Japan: My Father's Observations (1922-1923)

In order to begin the documented stories about my father Jim Davey, I turn to my mother's meticulously preserved scrapbooks. They abound with stories of expansion and exploration, as well as the trauma and triumph in the lives of famous people of the time - lives that were only one or two degrees of separation from our own.

In 1916, my twenty-nine year old father married Mary Binney, heiress of the Binney and Smith Crayola Company, and they settled in Old Greenwich, Connecticut (then known as Sound Beach). According to my Uncle Mart, Mary was "a lovely and cultured girl." Her father, Edwin Binney, the inventor of Crayola crayons, and his wife Alice lived right on the water at Long Island Sound, at the end of Binney Lane. My father and Mary made their home not far from them, also on the water, at the end of Sylvan Lane. It was an idyllic setting.

Mary's older sister, Dorothy Binney, had married George Putnam in 1911. George was the grandson of the founder of the century-old G.P. Putnam & Sons, the oldest and largest publishing house in the world. Its authors included Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. For his part, George specialized in publishing books about travel and exploration.

Exploration was George's passion, and he had several notable Arctic adventures to his credit. He also backed a number of history-making aviation events. His wife Dorothy was an equally avid traveler, as well as a celebrated hostess to the most stimulating and celebrated adventurers of the day. For example, Admiral Richard Byrd, pioneering American polar explorer and aviator, was often a guest. In fact, the Putnams were so well known for entertaining famous adventurers that Will Rogers - much-loved American actor, humorist, and social commentator in the 1920's and 1930's - joked that you couldn't snare an invitation unless you had conquered some uncharted territory!

So this was the social world that my father inhabited, and soon he would embark on his own history-making excursions all over the globe.

It was in the winter of 1922 that my father and Mary set sail from New York on one of the most exciting and publicized adventures of the Twentieth Century. They sailed on the Laconia of the Cunard Line, in the first ever continuous world cruise by an ocean liner since Magellan. This amazing adventure was exclusively chartered by the American Express Company to visit waters first explored by Magellan's fleet four hundred years before, during the first circumnavigation of the globe.

Laconia's 130-day voyage departed on November 21, 1922, and arrived back in New York on March 30, 1923 after calling at twenty-two ports. She first headed westward through the Caribbean, the Panama Canal, and across the Pacific. Then she came back to the United States via the Far East, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Although the ship could accommodate 2200 passengers, American Express advertised that membership in the cruise would be restricted to 450, ensuring that only the best cabins would be utilized.

News media around the world enthusiastically greeted the "Laconiaites" in port after port. Her arrival was a cause for great celebration. Here's how Cunard Line describes this famous first world cruise: "Elegant manners, eloquent conversation, fancy dress balls and a joyful desire to discover came together to define a classic voyage." If readers would like more information, google Cunard Line, Laconia II, The World Cruise.

I can only compare it to what I know about Pan American World Airways' famous 1935 China Clipper's inaugural flight across the Pacific, which was accompanied by the same frenzied media coverage as the Laconia. The world was opening up to travel in a way that stimulated the wanderlust of those who yearned to see the world.

Fortunately, several years ago I received an unbelievably thrilling treasure in the mail from the granddaughter of my Uncle Paul Davey. It was a pack of my father's original letters sent to Paul from his round-the-world trip, stamps and all. I had seen typed excerpts from the letters all my life, but never the handwritten originals. Once again, as with his high school books, I felt like I was reaching back through time and touching my father.

This was a period of time between the World Wars, and many of the Laconia's ports-of-call had been known by previous names and governed by different countries. In fact, charting the voyage was difficult for me because of the many changes between then and now. I spread out a large paper map of the world from National Geographic on the floor, and you might have laughed seeing me scurry from one end of it to another, trying to plot out the ship's journey. On the other hand, between my adventures with the map and the magic of the Internet, it turned out to be a fascinating history lesson.

Throughout the late 19th Century, European powers were engaged in a mind-boggling imperialist scramble for Colonial possessions. As a result, many of these Asian countries bear the footprints of a changing political landscape forged through a series of brutal wars.

Therefore, what I knew of the world - "Pan Am's World"- was sometimes very different, and sometimes much the same as that which the Laconia's passenger knew. My father saw the globe with the eyes of an accomplished tree surgeon and naturalist who was very concerned about issues of conservation. He was also struck by the shocking poverty and desperate hunger of the masses, which left him wondering about the future in a very prescient way. It's important to recognize that my father was very much a man of his time, with the mindset of a white American male born in the late 1880's.

With that in mind, the following are excerpts from his first letter home:

Embossed on the front of the very old, very elegant stationery is CUNARD R.M.S. "LACONIA." ROUND THE WORLD CRUISE 1922-1923. DIRECTION OF AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY TRAVEL DEPARTMENT.


Jan.8/23. Off the West Coast of Korea (The Yellow Sea)

After eight days in Japan, the Laconia was now on her way to Port Arthur, and my father wrote of his Japanese experience. Since my father had always wanted to study Japanese gardening first hand, he was thrilled that the Cruise Management had arranged for them to see the finest gardens in Japan.

He writes, "I've never seen anything as fine as one in Tokyo, belonging to royalty. The title 'flowery kingdom" is certainly well applied for even though it is the winter season I can readily imagine what it must be about April or May. The Japanese are great flower lovers and very skillful gardeners. They are past masters in the use of rocks, and their gardens are models in this respect." He observed that "they are planting gingko and oriental plane trees on city streets to a great extent, and the paulownia is quite a common tree in Japan. Japan seems to be wide awake to the importance of planting; I observed that many of their hillsides have been reforested."

My father describes Nikko as "the most beautiful spot in Japan, not only because of the richness and beauty of design of the temples, but most especially because of the marvelous setting. The cryptomerias (cedars) are 250 years old and are of great size as they were planted soon after the temples were built. In fact, I think they make the place. Leading up to the temples is the celebrated Cryptomeria Avenue, twenty-five miles long, with these wonderful trees planted closely together on both sides. It's the most impressive display of trees (man planted) I have ever seen."

Interestingly, my father noted the strong odor in Japan at that time, which was not true anymore when I got there in the 1960's. He explains, "All human excrement is carefully preserved and carted out to the rice paddies for fertilizer. Owing to the large population and the comparatively small amount of tillable ground it is necessary to raise the maximum amount on their small plots. This method of fertilizing is very effective but, oh boy, the stench! My outstanding impressions of Japan are about as follows - topographically, it is much more mountainous than I thought. Aesthetically, it exceeded my expectations; odoriferously, it knocked us for a goal!"

My father also states that,"In two places in Japan I saw crude attempts at Tree Surgery. It would have been considered poor work in 1900 in the U.S. In view of their expertise with plants, it is strange that they did not develop an art along these lines."

At the risk of offending some readers, I believe strongly in reporting history correctly and accurately in the voice of people who were living at that time. It's important to remember how different that era was, culturally and socially, than what we know today. In that context, here's what my father wrote: "We seem to have a national fear that one day the Japanese will be big and strong enough to constitute a real menace to America. There may or may not be just ground for such fears but I must say that I like them as individuals and that they seem to be the most competent people in this part of the world to develop along modern lines. In fact, it would be hard to compete with them."

Taking their leave of Japan, my father writes that "We were fortunate in having a number of good views of Fuji; we saw it by moonlight as we passed by the base, going from Tokyo to Kyoto." How mesmerizing that must have been! He also adds with typical American pride, "It is very beautiful but did not impress me any more than our own Mt. Shasta."

Five years after my father returned from this trip, he began designing and executing the building of Binney Park in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. It was dedicated to the memory of his father-in-law, Edwin Binney, whom he adored. My father was never happier than when he could create beautiful and natural environments. Binney Park was modeled on the parks he saw in Japan, with ponds, foot and road bridges, beautiful trees and flowering shrubs, meandering walkways and a stone shelter. A 1928 newspaper article claimed that "when the landscaping is finished, the new park will present a marvel of scenic grandeur and beauty unsurpassed anywhere in the United States." In the 1980's, a television special, Dorothy Hamill: Live From Binney Park, featured the Olympian skating on the pond that was my father's creation. It's fun for me to know that it had been Dorothy's childhood training ground. (Interested readers may google Binney Park, Greenwich.)

As I mentioned, it's important to remember that my father's letters were written almost 100 years ago, during a cruise that represented an opening up of the world that had never been attempted before. Many of the ports were still primitive at this time, and the passengers aboard often had very little idea about what to expect. This was also almost ten years before Charles and Anne Lindbergh set out on their global explorations for Pan Am in 1931.

At that time, as you might imagine, travel books were non-existent. Today, everyone has seen sights from around the globe in movies, TV, on-line, and in magazines and books. Iconic photos have captured the essence of the variety and diversity of foreign cultures. Many people today have experienced their own foreign travels. Moreover, flora and fauna from around the world have been imported for years. World cuisine is familiar even to children. Iconic photos have captured the essence of the variety and diversity of cultures. None of this was true in 1922.

Now, all these years later, I'm struck by the differences between my experiences as a Pan Am flight attendant and those of my father during the Laconia's historic journey. In my next blog, I want to explore those differences. I hope you'll join me.

To be continued...