Quakerism in Japan: 1885-1943 - Quaker Service and Work for Peace
QUAKER SERVICE AND WORK FOR PEACE
Quaker Service Friends have ever been mindful of suffering bodies as well as darkened souls, and have labored to bring relief to both. In Japan so many sudden catastrophes occur. A bit of thoughtlessness in the manipulation of the charcoal fire, and a high wind, may wipe out half a town in a few hours. And one never knows where the tremors of earthquakes that are of such frequent occurrence will end. Under such circumstances the habit of sharing is well developed. Bureau drawers are made to disgorge out-grown clothes; an accumulation of tea pots comes out of the corners of closets; a cup full of rice from the family supply, combined with those of the neighbors' makes a filling meal for people who have just lost everything. Already we have spoken of relief to flood sufferers. In some degree relief has been administered to victims of such natural catastrophes by all the Friends' groups, as occasion has demanded.
Friends have done yeoman's service too in the cause of temperance. From the very beginning Temperance Societies were formed in all the localities where Friends were working, and great earnestness for the cause was displayed. Friends co-operated too with the national Temperance Society and the W.C.T.L. One result was a village not far from Tsuchiura whose village organization absolutely banned the use of sake, and kept it up for years. Many personal efforts to help friends escape from the habit were also made.
One member of the Mito Meeting tells of walking to his home outside the city, after dark at night, when only a young boy, and soon after he had joined the Meeting. On the way he saw a man intoxicated, lying in the ditch by the side of the road. He trembled with what seemed to him the enormity of his responsibility' under these circumstances. At first he started to walk on and leave the man there, but he heard a voice say to him very clearly, "If your Christian faith has any meaning, you will go back and help him". He did, and the incident stays in his memory as one of the turning points in his spiritual life.
But some moments are too tremendous to be handled by any small group, and one of them was the noon hour on September lst, 1923, when the great Tokyo earthquake occurred. This is not the place to go into detail on the sufferings, or the activities to relieve them, in the days that followed. But Friends did rise to the emergency, and gave organized and effective relief. They began almost immediately giving personal help to their own members, but when money was cabled them from the American Friends Service Committee, they set to work in earnest on a larger scale. A Service Committee(11) was formed on September 10.
This committee weighed the possibilities carefully, and eventually received permission from the city to build 28 small dwelling houses and an assembly hall, in one corner of a city park. These houses were rented to families who had lost their homes, and a democratic organization was effected. Meetings for entertainment and uplift were held in the assembly hall. Two years later they were moved further out of the city, and set up again in a group that was called "Friends Village". Gradually the householders bought their homes and the group was liquidated.
Another project was for more distressed people in one of the slum sections of the city. Here barracks were erected and food and clothing distributed. A program of music, movies, talks on hygiene, a medical clinic, Christian talks and hymn singing, attempted to minister to the whole man. This was carried on for four years after the earthquake.
In addition to the assistance given at the time of the earthquake the A.F.S.C. sent Hugh and Elizabeth Borton to Japan for a three years' period, to work with the mission and to give especial attention to Japan-American relations.
Work for Peace
As early as the autumn of 1889 a Japan Peace Society had been formed, Akasaka Friends taking the initiative. Its purpose was to study the problems of war and peace. A little later the magazine "Peace" was issued, under the editorship of Manji Kato. But this beginning was cut short by government order, at the time of the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, as was also another beginning made in Yokohama, just at the eve of the war. Both of these attempts were made not by organized Friends Meetings, but by individual Friends. Non- Friends were admitted, and the activities of these societies, however short their duration, represent the beginning of the Christian Peace Movement in Japan. By the time of the Russo-Japan War in 1904, although there was no organization, the pacifist position was widely recognized, and many prominent people were associated with it. Among them was Kanzo Uchimura, with whom our story began. Friends seem to have lost their lead to some extent, during this time.
An interest in the movement had reached many public-spirited men, outside of the Christian church, and was fanned by Gilbert Bowles. He was assisted by a young man, named Setzuzo Sawada(12), who later became prominent in the diplomatic world. As a result of their efforts an organization called the Japan Peace Society was again formed in 1906. At first its leadership was prevailingly Christian, but later under the presidency of Count (later Marquis) Okuma, its scope and influence became broader. Anti-Japanese agitation on the Pacific coast made their work difficult, and after a quarter of a century of effective service, war, this time in Manchuria (1931), again nipped the promising bud. The two Christian organizations,--World Alliance for International Friendship through the Churches and the Fellowship of Reconciliation were hardier plants, with which Japanese Friends continued to cooperate. Seiju Hirakawa served as secretary of the latter for a long period of years.
The Yearly Meeting had from the beginning a Peace Committee and it was by its recommendation that representatives were appointed to the London All Friends Conference of 1920. They brought back a report that very much stirred up enthusiasm for peace in the Yearly Meeting, when it was made at its 1921 sessions. A minute was adopted, giving expression to their renewed sense of loyalty to the cause. In 1924 when feeling was very strong about the Immigration Law which the American government had enacted the Yearly Meeting Peace Committee issued a declaration, challenging the attention of the Home and Foreign Ministers of the government. Again in 1931 after the beginning of the Manchurian Incident, Friends cooperated with other Christian sects of peace principles, in the following declaration to the Prime Minister and other members of the Cabinet: "We deeply deplore the international strife with our neighbor, China. Desirous of attaining lasting peace, based on the broad way of love for humanity, not only between our two countries, but among all the nations of the world, we confidently look to you for efforts to that end."
On several occasions Peace Retreats were planned by the Standing Committee of the Yearly Meeting, when for two or three days, those especially interested, would withdraw to some place where they could be uninterrupted, and there discuss quietly the implications of peace and war. It was mental and spiritual gymnastics such as this that helped to produce the internationalism of such men as Seiju Hirakawa and Yasukuni Suzuki, head resident of the young men's dormitory in Tokyo. Opportunities for its expression come to them often in personal relations with Chinese and Korean students in the capital; in service rendered to European Jews who drifted to Japan without any economical support for the present, or hope for the future; and in propagating the spirit of internationalism among the students of the universities in Tokyo. A trip to Shanghai after 1932 helped Suzuki-san further to realize the true results of war and an imperialistic policy.
Friendly personal relationships between the nationals of the two countries may be of more significance than any number of declarations made by organizations. One example was the visit of S.H. Fong of West China Yearly Meeting, to Japan. He was on his way home after a year or two spent in England, and was urged to see Japan. He was very much averse to doing so, having received most unfavorable impressions of Japanese character. With the feeling of taking his life in his hands, he finally introduced himself to Japanese Friends. Some of their leading spirits spent two or three days with him in intimate and frank exchange of views, and in worship together, in a quiet hotel on the seashore of Ibaraki Province. He was entirely disarmed in the course of it, and the whole group entered into deep fellowship together. One Friend remarked that to see Mr. Fong wearing a Japanese kimono about the hotel, had given her quite a new feeling for China, and before he left, he bought Japanese trinkets to take home to his family, although he had previously advocated the boycott against Japanese goods. Later his home in Chengtu was destroyed in a Japanese air-raid. When the news of it came to Hijirizaka Meeting, a collection was made, and a gift of money was sent through safe hands, as a mark of penitential brotherhood.
Other visits back and forth have been made in the interests of mutual understanding. Gilbert Bowles, Mansaku.Nakamura and Seiju Hirakawa were such emissaries, at one time going as far as West China. Letters of Christian good will were exchanged between the two Yearly Meetings, even after feelings in both countries were running high.
One very good place to see the peace movement in Japan in its practical workings was at the Bowles' dinner table, at which Minnie P. Bowles presided with her inexhaustible spirit of hospitality. Gilbert Bowles at the other end of the table, would be directing the conversation into channels that made all the guests assembled there from many quarters, feel at home and enlightened.
Westerners often ask about the conscientious objector movement in Japan. If there is such a movement, it is not allowed to become public. It will not become a widespread movement, I think, because Japanese ways of thinking are different from those of the West in so many respects. In the first place they have been taught in the feudal days of the past, as well as in imperialistic times in the present, the duty of absolute obedience on the part of the subject to his overlord. Because the whole is, more important than any of its parts, there is nothing to do but to sacrifice the individual judgment, even at such times as it repudiates the demands made on it by that whole. In such cases they feel that this is not sin for them, because it has been taken out of their hands and is therefore no longer their moral responsibility.
Then again the family organization is so much stronger with them than with Anglo-Saxon people. A family conclave, including parents and uncles, is held to determine the young man's future steps in life. Of course he has a chance to express his own desires, but he certainly does not have the freedom to choose his own way that the young men of the West have. Besides, the consequences of his deeds come back not only to himself, but to his whole family. The conscientious objector stand comes out of a more individualistic society than obtains in Japan, I believe.
Quaker Strains from Other Sources
Lest it be thought that Japanese Quakerism is one of which the Philadelphia Mission was the sole purveyor, an account should be given without more delay, of the many contributions that have been made from other sources, and which have helped to preserve its cosmopolitan quality.
From the very beginning there was Dr. Whitney whose name has already been mentioned. He was the first American student at the medical school of the Tokyo University, and after he had taken his degree, he founded a hospital in Akasaka Ward of Tokyo, neighboring Shiba. That was in 1886. Dr. Henry Hartshorne was another who came to Japan on a professional medical errand, but who gave concerned counsel to the little group of Friends in its beginning days. His daughter, Anna C. Hartshorne, remained its friend through her long years of educational service in Tokyo. Meanwhile George Braithwaite had come from England, and Dr. Whitney had married his sister, Mary, and brought her to Japan. Thus a new center of Friends was formed. A little gathering of very zealous believers grew up around the hospital. At first they did not call themselves Friends, but as time went on the need for some connection with a Christian group was felt. And gradually its members and those at Hijirizaka came to know each other. Individuals from the older group took responsibilities from time to time for the Akasaka group, and finally in 1939, after much conference on the subject, the Akasaka Meeting was recognized as a Monthly Meeting of the Japan yearly Meeting, the ninth and last to be set up. Teiko Kudo a very earnest and consecrated woman, ministers to it.
The group of English Friends was represented in the Mission Committee by the son of George and Lettice Braithwaite, G. Burnham Braithwaite, and his wife, Edith Lamb Braithwaite. Burnham's knowledge of the language, learned as a child learns it, was of great value to the work. Canadian Friends have also served on the Fission Committee, and their Board has shared in the financial as well as the spiritual support of the work.
Among the Japanese Friends are some who have had broad international experience, and who have brought back to the little Quaker group in their own country some of the air of that bigger world. Foremost among these was Dr. Inazo Nitobe, a member of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, which he joined when a student at Johns Hopkins University. His marriage to a member of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting made the tie with America stronger. Later, seven years in the Secretariat of the League of Nations, taking an active and highly valued part in the solving of world problems, confirmed his international viewpoint. At such times as he could be in Japan, he was in demand on all sides and led an almost unbelievably busy life. Friends will therefore never forget the occasions when he took time for them, attending and addressing their Yearly Meetings, conducting a conference group one winter on Sunday mornings for the members of Hijirizaka Meeting, or occasionally dropping in unannounced to their meetings for worship. His weightiness, his simplicity, his lovable qualities, left a deep impress on all he met, Portions of his view of Quakerism are appended to this account.
Then there is Iwao Ayusawa, a one-time student of Haverford College, whose years in America were followed by a long residence in Geneva, and work in connection with the International Labour Office. His Quaker home in America, together with friendship with Dr. Nitobe, and connection with the Friends' group in Geneva, were the formative influences in his Quaker faith. He joined Japan Yearly Meeting on his return, and has been a most concerned member. His work as executive secretary of the World Economic Research Institute in Tokyo, still takes him into international fields. Like so many people in the West of late, he has been especially interested in encouraging the study of post war economic organization.
Takeo Iwahashi and his wife came to us from London Yearly Meeting, joined during years of study in Edinburgh. Pendle Hill, a school near Philadelphia, has done great service for Japanese students, who have come back to their country to share the catholicity of view, and the sense of responsibility for service, acquired there. Among these are Kikue Kurama, Ryumei Yamano, Masa Uraguchi, and Tane Takahashi.
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