Transnational Women's Activism by Rumi Yasutake

Author:Rumi Yasutake [Yasutake, Rumi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780814797037
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 2004-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

Nationalism, Imperialism, and the WCTU Movement in Japan

While the pragmatism of American WCTU missionary women was responsible for the success of their temperance among Japanese minors, Japan’s two imperialistic wars, the Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the Russo—Japanese War (1904–1905), greatly affected the course of the Japan WCTU. As the Emperor established himself as the divine symbol of the nation and the father of the people during the late Meiji era, the Japanese churchwomen’s organization could not continue to exist without proving that its members were “loyal” subjects of the Emperor and the state. Indeed, many Japanese churchwomen were as eager as the Japanese public in their support for and collaboration with the Japanese government in advancing Japan’s status as an imperialist power in the Western—dominated world hierarchy. As the Japan WCTU cooperated with the Japanese government in fighting the two wars, it is hard to tell whether the Japan WCTU used the opportunity to improve its public image and expand its influence or whether the Japanese government took advantage of the organized power of churchwomen to assure itself of the people’s allegiance to the state. In this process, the Japan WCTU transformed its purpose from that conceived of by American WCTU workers, namely, to reform Japanese society in light of the American WCTU’s vision, to one that aimed to expand Japanese churchwomen’s influence in Japan and Japan’s control over its neighbors.

Japanese Christians easily combined the Christian emphasis on selfless service in God’s cause with patriotic devotion to the Emperor and the nation. Barring a small group of Christian socialists, Japanese Christians enthusiastically accepted Japan’s imperialistic expansion in Korea, Taiwan, and Manchuria. At the same time, despite anti-Christian accusations that followers of the “one and only God” were potential traitors to Imperial Japan, the majority of Japanese Christians were as patriotic and loyal to the Emperor as were non-Christians and anti-Christians. Umeko Tsuda was a good illustration of this.82 Even though she left Japan at age six and converted to Christianity while growing up in pious Protestant communities in America, for her Christianity and the Emperor system were not only compatible but mutually reinforcing. Excited about the Japanese victory in the Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Umeko Tsuda wrote that she attributed the victory to “the intense patriotism” of the people rather than Western methods or clever military tactics. She proudly stated that in her country “men and women, educated and uneducated, even down to the lowest ranks of society, [had] shown themselves capable of understanding the highest ideals of self-sacrifice for a cause which they [had] been taught to regard as sacred.” Drawing an analogy between Japanese obeisance to the Emperor and Christian devotion to God’s cause, Umeko Tsuda asserted that Christianity would only strengthen the willingness of the Japanese to sacrifice themselves for their nation:

Patriotism . . . is in itself a religion. The same feeling of joy experienced by the Christian martyrs when being tortured for a righteous cause, is felt in the sufferings experienced in this war for the country’s honor.

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