IN PRAISE OF ALAN F. KAY, PhD
Like many soldiers, Private Alan F. Kay, US Army 42187381, after personal encounters with the obscenities of war, became as he would say, “a peacenik”. As I look at the precious memento on my wrist of Alan’s US Army tag, I recall how much his World War II experience as a 20-year old shaped his life’s journey.
Alan’s war experience was as a Japanese language translator in the command of US General MacArthur’s occupation of Japan in 1945. Alan’s keen observances of conditions in that defeated country are preserved in hundreds of hand-written letters home to his parents Harry and Ceil Kay in New Jersey. This treasure trove came to me, since fortunately Alan’s mother Ceil kept every one, and they were returned to Alan at Ceil’s passing in her 93rd year.
After I said my last goodbyes to my beloved Alan on August 17th, 2016, I and Alan’s stepdaughter, my daughter Alexandra Cassidy, spent a tearful day reading Alan’s letter from Tokyo out loud to each other. How miraculously healing it was to engage with Alan so vividly – as he described his daily encounters, duties and his first explorations of the Japanese culture he had studied so deeply along with the language at the University of Minnesota. Along with Alan’s letters were many of his essays on Japanese history, art, music and cultural traditions. This priceless collection will be donated to an appropriate institute, as a living archive of US-Japanese relations – available for study by Japanese and US scholars.
Alan Kay’s World War II experience sparked his lifelong interest in international relations, peace research, conflict resolution, diplomacy and the United Nations – and his passion for perfecting democracy.
Alan Kay witnessed General MacArthur’s exemplary occupation of Japan, fostering the writing of their constitution still in force today with its focus on human rights and equality and renouncing of military aggression. This led to Alan’s major social innovation which he proudly launched, spending $2 million of his own funds: public interest polling. Alan deeply believed in the collective wisdom of informed voters and rule by “we the people” as paramount. These goals brought me and Alan together in Washington, DC, in the mid-1980s, since I was serving as a science policy wonk advisor to several US Agencies and the Congress. We soon joined forces and remained soulmates until my beloved Alan departed this life in 2016.
He is now in my heart every day, in the Henderson-Kay-Schumacher Library and private conference facility we created together in St. Augustine, Florida. As I continue our work together, each day I see his picture in every room, and remember his hard work, his books and papers. I pledge to keep his vision fresh and spend my energy as Alan wished, so our joint efforts will continue. Alan lived his life to the hilt as he describes in his biography Militarist, Millionaire, Peacenik: Memoir of a Serial Entrepreneur (Cosimo Books, NY, 2008). This volume and all his other books and papers will remain in our Library and available to scholars. I am deeply inspired and full of gratitude for the 25 years Alan and I worked, lived and loved together – and for his silver bracelet US Army tag, a gift from his parents, now always around my wrist.
Hazel Henderson, October 14, 2016