NATHANIEL THAYER

1929 - 2020

THAYER Dr. Nathaniel Bowman Thayer Dr. Nathaniel Bowman Thayer, noted scholar of Japanese politics, long-time Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, U.S. Foreign Service Officer and National Intelligence Officer for East Asia, died peacefully at his daughter Sarah's home in Gretna, Nebraska on November 7, 2020.

Dr. Thayer was born into the Thayer family of Worcester, Massachusetts on November 30, 1929. He graduated the Vermont Academy and was studying architecture at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design when the Korean War broke out. During the war he served in the U.S. Army as an Investigator attached to the Counter-Intelligence Corps at the U.S. Armed Forces Far East Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. After the war he began an academic career devoted to the study of Japanese politics and the international relations of East Asia. He earned his B.A cum laude in 1956 at Columbia University and met his wife Marguerite Hisako nee Takahashi while studying there for his M.A and Ph.D.

He entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1961 and served as Press Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo under Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer. He was at the Ambassador's side when Dr. Reischauer was rushed into Toranomon Hospital following an assassi- nation attempt in 1964. He then served at the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon, Burma before returning to Columbia to complete his Ph.D., with distinction, in 1967. While working as Program Director at the Japan Society of New York in 1969 he published his classic work on Japanese politics "How the Conservative Rule Japan," a groundbreaking study of factional politics and the interplay of politicians with the bureaucracy and business. This book went through 32 editions in three languages and was a standard text on the subject for many years, in Japan as well as the U.S.

Dr. Thayer taught at Columbia University and the City College of New York and was Visiting Professor at Harvard University before joining the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in 1975, where he taught generations of Japan scholars and mentored students who have gone on to distinguished careers in academia, diplomacy and business. While at SAIS, he served as Director of Japanese Studies, Director of the Asian Studies Program, Yasuhiro Nakasone Professor and Advisor to the Reischauer Center. From 1978 to 1980 Dr. Thayer served as the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia on the National Intelligence Council of the Central Intelligence Agency. He retired from teaching in 2005, the year in which he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, by the Japanese Government during a ceremony at their embassy in Washington.

During his time at SAIS, Dr. Thayer bought a farm in Fairfax Station, Virginia where he restored and expanded a pre-Civil War farmhouse, doing much of the work himself. He raised Bouvier des Flandres herding dogs and Angus cattle on the farm. Nathaniel Thayer died after a long and brave battle with Parkinson's Disease. He is survived by his wife of 64 years Marguerite, of Shreveport LA, daughter Deborah of Minneapolis MN, daughter Sarah of Shreveport LA, and daughter Rebecca, also of Minneapolis, as well as brother William Thayer of Marshfield MA and his family. A memorial gathering is being planned at the Reischauer Center for the fall, with a web link to Tokyo and elsewhere. Please contact Dr. Fumiko Sasaki fumikosasaki7@gmail.com for details.