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From “Old Miss” to New Professional: A Portrait of Women Educators Under the American Occupation of Japan, 1945–52

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Donald Roden
Donald Roden*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Rutgers University
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Extract

The unmarried female schoolteacher may qualify as the most written about, yet least understood, figure in the history of modern education. She emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as a literary stereotype defined by the likes of Miss Priscilla Batte, that “shapeless yet majestic” matron of Dinwiddie Academy in Ellen Glasgow's Virginia, the Cabot sisters in Joseph Lincoln's Mary-Gusta, or the ever vigilant Miss Dorothy Gibbs, head of the Female Institute in Thomas Aldrich's Story of a Bad Boy. Stiff, humorless, and punctillious to the end, these grim products of the literary imagination were construed to typify an entire profession that seemed peculiarly vulnerable to caricature. Until World War I, at least, teaching and “spinsterhood” were synonymous in the public mind. And the self-denigration that accompanied acceptance of the “old maid” stereotype presumably blunted the creative urge to write. As several American historians have noted, there is a remarkable paucity of memoirs and autobiographies, through which the subject could speak for herself; thus, we know little about the proverbial lady who stood in front of the chalkboard.

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , Winter 1983 , pp. 469 - 489
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 by History of Education Society 

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References

Notes

The author wishes to express his appreciation to Mrs. Helen Seamans, formerly Helen Hosp, whose papers have been used extensively in this essay. Mrs. Seamans generous advice contributed greatly to the article. Special thanks are also due Mr. Robert Radin, who introduced me to Mrs. Seamans, and to four training-course members (Fujieda Ai, Nakata Haru, Morita Sumi, and Mitate Chiyo) who shared their memories with me. An earlier version of the article was presented at the Amherst Conference on Occupation Japan in August 1980.

1. Glasgow, Ellen, Virginia (New York, 1913), see especially pp. 1–3; Lincoln, Joseph, Mary-Gusta (New York, 1916), pp. 165–171; Aldrich, Thomas, The Story of a Bad Boy (New York, 1914), pp. 221–223. For an introduction to these and other literary sources, I have benefitted greatly from Deegan, Dorothy Yost, The Stereotype of the Single Woman in American Novels (New York, 1969).Google Scholar

2. See, for example, Daniel Boorstin's remarks in The National Geographic Society, ed., We Americans (Washington, DC, 1975), p. 126. See Also Bernard, Richard M. and Vinovskis, Maris A., “The Female School Teacher in Ante-Bellum Massachusetts,” Journal of Social History, 10 (March 1977): 332–345 and Jones, Jacqueline, “Women who were More than Men: Sex and Status in Freedmen's Teaching,” History of Education Quarterly, 19 (Spring 1979): 47–59.Google Scholar

3. Quoted in Noboru, Yoshida, Meiji irai ni okeru joshi kyōiku no hensen (Tokyo, 1947), p. 154.Google Scholar

4. Itsue, Takamure, Jose no rekishi Vol. 2 (Tokyo, 1966), pp. 544–556; Lebra, Joyce, Paulson, Joy, and Powers, Elizabeth, eds., Women in Changing Japan (Stanford, 1976), p. 160.Google Scholar

5. Sklar, Kathryn Kish, Catherine Beecher, A Study in American Domesticity (New Haven, 1973), p. 97.Google Scholar

6. Wakao, Kido, Fujin kyóshi no hyakunen (Tokyo, 1968), pp. 177–178.Google Scholar

7. Ibid., pp. 65–57; Tomitaro, Karasawa, Kyōshi no rekishi (Tokyo, 1956), p. 131.Google Scholar

8. With only a handful of very special exceptions, the public universities in prewar Japan were restricted to men.Google Scholar

9. Joshi, Tokyo Gakkō, Kōtō Shihan ed., Tōkyō Joshi Kōtō Shihan Gakkō enkaku ryakushi (Tokyo, 1915), pp. 29–30; Joshi, Tōkyō Gakkō, Kōtō Shihan, ed., Tōkyō Joshi Koto Shihan Gakkō rokujūnenshi (Tokyo, 1934), pp. 136–137, 144; Interview with Fujieda Ai in Akita, June 20, 1979.Google Scholar

10. Wakao, Kido, Fujin kyōshi no hyakunen, pp. 55–56, 185–210.Google Scholar

11. For a literary projection of this stereotype, see Toson, Shimazaki, Rōjō (Tokyo, 1903). Also Yasuko, Ichibangase, ed., Jokyōshi no fujin mondai (Tokyo, 1975), p. 145.Google Scholar

12. Itsue, Takamure, “Jokyoinron” in Takamure Itsue zenshū Vol. 7 (Tokyo, 1966), pp. 316–320.Google Scholar

13. MacArthur, Douglas, Reminiscences (New York, 1964), p. 305.Google Scholar

14. See Yoshishige, Abe, “An Address to the U.S. Education Mission,” Society 64 (August 1946), pp. 1–3.Google Scholar

15. United States Education Mission to Japan, ed., Report of the United States Education Mission to Japan (Washington, 1946), pp. 8–9, 26, 62.Google Scholar

16. Ibid., p. 13.Google Scholar

17. Stoddard, George, “The Personality Problems of Teachers,” Journal of Home Economics 28 (September, 1936): 428–430.Google Scholar

18. United States Education Mission to Japan, ed., Report, p. 2.Google Scholar

19. Holmes, Lulu, “Women in the New Japan,” Journal of the American Association of University Women 41 (Spring 1948): 139–140.Google Scholar

20. Hosp, Helen, “Education in a New Age,” Journal of the American Association of University Women 39 (Winter 1946): 104.Google Scholar

21. Hosp, Helen, “Higher Education on the American Scene,” Journal of the American Association of University Women 39 (Spring 1946): 167.Google Scholar

22. Deegan, Dorothy Yost, “Education for Spinsters,” Journal of the American Association of University Women 41 (Summer 1948): 212.Google Scholar

23. From an interview with Helen Hosp Seamans on June 29, 1981 in Lakewood, New Jersey.Google Scholar

24. Hosp, Helen, “AAUW and the Teacher Crisis,” Journal of the American Association of University Women 41 (Fall 1947): 14.Google Scholar

25. Interview with Helen Hosp Seamans on June 29, 1981 in Lakewood, New Jersey.Google Scholar

26. Seamans, Helen Hosp, “Japanese Women and Democracy” (unpublished manuscript written in 1952), p. 19.Google Scholar

27. Ibid., p. 41. During her first months in Japan Hosp assisted the Committee for the Development of University Guidance Programs, which was chaired by Amano Teiyū. For more on the ideas of this group, see Seikatsu, Gakusei Kyōgikai, Kaizen, ed., Shinsei daigaku ni okeru gakusei buseikatsu no rinen to jissai (Tokyo, 1949).Google Scholar

28. Helen Hosp, Memorandum, August 5, 1949, to Chief, Education Division of The Civil Information and Education Section of SCAP. Seamans' papers.Google Scholar

29. Interview with Helen Hosp Seamans on June 29, 1981 in Lakewood, New Jersey.Google Scholar

30. Seamans, , “Japanese Women and Democracy,” p. 42.Google Scholar

31. Ibid., p. 43; see also introductory remarks on October 10, 1949 by Kumura Toshio in the Seamans' papers.Google Scholar

32. Letter from Mori Kikuno to Helen Hosp, December 20, 1949.Google Scholar

33. Letter from Murakami Sawa to Helen Hosp received in late December 1949.Google Scholar

34. Seamans, , “Japanese Women and Democracy,” p. 44.Google Scholar

35. Hōdō, Joshi Shūkai, Kenkyū, ed., Daigaku ni okeru joshi no gaidansu (Tokyo, 1950), pp. 255, 263, 286.Google Scholar

36. Ibid., pp. 359–369.Google Scholar

37. This quotation is based primarily upon a Japanese translation of Hosp's remarks in Hōdō, Joshi Shukai, Kenkyū, ed., Daigaku ni okeru joshi no gaidansu, p. 313 with help from ungrammatical English notes for the October 25, 1949 lecture in the Seamans' papers. The views of the other lecturers mentioned here can be found on pp. 242, 278, 310–315 and the English notes for lectures on December 6 and 12, 1949 (Seamans' papers).Google Scholar

38. English notes for lecture on December 6, 1949 (Seamans' papers).Google Scholar

39. Pharr, Susan, “The Politics of Women's Rights Reforms during the Allied Occupation of Japan,” in Ward, Robert and Yoshikazu, Sakamoto, eds., Policy and Planning during the Allied Occupation (forthcoming).Google Scholar

40. See, for example, English notes for December 2, 1949 (Seamans' papers).Google Scholar

41. This point was stressed during interviews with Fujieda Ai (Akita: June 20, 1979) and Nakata Haru (Tokyo: June 25, 1979). Both were participants in the training course. In addition, careful distinctions between “Miss” and “Mrs.” are made throughout the English notes for the lectures.Google Scholar

42. The wording is taken from Arthur Traxler's Techniques of Guidance (New York, 1945), p. 3. Hosp referred frequently to this book during the training course.Google Scholar

43. Seamans, , “Japanese Women and Democracy,” p. 2.Google Scholar

44. Ibid., p. 44.Google Scholar

45. Ibid., pp. 51–52.Google Scholar

46. Hōdō, Joshi Shūkai, Kenkyū, ed., Daigaku ni okeru joshi no gaidansu, p. 68.Google Scholar

47. Ibid., pp. 397–399.Google Scholar

48. Ibid., p. 388. I discuss the association of student life with adolescence in my book Schooldays in Imperial Japan: A Study in the Culture of a Student Elite (Berkeley, 1980).Google Scholar

49. Letter from Murakami Sawa to Helen Hosp received in late December 1949.Google Scholar

50. Letters to Helen Hosp from Yamada Hisae (December 26, 1949), Murakami Sawa (late December 1949), Oguro Rei (December 23, 1949), and Morita Sumi (late December 1949).Google Scholar

51. The letters to Helen Hosp which emphasize family hardship include those written by Nogami Kisako (late December 1949), Tanaka Tomi (December 22, 1949), Mori Kikuno (December 20, 1949), Nagai Fumi (late December 1949), and Yamada Hisae (December 26, 1949).Google Scholar

52. Letters to Helen Hosp from Tanaka Tomi (December 22, 1949) and Maeda Yoshiko (December 20, 1949). The remarks by Yoshida Takeko are taken from the English notes for the discussion on November 22, 1949. Both Fujieda Ai and Nakata Haru have provided me with additional information about Miss Yoshida.Google Scholar

53. Letter from Tsunemi Hisae (December 25, 1949).Google Scholar

54. Letters from Nogami Kisako (late December 1949), Tsunemi Hisae (December 25, 1949), Hayashi Akiko (late December 1949), and Maeda Yoshiko (December 20, 1949).Google Scholar

55. Letter from Tsunemi Hisae (December 25, 1949).Google Scholar

56. Letter from Hayashi Akiko (late December 1949). Because of the particularly sensitive nature of this woman's disclosures, I have chosen to use a pseudonym.Google Scholar

57. Letter from Maeda Yoshiko (December 20, 1949). As with the previous woman, I have chosen to use a pseudonym.Google Scholar

58. Letters from Hayashi Akiko (late December 1949) and Yamada Hisae (December 26, 1949).Google Scholar

59. Letter from Yamada Hisae (December 26, 1949).Google Scholar

60. Letter from Tsunemi Hisae (December 25, 1949).Google Scholar

61. Letter from Maeda Yoshiko (December 20, 1949).Google Scholar

62. Letters from Tsunemi Hisae (December 25, 1949) and Fumi, Nagai (late December 1949).Google Scholar

63. The post-course letters are quoted in Seamans, , “Japanese Women and Democracy,” pp. 63–64.Google Scholar

64. My thanks to Kaminuma Hachirō, Professor of Education at Jissen Women's University, for explaining this in a discussion on August 5, 1981 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Also letters to this writer from Nakata Haru (April 26, 1982) and Fujieda Ai (May 10, 1982) stress this point.Google Scholar

65. Letter to this writer from Nakata Haru (April 26, 1982).Google Scholar

66. Curiously American advisers on higher education between 1950 and 1952 established guidance workshops in an historical vacuum, denying, either through intention or ignorance, that there was an earlier Occupation legacy upon which to build. No mention is made, for example, of previous guidance workshops in Wesley P. Lloyd's book, Student Counselling in Japan (Minneapolis, 1953). On thequestion of guidance for university women, the prevailing CIE view in 1950 and 1951 seemed to be aimed at deterring what one American adviser called “the highly aggressive feminist” rather than promoting self-awareness and independence. (See Ibid., p. 88) Google Scholar

67. Letter to this writer from Morita Sumi (April 15, 1982).Google Scholar

68. In her letter (April 26, 1982), Nakata Haru suggests that geographic separation was the most important factor in the fading of the deans' organization.Google Scholar

69. Interview with Fujieda Ai (June 20, 1979).Google Scholar

70. Letter from Nakata Haru (April 26, 1982).Google Scholar

71. Letter to this writer from Mitate Chiyo (May 10, 1982).Google Scholar

72. Nakata Haru (April 26, 1982) is most insistent about the instrumental role of the training course in launching the public careers of at least several of the deans. Sugimori Ei's most recent article is entitled “Yūgure mo akaruku,” Fujin no tomo (February, 1982), pp. 90–93.Google Scholar

73. Letter from Morita Sumi (April 15, 1982).Google Scholar

74. See, for example, the pioneering article in this newly opened field of inquiry: Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll, “The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women in Nineteenth-Century America,” Signs 1, no. 1 (1975): 1–29.Google Scholar

75. English notes for discussion session on November 22, 1949 (Seamans' papers).Google Scholar

76. For more on the quest for self among young intellectuals and students in postwar Japan, see Lifton, Robert Jay, “Youth and History: Individual Change in Postwar Japan” in Lifton, Robert Jay, History and Human Survival (New York, 1970), pp. 24–57 and Victor Koschmann, J., “The Debate on Subjectivity in Postwar Japan: Foundations of Modernism as a Political Critique,” Pacific Affairs 54 (winter 1981–82): 609–631. After the Occupation, there was a proliferation of informal writing circles which encouraged groups of working-class men and women to express themselves freely. Tsurumi Kazuko discusses one such group in her essay “The Circle: A Writing Group among the Textile Workers” in Kazuko, Tsurumi, Social Change and the Individual: Japan before and after Defeat in World War II (Princeton, 1970), pp. 213–247.Google Scholar

77. Letters from Mitate Chiyo (May 10, 1982), Nakata Haru (April 26, 1982), and Morita Sumi (April 15, 1982). Also interview with Fujieda Ai (June 20, 1979).Google Scholar