hosts and also have helped us better understand life in Japan. I
gained much from daily interaction with the SRC's faculty, including
conversations with Hayashi-san, Inoue-san, and Uyama-san, and from
meeting faculty at other institutions in Japan, particularly
Toyokawa-san and Togawa-sense.
Finally, getting to know the other visiting
fellows made life and work at the SRC much richer, from Reneo Lukic's
insights on comparative history and Arbakhan Magomedov's inspiring zeal
for life to the warmth of our neighbors the Lakobas. As fate would have
it, I met two sons of Smolensk's Jewish community at the SRC - Valerii
Gretchko and Boris Lanin! Valerii let me quiz him again and again about
people and places, and the hours spent with him and his wife were a
great pleasure. Boris' infectious laughter made each day joyful; his
enormous knowledge of Russian-Jewish emigre publications and his
friendship have been wonderful gifts. Finally, my conversations with
Hatakayama Tadashi and Onodera Utako about our mutual research
interests have been very rewarding, and Susan and I will carry home
warm memories of them.
I must admit that I regret not having studied
Japanese before coming to Hokkaido, if only because it would have made
life simpler for all those on whom I have imposed my ignorance. And I
regret not drawing a map of the Library stacks during my orientation
tour - it would have saved me from hours of wandering blindly around
West 3 looking for books! Most of all I regret leaving Sapporo so soon.
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