Oral History Interview with Stephen E. Van Nostrand, April 20, 1987 Page: 45
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45
Marcello:
Van Nostrand:While we're on this subject, let me ask this question. How
important was a wife for an executive in Caltex? Does the
wife play a role...I'm not asking this question very well.
What is the importance of having a wife on an assignment
like Japan or Thailand or Korea or wherever it might be?
In the days I was in Japan, I would say it was essential to
have the kind of wives we did have there at that time in
Caltex because the augmentation of the business was very
much social and you spent a great deal of time travelling
together on airplanes, buses, and trains. You spent a great
deal of time in each other's company. The ladies really
helped a great deal on the relationship side--a very great
deal.
The other thing most people aren't aware of is this
docile Japanese lady who walks three or four paces behind
her husband down the street is a figment of somebody's
imagination. This is the way they behaved themselves.
They don't talk in their husband's presence, and there are
many other things that make them appear to be the most
subservient, perhaps perfect, wives in the world. But, let
me tell you, they run the household. They are very strong
influences on their husbands, and there's no doubt about it,
particularly in modern day Japan. So if they, for example,
are in harmony with the distaff side of the Caltex operation
or the Shell operation or whatever, it has a definite and
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Marcello, Ronald E. & Van Nostrand, Stephen E. Oral History Interview with Stephen E. Van Nostrand, April 20, 1987, book, April 20, 1987; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc306889/m1/47/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Oral History Program.