Haru M. Reischauer

Who was Haru M. Reischauer?

Haru Matsukata Reischauer was a writer and wife of the U.S. Ambassador to Japan Edwin O. Reischauer. She was a granddaughter of Matsukata Masayoshi, a prime minister in the Meiji era known for his liberal policies over financial affairs. She was a sister of Tane Matsukata, founder of the Nishimachi International School in Tokyo. Her second cousin was Nobuhiko Ushiba, who served as Japanese Ambassador to the United States from 1970 ti 1973.

She studied at Principia College in Illinois. She later worked as a newspaper reporter in the United States before meeting Reischauer, whom she married in 1956. In 1961 she returned to Japan with her husband when he was appointed ambassador to Japan. They lived in Japan until 1966 and then went back to the United States, where she was to take an active role as a director of the Japan-America Student Conference.

She is the author of the autobiography Samurai and Silk.