Memoirs of Japan, 1925–30

Abstract

To find myself in 1925 sailing for Japan within six months after completing Part II of the Economics Tripos at Cambridge was for me an unexpected and surprising sequel. I think it must have been D. H. Robertson, who suggested to a younger economist, Mr (now Sir) Austin Robinson, that I, as one of his students, might be interested in a request that he had received for a Cambridge man to fill a position in Japan in a commercial college at Nagoya, less well known then than it is now since it became the economics department of Nagoya’s National University. The suggestion attracted me at once. Some members of my family were opposed to my going, in particular my parents who were advanced in age and wanted me to take posts on offer in Britain rather than to disappear to the other side of the world. Reluctantly, I agreed to apply for a post at Nottingham University College. The interview went well, but, fortunately for me, a young Scotsman was finally selected. Never was I more pleased at being rejected, and I telegraphed my acceptance to Japan without further consultation.