Interview with Faubion Bowers, Marlene J. Mayo Oral Histories Page 1 University of Maryland, College Park ORAL HISTORY PROJECT O
University of Maryland, College Park ORAL HISTORY PROJECT on the ALLIED OCCUPATION OF JAPAN Interview Subject: Faubion Bowers Place: The Bird Room, The Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. Date: July 22, 1982 By: Marlene Mayo Q: Mr. Bowers… FB: Call me Faubion. Q: All right, Faubion. I want to say at the start that there is a previous interview that was done by Beate Gordon, years ago. About 1960, I would say, for the Columbia University oral history project. But I thought that your experience in the Occupation and your reputation in the Kabuki theatre and in writing about Japanese drama and indeed East Asian theatre generally, all of that was such that we should probe a bit more and find out more about your experience and more about your background. FB: If there’s anything left, mine it. Q: So, I would like to begin as Beate did and go back and find out where you were born, where you grew up, a little bit about your family, your early interests. FB: I was born in 1917 in Miami, Oklahoma, but Tulsa was sort of my home base. That’s where I grew up. My mother, of course, wanted a girl, which is why she picked this name, Faubion, which could be anything -- as I turned out to be anything. And my mother was very interested in opera, and as much as I disliked her, and as much as I’m relieved – it’s like a mill stone removed from around my neck that she’s dead -- I do owe her a debt.
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