NEW YORK -- Herbert Passin, whom I had the honor of knowing, died on Feb. 26. Like kabuki expert Faubion Bowers, whom I also knew, Passin was a top graduate of the Military Intelligence Service Language School, which was established in 1941 in preparation for the coming war with Japan. Both did wonderful things under the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, or SCAP, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and went on to do more. Both were decorated by the Japanese government. But they were so self-effacing that you wouldn't have had an inkling of such things in their presence.

My first encounter with Passin was startlingly memorable. Sometime in the late 1970s, a very unassuming gentleman appeared in the library of the trade agency where I worked. After examining statistical and other books, he wondered if I could get some information from Tokyo, especially from a professor friend of his. He was giving a talk to the Tanners Association the following week, in Florida, and he needed certain information on Japan's "untouchables." The Japanese professor was the greatest authority on the matter.

At the time, one big trade "friction" between Japan and the United States was Japan's import of quantities of leather from the U.S. but few leather products. It exported shoes and handbags, instead. If an American could clarify the whys and wherefores of that lopsided situation to an important American trade group, that would be more than a Japanese trade agency could hope for. So I was more than happy to oblige. I asked him to leave his name and address so I might get in touch with him as soon as I had responses to his list of questions. His name was Herbert Passin, and he was a professor at Columbia University.