Collected Papers of Robert A. Fearey
1918 - 2004
Robert Appleton Fearey was born on July 4, 1918 in
Garden City, New York. On graduating from Harvard University in
1941, he took a position as personal secretary to Ambassador Joseph Grew in
Tokyo, Japan. That experience led to a forty year career with the
Foreign Service with tours in Japan, London, Paris, Hawaii, and
Okinawa. After retiring from the Foreign Service in 1976, Robert
joined Population Action International and worked there for 18
years. He retired for a second time in 1997 to concentrate on
tennis, squash, travel, and grandchildren. Robert passed away on
February 28, 2004.
The following is a small collection of papers that Robert
felt were the most important in his long career.
Tokyo 1941: Might the Pacific War Have Been Avoided?,
1991. A first person account of how Ambassador Grew tried to
arrange a meeting between Prime Minister Konoye and President
Franklin Roosevelt that might have prevented the start of the war with
Japan in 1941.
My
Year with Ambassador Joseph C. Grew, 1992. A personal
recounting of Robert's year as personal secretary to the ambassador as the war
broke out, during internment at the Embassy, and the voyage to Africa for
an exchange with the Japanese Embassy from Washington. (This is a
download of a 1.4 megabyte Word file that includes text and photographs.)
Land
Reform in Post-War Japan, an edited interview with Robert A.
Fearey in 1978. Robert's 1945 paper on land reform was adopted by
General Douglas MacArthur for the post-war occupation. The policy
advocated taking land from the landlords and giving it to the farmers,
replacing an economic system that had survived for hundreds of
years. The interview also covers the debate about breaking up the
industrial monopolies known as the zaibatsu.
International
Terrorism, 1976. Robert was the first special assistant to
the Secretary of State (Henry Kissinger) for international
terrorism. This is the text of a speech he gave on several occasions on
the nature of the problem, and policies for combating it.
The
Concept of Responsibility, 2003. Robert first wrote on this
subject in 1954 to share his concern that our criminal justice system
needs to change in light of what we are learning about how hereditary and
environmental factors shape behavior. He updated the paper in 2003 and circulated
it to friends and family.
Biographic Summary
For more information, please e-mail Seth Fearey at fearey@con-com.net.
May 8, 2004
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