Women in Japan
Memories of the Past, Dreams of the Future
English version—Joanne Hershfield/Jan Bardsley
2001. 52:25 Minutes. VHS/DVD. Color.
Web site: http://womeninjapan.com
Inquiries: orders@womeninjapan.com

TChinese at the railroad station eating with chopsticks and being observedby young boys.
Photo: The Montana Historical Society. Courtesy of Pat Murdo.

and Chinese immigrants are described and their reasons for coming
are succinctly explained.
With the exception of one brief moment when a descendent talksof a Montana senator who stood up for the rights of Japanese, there islittle emotion. The cuts are too quick to allow us to get to know theinterviewees. This is not necessarily a problem but teachers may befrustrated by a lack of parallelism in the statistics. Numbers areoffered, but comparison between them is impossible. For example,viewers are told the Chinese made up ten percent of Montana’s population in 1870, but are given no true idea of the extent of their exodus
when told only 1,300 remained in 1910.
The relatively short length of the film allows for viewing anddebriefing within the same class period. Discussion topics could
include labor, immigration, discrimination, and racism, and the role ofJapanese and Chinese immigrants. While clearly produced for middle
school students, the film is never condescending and has much tooffer high school students and even adults who have little or no background in this part of American immigrant history.
The video includes a study guide that details instructional objectives, lists and defines select vocabulary, and suggests questions to
ask students prior to and after viewing the film. A study packet withadditional resources is available. nTRACY BEE is Associate Director of The National Clearinghouse for U.S.Japan Studies, a joint project of the Social Studies Development Centerand the East Asian Studies Center at Indiana University, Bloomington.

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EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA

he stereotype of the Asian woman as subservient, selfless,and obedient to her husband has dominated Western thinking for over 150 years. The video, Women in Japan: Memories of the Past, Dreams of the Future, presents quite a different
version of the modern woman in Japan. Award-winning filmmaker Joanne Hershfield, Professor of Film and Video Production,and Jan Bardsley, Associate Professor of Japanese Language andLiterature Curriculum in Asian Studies, both from the Universityof North Carolina—Chapel Hill, undertook this film project,funded in part by UNC-CH and in part by the Japan Foundation,
to examine the nature (role) of women in modern-day Japan.
The film consists ofinterviews with an eclectic
group of women, someJapanese who have traveled
abroad, others non-Japanese,
who marry Japanese men
and choose to live in Japan.
The Japanese interviewees
Photo courtesy of Jan Bardsley.
represent leaders in education, international Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), andthe arts. A common thread that links the group is their perceptionof their mothers as classic
examples of the selfless Confucian wife and mother, productof a pre-arranged marriage,
devoted to husband and family—and their strong-willed
independent reaction to thatperception. Perhaps the mostradical departure from a gener- Photo courtesy of Jan Bardsley.
ation of tradition-bound females is exemplified by the life story of
the internationally famous painter Taeko Tomiyama, who not
only chooses an unconventional occupation, but also
refuses to marry her loverand the father of her children
because she does not wish tobe subservient to (owned by)his family.
This modern-day willful
independence is demonstratPhoto courtesy of Jan Bardsley.
ed in the non-Japanese interviewees, as well. The trend among young Japanese to move fromthe rural villages to the ever-expanding urban areas has created a

Volume 8, Number 2

Fall 2003

void in marriage-age womenin the traditionally agricultural areas of the country. Lourdes Matsumoto, who trained
as a professional dancer, ran
away from her home in
Cebu, Philippines, to work
towards a career in Japan,
despite the anti-Nippon feelPhoto courtesy of Jan Bardsley.
ings of her father. Even
though she returns home, she makes her Japanese suitor wait five
years before marrying him and moving to a small farm town inJapan. Chinese immigrant Rohei Shimada, a multi-degreed university graduate, defies her family’s concerns and chooses tomarry a Japanese farmer, settling to raise melons and a familyrather than pursue an academic career. These foreign brides lead alifestyle that traditional
Japanese women were once
made to endure; however,they demonstrate the sameself-determination as theirJapanese sisters in that theychoose to stay out of love
for their family and husband, rather than follow theblind devotion of past gener- Photo courtesy of Jan Bardsley.
ations.
Women in Japan: Memories of Past, Dreams of theFuture seems to imply that
freedom of choice is thedefining characteristic of thewomen in modern Japanesesociety. After generations ofstifling subservience, thewomen of today are free to
Photo courtesy of Jan Bardsley.
pursue a more self-fulfilling life. The end of the film touches on
the possible consequences of this newly instilled freedom as theinterviewers ask members of the next generation about their futureplans. Teenage girls, who appear more western in dress and attitude than older Japanese interviewees, may see the struggle forself-fulfillment as being too difficult or costly when they laughingly (?) wish for a future centered on a husband who will takecare of them. The next generation of documentary-makers will
have to see if this is a generational reaction to the liberation of
Asian women, or not.
This video can be a part of a high school class in sociology,
world/comparative cultures, or be equally at home in a college
sociology, media, or women’s studies class. The subtitles make iteasy for viewers to follow the documentary. A Web site that complements the film, http://womeninjapan.com, gives biographicalinformation on the interviewees and a variety of useful resources
for research topics related to Japan, its history, and its culture. The

lesson plans offeredon the Web site aregeared toward amedia class, but arethought provoking
and could be used inany writing or discussion setting. nDAVID H. PARIS, JR. attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill as a Morehead Scholar, graduating in 1972, completing a double
major in English and History. After twenty-five years in the business world,David returned to the classroom and received his teaching certificate fromthe University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 1997. David is an alumnusof the National Consortium for Teaching Asia 2001 and the Korea Society
Workshop 2002 and has spent the last two summers touring East Asia. He
has a dual certification in secondary English and history and currently
teaches world literature and serves as the Asian resource person for the 21stCentury Academy, a K-12 magnet school in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

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