THE WHITE GLOVE TREATMENT
When The Beatles Changed Fashion Overseas
Picture a police officer in your head. Chances are, the person you’re visualizing is wearing a navy blue uniform. Across countries and cultures, this is typically (of course, not always) the case. The reason for these uniforms being blue is believed to be a simple matter of timing combined with the inertia of history. In the United States, police uniforms came en vogue starting in the mid- to late 1850s. When the Civil War ended, the surplus Union uniforms—which were blue—were repurposed by municipal police forces. Over time, blue shirts, blue pants, and even blue ties and blue hats became the norm for police officers across the country.
But not gloves. By and large, police officers only wear gloves if weather or other factors (e.g., if they’re riding a motorcycle) dictate they do so. Unless they’re in Japan, that is. It’s quite common for Japanese officers to wear white gloves, actually—and the Beatles deserve some of the credit for this.
In February 1964, The Beatles made their way from England to the United States for the first time. Every step of the way, the Fab Four were besieged by fans. When they arrived at Heathrow Airport in London for their flight across the Atlantic, an estimated 4,000 fans were there to send them off; a similar number was waiting for their arrival at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York later that day. Crowds camped out near Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel when the band was staying there, and when The Beatles arrived back in the UK in late February, as many as 10,000 fans were there to greet them. And where there are crowds, there are police officers there to help ensure that everything remains relatively peaceful and safe. And by and large, they were successful in keeping this peace during The Beatles’ tour.
When the Beatles returned to the US in August that year, and then again in August 1965, the situation was mostly the same: lots of fans, lots of police, and thankfully, not too many injuries. So when The Beatles announced a tour of Germany, Japan, and the Philippines for the early summer of 1966, law enforcement in each of these three areas already had a blueprint for how to best deal with the crowds. Japan, however, went a step further.
According to The Japan Times, the officer in charge of security for the trip, Hideo Yamada, wanted to ensure that the officers remembered that the fans weren’t criminals, just young, energetic, and eager to get a glimpse of their pop idols. The police were there to keep the peace, not start a fight, and Yamada wanted to put his officers in the right mindset. Specifically, Yamada wanted them to emulate the Imperial Guard—a subsidiary organization of Japan’s National Police Agency whose officers were held to a higher standard of conduct. The Imperial Guard was expected to practice an extraordinary degree of “reigi tadashisa,” which translates to “propriety” or “politeness.” Yamada figured that if he wanted his officers to mirror the guard’s behavior, he should have them also mirror their attire. He recalled that the Imperial Guard officers wore white gloves and insisted that his officers do the same.
Whether Yamada’s plan worked is unknown; there were very few reports of unrest during The Beatles’ visit to Japan (which is a promising sign). The best evidence that they were effective? White gloves became a mainstay of Japanese police uniforms from that point on.