POSTSCRIPT

The writer's mother
　When I was still very young, I heard from my mother that her father, H.S. Palmer had designed and superintended the waterworks in Yokohama. The articles left behind were only two sheets of photo when H.S. Palmer was Lt. Colonel and one book with superb bindings titled "The Letters from the Land of the Rising Sun."
　The book was published in 1894 from the office of The Japan Mail in Yokohama. Twenty six communications out of all the communications which H.S. Palmer had sent to The Times were selected and compiled by Brinkley and Palmer himself when the latter was still alive.
　However, when very young, the book was for me too difficult to read and it was not too much to say that I was only staring at the book in vain.
　About twenty years ago, when I was looking at the index of the book in a casual manner, I hit upon the two reportages with the titles of "Recent Volcanic Eruption" and "The Bandai-san Eruption."
　What a strange coincidence it was!
　Every summer, for the past five years, I had made it my great pleasure to visit the hamlet of Naga-saka with my family to see Mr. Saburo Isogaya, my dear friend, at his mountain cottage and to spend about a week there.
Mr. Saburo Isogaya
　All my family had been entirely enchanted with the beauty of Bandaisan, especially the Ura (Back) Bandaisan as well as the kindest hospitality of the local people around Mr. Isogaya.
　On reading forward the two reportages, I came to realize that H.S. Palmer, just a week after the eruption of July 15, 1888, hurried to the spot with F. Brinkley of The Japan Mail and Henry Norman, the reporter of the Pall-Mall Gazette of England who happened to be in Tokyo.
　After they came back to Tokyo, Palmer sent these reportages with full of vivid description to The Times.
　You may easily imagine how surprised I was when I discovered that a great deal of human casualties was done to the hamlet of Naga-saka, where I visit every summer, and that H.S. Palmer had visited there just a week after the eruption.
　The coincidence set my mind to read through "The Letters from the Land of the Rising Sun."
　On successively reading through and translating the remaining twenty-four communications, I have become to understand his personality and the breadth of the information and knowledge which he had as well as the deep affection always shown towards Japan.
　These eventually led me to start my extensive researches on him.
　Fortunately, my nephew (The eldest son of my elder sister) who was then studying abroad in the Hebrew University in Israel, unexpectedly found a brief sketch of the life of Henry Spencer Palmer, recorded in the Dictionary of the National Biography published by the Oxford University Press, at the University Library and sent a copy to me.
　In December 1982, I could publish a book through Chikuma Shobo, one of the leading publishers in Japan, titled "The Letters from Japan at the dawn of a New Era" which is the Japanese version of Palmer's "The Letters from the Land of The Rising Sun" (translated by myself).
　Now, soon after one copy of my book "The Letters from Japan at the dawn of a New Era" was presented to the National Diet Library in Tokyo, a letter from a Ms. Frances Woodward of Historical Maps and Cartographical Archives in the University of British Columbia in Vancouver arrived at the above Library.
　The contents of the letter were as follows;
29 June 1983

　I am compiling a biography of Henry Spencer Palmer for the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
　For your information, I am enclosing an obituary of Palmer, who died in Tokyo, 10 March 1893 (Should be 10 February 1893).
　A member of the family visited Tokyo in 1934 and found that someone was putting fresh flower on his grave.
　The last page of the obituary outlines his work in Japan.
　I need some documentation to support this outline of Palmer's work in Japan.
　On the subject of his grave, is it possible to find out if it is still there, who was caring for it, and if it is still being cared for?
　Any help or advice would be very much appreciated.
Frances Woodward
Ms. Francis. Woodward
　The officer in charge who received the letter from Ms. Woodward found out about my book which was presented to the Library, and immediately contacted me.
　Then, he wrote back to Ms. Woodward telling her that Mr. Higuchi, the translator of the book, who does researches on Palmer, happened to be a grandson of Palmer and had been taking care of Palmer's grave in Aoyama, Tokyo and he sent various materials which she asked in accordance with my recommendations for her further study.
　After a while, Ms. Woodward sent a letter directly to me, in which she told me that, in Vancouver Island, there lived Mr. Henry Alexander Rogers and his sister, Mrs. Mary Huntley, children of Irene Josephine, the 6th daughter of Henry Spencer Palmer.
　In return, I wrote　a letter enclosing the photos of myself and my deceased mother and cordially asked her to convey my wishes to Mr. Rogers and Mrs Huntley that I would appreciate seeing them very much in not a distant future.
　On March 1984, I received a letter from Mrs. Mary Huntley starting with the following warmest hearted sentences;
Box. 8, Lanzville B.C.
Canada VOR2HO
March 8, 1984

Dear Cousin Higuchi

　I was delighted beyond words to hear from Frances Woodward that the PALMER clan is far more extensive than previously thought!
　This brings very warm regards from your Canadian cousin.
　My brother Alec Rogers and I are the children of H.S.P.'s youngest daughter Irene. There are Mary Vivian and her sister, Marjorie Ferguson, both in their 80's who live in England, daughters of Evelyn Mary Bennett, another of H.S.P.'s daughters.
　Bill Palmer who lived in California until his death about 10 years ago was the last of the Palmer males to have any children and his only offspring was a female as was the case with Uta (my grandmother) and H.S.P. (Frances sent me a copy of your family tree).
　Unfortunately this spills the demise of the Palmer name.
　Bill was the one who did all the genealogical work on the Palmers and I know he would have enjoyed meeting you.
　I have told his widow Sherry of your existence and she is as excited as I.
　If it hadn't been for such as Frances, we would probably never have discovered each other's existence!
　I am writing to both Mary and Marjorie in England to tell them the news and called Sherry Palmer by phone as mentioned earlier.
Sincerely
Mary Huntley
　On May 18, 1984, I left Japan, and initially visited Ms. Woodward at the U.B.C.
　It was on May 21 when I could finally meet a grey-haired lady, Mrs. Mary Huntley, waiting for me at Nanaimo Harbour on Vancouver Island.
The writer, Ms. F. Woodward & Mrs. Mary Huntley
　I stayed at her house in Lanzville for a day, having a long talk with her on Palmer and was presented a copy of Palmer Family Tree as well as the family coat of Arms, together with a bulk of valuable materials on Palmer such as cuttings of newspapers and periodicals published from 1859 to 1862 and later years.
　During our conversation, Mrs. Huntley recommended me to visit Mrs. William Palmer at Rancho Santa Fe in California on my way home.
　I completed my research works at the Provincial Archives at Victoria where there were bulk of valuable materials on Palmer.
　Then, as recommended by Mrs. Huntley, I visited Mrs. Palmer at Rancho Santa Fe in California on June 8.
Mrs. W. Palmer & her sister
Ms. Perry Palmer & the writer
　Thanks to the previous telephone contact from Mrs. Huntley in Lanzville, I was given a hearty welcome from Mrs. William Palmer.
　She was a very intellectual 80 year old lady, a graduate of Smith Girls' College in Boston and one of the first lady-journalists in U.S.A.
　Though she had no blood relationship with Palmer, I cannot forget her warmest words to the effect that Uta-san might have been "An Oasis in the Desert" to Palmer in Japan.
　The letter which waited for my return from the trip on June 13 was the one from Mrs. Mary Vivian in England as follows;

June 5 1984
Bicknoller
Taunton
Somerset

Dear Cousin Jiro Higuchi,

　I have been watching with the greatest interest your correspondence with my cousin Mary Huntley, and also hearing about your meeting, and now I hope you will let me add the little I can tell you of our grandfather H.S.P.
　All my mother (Evelyn) ever said was that she had kept house for him, so I imagine she was there when your mother was born!
　After her father's death, she went down to Hongkong to fill a vacancy in the newly opened British Hospital as she was a trained nurse.
　I think she had taken up nursing to escape from her unhappy lone life.
　I wish I had more to tell you of family history, but my mother said very little about her father, which is sad when he was such a distinguished man.
　I hope one day I may see the biography you are working on, and at least it is a great comfort that you are proud of him and have undertaken this labour of love.
With kind regards
yours sincerely

Mary Vivian
Mrs. Mary Vivian
　I had already written that Evelyn Mary Palmer, Vivian's mother, was thanked very much of her self-sacrificing nursing of the two Japanese doctors who were caught with the bubonic plague rampant in Hongkong in 1894, while encouraging the patients with her poor Japanese vocabulary.
　Moreover, I can well understand that she must have been a very warm-hearted lady also for the fact that she had sent to my grandmother Uta a beautifully embroidered Chinese pouch from Hongkong.
　In 1985, when I visited England, I tried, first of all, to visit Vivian in the country; however, to my great pity, I was informed that Vivian had been on the verge of death due to a heart attack, so it was impossible for me to visit her.
　However, I was able to meet Mrs. Marjorie Ferguson, at 86, the younger sister of Vivian and her family and was presented with various materials on Palmer from them.

The writer, Mrs. Marjorie Ferguson & Family
　As my researches on Henry Spencer Palmer made progress, the whole image on him have gradually become clear to me.
　To say nothing of his distinguished careers as Royal Engineers in various countries, starting from England, his home country, British Columbia in Canada, England, Sinai Peninsula, New Zealand, Barbados, and Hongkong, since he arrived in Japan in 1885, he accomplished considerable achievements not only in the technical fields, such as in waterworks, harbourworks, river-improvements, irrigation system, astronomy, geology, meteorology and land survey.
　It also became clear that he was the man who, understanding well the feelings of young Japanese statesmen, correctly reported to England through "The Times" with a beautiful and sympathetic touch, the social conditions, humanness, manners and customs, and the daily life of the Japanese people, while sending many letters on the revision of the treaties to materialize it for Japan.



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Chapter 5 Note Brief History of H.S. Palmer Bibliography