[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 102 (Monday, June 17, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4110-S4111]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         REMEMBERING DR. JAMES 
                            ``JIM'' E. AUER

  Mr. HAGERTY. Mr. President, Dr. James ``Jim'' E. Auer, who passed 
away in Nashville, TN, on May 16, 2024, was a pillar of the U.S.-Japan 
Alliance. I had the privilege of knowing Dr. Auer for a number of 
years, as he would attend events hosted by the Japan-America Society of 
Tennessee.
  While I would speak with Jim from time to time, he never talked 
about--nor even hinted at--his own truly incredible accomplishments 
with respect to the U.S.-Japan Alliance. That is until, one day, it 
leaked out that President Trump was nominating me to be U.S. Ambassador 
to Japan, and Jim told my longtime assistant Betsy Van Dam that he 
needed to meet with me in person soon. And so Jim and I met, and he 
began to unpack for me his accumulated knowledge amassed over the 
decades of his experience with Japan.
  Let me summarize some of that experience: Jim began his career 
working with the U.S. Navy in 1963 assigned to a minesweeper based in 
Sasebo, Japan. He would go on to be the first U.S. Navy officer to 
study at the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Staff College in Tokyo. 
In 1973, he would be a key figure in homeporting the U.S.S. Midway, the 
first U.S. aircraft carrier to be permanently based in a foreign 
country, in Yokosuka, Japan--a distinction that Japan continues to hold 
to this day.
  From 1979 to 1988, he served as the Special Assistant for Japan in 
the Office of the Secretary of Defense, acting as a bridge between the 
Japanese Defense Agency--now Japan's Ministry of Defense--and the U.S. 
Department of Defense. After his retirement from the U.S. Navy, Jim 
would spend the next 25 years serving as a professor at Vanderbilt 
University. At Vanderbilt, he founded the Center for U.S.-Japan Studies 
and Cooperation in 1988. For his devotion to the U.S.-Japan 
relationship, Jim was awarded the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun in 
December 2008. Jim Auer was a true treasure to the U.S.-Japan Alliance, 
and his efforts to strengthen the U.S.-Japan relationship are profound 
and enduring.
  On a personal note, I found him to be an invaluable resource when I 
had the honor of serving as the 30th U.S. Ambassador to Japan. Indeed, 
I deeply appreciate that the strength of the U.S.-Japan Alliance today 
was made possible by the earlier accomplishments of trailblazers like 
Dr. Jim Auer. On May 24, 2024, I was honored to attend the Japan-
America Society of Tennessee's annual meeting in Nashville and to 
remember Jim's legacy during a panel discussion with Japanese 
Ambassador to the United States Shigeo Yamada that was moderated by 
Chairwoman Masami Tyson. Jim's children Tei, Helen, and John Ed and the 
rest of the Auer family should know that our Nation is eternally 
grateful for his contributions.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record this obituary 
in memory of Dr. Jim Auer that was published in the Tennessean on May 
28, 2024.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

Gentleman, Devoted Husband, Loving Father, Naval Officer, Ship Captain, 
                    Policy Maker, Scholar, Professor


       THE BEDROCK OF UNITED STATES SECURITY RELATIONS WITH JAPAN

       James Edward Auer loved God, his wife, and his children. A 
     true American patriot,

[[Page S4111]]

     Jim also loved the United States, the U.S. Navy, and Japan, 
     in that order.
       Jim hailed from Minnesota and grew up in Milwaukee. After 
     graduating from Marquette University, he was commissioned in 
     the U.S. Navy in 1963, a path that would lead him to become 
     the founding policy visionary of U.S.-Japan security 
     relations. Jim spent years in Japan with the Navy, commanding 
     a ship home-ported there, and was the first U.S. Navy officer 
     to study at the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force Staff 
     College.
       Dr. Auer in 1973 wrote a Praeger Special Study in 
     International Politics, The Postwar Rearmament of Japanese 
     Maritime Forces, 1945-1971, based on his PhD dissertation at 
     the Fletcher School. It was also published in Japanese. This 
     book had an important and relevant-for-today forward by 
     Admiral Arleigh Burke, retired U.S. Chief of Naval 
     Operations. Jim's research in Japan led him to close 
     friendships and mutual respect with the Japanese Navy that 
     continued throughout his life, to include the naming his 
     first of three adopted children after two distinguished 
     Japanese admirals.
       Jim's significant duty station was in the Pentagon, Office 
     of the Secretary of Defense, as Special Assistant for Japan. 
     When President Reagan's team entered the Pentagon in 1981, 
     Jim was immediately recognized as invaluable by his new 
     bosses, a young 35-year-old former Senate staffer named Rich 
     Armitage, and James Kelly, both of whom had served in the 
     Navy and later became senior diplomats.
       During the Cold War, Japan was an afterthought to senior 
     officials, who relied on Dr. Auer implicitly for advice and 
     words to write and speak. All senior Pentagon leaders' 
     speeches and remarks on Japan were drafted by Jim Auer, and 
     almost all were spoken as Jim had written. When Japan was 
     considering breaking the 1% of GDP policy, Japan officials 
     called Jim to ask him what the Secretary of Defense would say 
     if it was decided and announced. Jim thought for a minute and 
     then wrote and read to them what the Secretary would say. 
     With confidence in Jim Auer's on-the-spot drafted statement, 
     Japan decided to break the barrier. When it was announced the 
     next day, Secretary Weinberger's statement was exactly as Jim 
     said it would be.
       U.S. security policy toward Japan before Dr. Auer was based 
     on senior U.S. officials asking or demanding Japan to ``do 
     more'' and to increase its budget. Under Dr. Auer, security 
     policy more successfully emphasized and encouraged Japan's 
     own set of security goals, which would grow to be very 
     supportive of the Japan-U.S. relationship.
       Jim decided to leave Washington in 1988 to move to his 
     wife's family farm near Nashville. Jim did this for his 
     family, and former governor of Tennessee Lamar Alexander 
     urged Dr. Auer to set up a Japan-related center at Vanderbilt 
     University. Jim founded the Center for U.S.-Japan Studies and 
     Cooperation and served as the Center's leader while a 
     professor and lecturer at Vanderbilt for more than twenty 
     years. The Center's signature event was the annual U.S.-Japan 
     Technology Forum, which led to increased technology exchange 
     and cooperation between the U.S. and Japan that we are seeing 
     the fruits of today.
       In 2006, Dr. Auer edited an English language edition Who 
     Was Responsible?, a groundbreaking two-volume study by the 
     Yomiuri Shimbun, a major Japan newspaper, of Japan's 
     disastrous 1931-1945 war. No such critical analysis had been 
     done in Japan at that time.
       In 2008 Jim was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun with 
     Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon by the Japanese Government in 
     recognition of his outstanding contributions to the mutual 
     understanding and friendship between Japan and the United 
     States.
       In 2016 Dr. Auer was awarded the prestigious Sankei 
     Newspaper Seiron Taisho award, as the 31st recipient and only 
     non-Japanese to receive it. Prime Minister Abe gave 
     congratulatory remarks.
       If Jim were with us right now, he would say that all of the 
     above is ok, but the most important event of his life was 
     marrying Judith Manning. Judy was a school teacher in 
     Yokosuka whom Jim met in Tokyo in 1978 and married one year 
     later. She was intelligent, kindhearted, and warm, and Jim 
     was grateful for her every day of his life. He frequently 
     said she was the reason he could do what he did, and he loved 
     her dearly. Judy was his best friend, a thoughtful hostess, a 
     wonderful mother and grandparent. All who knew Judy believed 
     she was special.
       Jim accomplished a lot in his life, but he always gave 
     credit to others. He was kind and generous to juniors and 
     students. He tutored many, in and out of government. Jim was 
     a gentleman in the classic sense of the word, with gracious 
     dignity, a ready smile, and modest demeanor. Americans and 
     Japanese that Jim worked with may have sometimes disagreed 
     with him, but all of them, from leaders to peers to 
     subordinates, liked him. Jim was beloved and respected by his 
     students at Vanderbilt University. In particular, he had a 
     special bond with all the fellows who studied under him at 
     the Center, and he loved them very much. They, along with all 
     those whom Jim touched, carry on his legacy.
       Jim is survived by his three children, musician Teiichiro, 
     educator and care assistant Helen, U.S. Marine Major John Ed, 
     and five grandchildren, Noah, Sophia, Charlotte, Lydia, and 
     Violet.

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