The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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TOKYO—A night in bed after two sitting up in a plane was really pleasant and I hope my daughter-in-law, Minnewa, and Miss Corr slept as well as I did.

On the plane I read Mr. Stevenson's articles and I found them extremely interesting and I was encouraged to find that in many of the places where I had been last year his impressions and mine were very similar.

I also read a manuscript sent me by Theodore Lentz of Washington University entitled "Toward A Science of Peace." He states well the situation of mankind and says we are not well suited at present to choose between sanity and suicide. His main thesis is that science is being misused and that we could apply it if we so desired to create a "science of peace." He believes in a world government but I think we have to accept the fact that world government cannot be imposed on people who do not desire to have it imposed upon them, and I know of very few, if any, who want it. I think we have been slow in developing the science of human relations and I think we could give much more thought to this aspect of science. But human beings are difficult to deal with and it is difficult to persuade parliamentary bodies that it is legitimate to spend the people's money in the study of people themselves, in the hope of finding ways to develop more peaceful human relations.

The manuscript is interesting, however, because the subject is so vital to us all at the present time.

The rest of my time was devoted to reading Prof. Edwin Reischauer's book called "Japan Past and Present." In this short book, I think one can get a very good quick picture of the history of this extremely interesting country where I now find myself.

One of the things which strikes me in the streets here is how many men and women wear western clothes. Japanese clothes stand out because they are less frequently seen. This is probably so only in Tokyo which is the capital where so many foreigners are constantly present.

I rather like the sunken bathtub which is so easy to step down into. This is the only difference I have discovered in my well appointed bathroom. I have a beautiful gold leaf screen which shields my bed from the door and as I lay looking at it this morning I wished it could easily be transported to the U.S.

There are flowers everywhere in our rooms and some kind members of the U.N. Association of Japan came to visit me yesterday from a northern province the Perfecture of Aomori. They brought me a beautiful basket of apples which taste as juicy and firm as N.Y. State apples and that from me is a great compliment for I particularly like fruit from my own state of N.Y.

Mr. and Mrs. Sayre also came to see me and I was happy to be with them again and to get a promise of a longer talk in the future.

E.R.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
Organizations
  • Nihon Kokusai Rengō Kyōkai [ index ]
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Geographic
  • Tokyo (Japan) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, May 26, 1953

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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