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Hugh Borton, Quaker Friend of Japan
Hugh Borton, an expert on the history of Japan and its emergence as a modern industrial nation, died Aug. 6, 1995, in his home in Conway, Mass. He was 92.
Borton was director of Columbia's East Asian Institute for seven years in the 1950s and then served as president of Haverford College for 10 years. Upon retiring from Haverford in 1967, Borton returned to the East Asian Institute as a senior research associate on modern Japanese history. Borton continued his research at Columbia until four years ago.
From 1942 to 1948, Borton took leave from Columbia, working with the Department of State as a specialist on Japan. In the state department he was chief of the Japanese affairs division, chairman of the Far East State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee, and then special assistant to the director in charge of preparing the peace treaty with Japan.
While in the State Department, Borton also worked on plans for the future structure of Korea in the aftermath World War II.
At Columbia, Borton became a full professor of Japanese after starting as a lecturer and assistant professor of Japanese language and history in the department of Chinese and Japanese.
In 1970, he was one of 350 of Asia scholars who converged on Capitol Hill to demand an end to the Vietnam War. Borton said in a speech before the Senate: "The US may be repeating the mistakes in Asia that Japan made before World War II. It is clear that Japan's initial use of military force in Manchuria to bring about a political solution there only led to more extensive military operations and eventually to World War II."
Author of many books and articles on Japan, Borton published Peasant Uprising in Japan (1938), and Japan's Modern Century (1956), which was re-released in 1970. He also edited a highly praised book of essays, Japan (1951), and co-authored two books, The Far East, 1942-46 (1955) and Japan Between East and West (1957).
Born in Moorestown, N.J., in 1903, Borton received his B.S. degree from Haverford in 1922. In 1932, he received an M.A. from Columbia's Teachers College and then continued on at Columbia as a graduate student in history. From 1931 to 1937, he studied at the Imperial University in Tokyo, and in 1937 was awarded his Ph.D. in Japanese history from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.
In addition, Borton received several honorary degrees and was decorated by the post-war Japanese government.
He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Elizabeth Wilbur Borton; a son, Anthony, and daughter, Anne Carter Borton, both of Conway; a brother, John Carter Borton and sister, Faith Weston, both of Kennett Square, Pa.; two grandchildren, and a great-grandson.
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