The most earthshaking modernization in Japan was not in 1945, but from the beginning of the Meiji Era in 1868, when the shogun stepped down and Japan began to grow into a constitutional monarchy established in 1889. The new government sent budding leaders to Europe or America for fact-finding missions and to study, so that they could wisely modernize their country. With a combination of a Confucian base, democracy and Western technology, Japan quickly melded the modern with the traditional.
The First Japanese Women Students Overseas from 1871
Mostly men were sent overseas, but Tsuda Umeko (Ume) was one of the first five Japanese girls who went to America to study. Though two of the five left after one year, Umeko, Shigeko (Shige) and Sutematsu stayed for 10-11 years. These three girls made strong, lifelong bonds with each other. When they returned to Japan, their experiences caused them to be in demand since their English ability and knowledge of Western studies and customs put they them on the cutting edge of modernization in Japan. All three girls were influenced by educator and author, Catharine Beecher (sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe), who declared, "Let the women of a country be made virtuous and intelligent, and the men will certainly be the same. The proper education of a man decides the welfare of an individual; but educate a woman, and the interests of a whole family are secured," according to author Barbara Rose in Tsuda Umeko and Women's Education in Japan. While the other two married (Shigeko became a Countess and Sutematsu, a Princess), Umeko wanted to be single and waited to be appointed to a government post.
Eventually, after teaching for some years, Tsuda Umeko returned to America to study at Bryr Mawr in Philadelphia and also to visit Europe. Her study and hard work paid off, when she founded a women's school in 1900, which later became Tsuda College. Later she represented Japan at an international convention in Colorado and attended lectures at Oxford University in Britain. Consequently, much of her life is known to us today because of the discovery of 1300 pages of her letters in English to her American host mother, Adeline Lanman. The letters were selected and edited for publication by Furuki Yoshiko and her colleagues from Tsuda College as The Attic Letters.
The Attic Letters: Ume Tsuda's Correspondence to Her American Mother.
Tsuda's letters reveal how she was aware her life was not completely her own because she had been sent by the Japanese government and had become a cosmopolitan, bi-cultural, international-minded woman among the elite Japanese male leadership. In 1883, She writes to Adeline, "It seems so strange to think what a tiny chance, a mere little act, changed my whole life, for never, never, can I be as if I had never gone away. . . . And I am so glad and thankful for it all, and so you must be with me." Her homesickness for America and her host family are also apparent when she wrote: "Oh! America and you seem so very, very far away, and a great ocean between. Don't you wish we could have a chat sometimes. and enjoy each other's talk instead of only writing letters all the time?" Yet though it was hard for Tsuda to relearn Japanese and follow traditional manners for women who attended imperial court gatherings, she was decidedly proud of Japanese culture and patriotic towards her birth country.
The letters contain descriptions of her news of Shige and Sutematsu's lives and growing families; of fraternizing with foreign missionaries and teachers at school, church or their home parties; of going to fancy balls at the Rokumeikan; and most often, of the daily life of her precious students. She had also acquired friends in Japan, who she could relate to such as educators and authors as Anna Hartshorne and Alice Bacon who she had first met in America; statesman and educator Nitobe Inazo, and his wife Mary; as well as the founder of Doishisha University, Niijima Jo. All of them were fellow Christians.
The Influence of Christianity in the Meiji Era
Tsuda became a Christian as a student in America and never wavered from her faith. She was especially encouraged by the leadership of Japanese Christians such as Niijima Jo, Uchimura Kanzo and Masahisa Uemura. There was a general respect towards Christianity and Christian schools in the Meiji Era that has continued from the late 19th century to present, even though the numbers of Christians have remained a small minority.
At times, Tsuda was especially critical about two aspects of Japanese life. First of all, about the slow progress for Japanese women. The Confucian stance of the government and society was for women to be stay at home mothers. Tsuda decided not to marry because she wanted to advance the position of women in Japan through education. Secondly, the other reason she did not want to marry was that the double standard for men and women was excessive in marriage at that time because the husband's mistresses were accepted by society and their "love children" were expected to be raised by the wife, not the mistress.
Until 1929, Tsuda continued to live the life of an exceptionally knowledgeable person, aware of the culture and customs of her two countries. Her life proved wrong the famous quote from Rudyard Kipling, "East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet." In 1911, Tsuda wrote to Adeline, "My childhood days [in your home] were very happy ones, and I look back upon them with great joy, We must live in the happy memories than God has given us, and they are a great thing and nothing can take them from us."
References
Rose, Barbara. Tsuda Umeko and Women's Education in Japan, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992.
Tsuda Umeko. The Attic Letters: Ume Tsuda's Correspondence to Her American Mother, edited by Yoshiko Furuki, et al, New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1991.
Carmen Sterba - Carmen Sterba has a B.A. in Far East Asian Studies and an M.A. in Literature. She is keen about Japanese history & Asian American ...
