The Japanese Journal of American Studies, No. 18 (2007)

Estranged Sisterhood: The Wartime
Trans-Paciﬁc Dialogue ofthe World’s Woman’s ChristianTemperance Union, 1931–1945

Manako OGAWA*INTRODUCTION
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was established in 1874
in Cleveland, Ohio, as a response to the widespread consumption of alcohol that was prevalent in the last half of the nineteenth century in the
United States.1 It expanded quickly, especially under the leadership ofFrances E. Willard, becoming one of the largest women’s organizationsin the United States at that time.2 In addition to appealing to Americans,
Willard organized the World’s WCTU, with headquarters in Evanston,
Illinois, to spread the temperance cause and carry out domestic reform
throughout the world. She dreamed of spreading virtuous Victorian ideology and Christianity symbolized by the slogan, “organized mother’s
love,” and of binding the world together with the white ribbon, theiremblem, symbolizing unblemished purity and peace. Mary Clement
Leavitt, a former union organizer on the West Coast, was the ﬁrst to assume the role of organizing branches of the World’s WCTU throughout
Copyright © 2007 Manako Ogawa. All rights reserved. This work may be used,with this notice included, for noncommercial purposes. No copies of this work
may be distributed, electronically or otherwise, in whole or in part, without
permission from the author.
*Assistant Professor, National Fisheries University

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the world, and she went to Japan and China in 1886 to organize branch
unions there.
Subsequently, the World’s WCTU expanded rapidly by utilizing theframeworks of expansion characteristic of U.S. and British imperialism
and global Protestant missionary networks. By the 1920s, the WCTU
had grown internationally to cover more than 40 nations and regions, andeven called itself the “White Ribbon League of Nations.”3 Meanwhile,
its national branch in Japan had aggressively taken part in transnational
networking of women by dispatching its delegates to international meetings since the beginning of the twentieth century. Later, Chinese womencame into the global arena and participated in the trans-Paciﬁc dialogue.
Ostensibly, the frequent interaction of American and Asian women promoted their friendship. But their quest for mutual understanding wasconstantly challenged by racism and imperialism, both of which characterized trans-Paciﬁc relations during the ﬁrst two decades of the twentieth century. American women afﬁrmed their superiority over Asian
nationals, Japanese women thirsted for equal status with westerners
while looking down on their Asian neighbors, and Chinese women disagreed with imperial exploitation of their homeland by both Western
powers and Japan.4 The military dispute between Japan and China overthe hegemony of Manchuria in 1931 made the cracks in the white ribbon sisterhood more evident and the rise of hatred deriving from violent
conﬂicts gradually made it harder for the World’s WCTU to achieve its
anticipated ends.
This study examines the trans-Paciﬁc dialogue of the World’s WCTU
and its national chapters in the United States, Japan, and China between
1931 and 1945.5 Recently, more and more scholars have given attention
to the non-ofﬁcial elements of international relations and have demonstrated close ties between domestic arrangements of race, gender, classand international affairs. Indeed, various studies have examined women’scollective and individual efforts to incorporate their voices into the agendas of international affairs.6 However, in general, these studies havefocused on women from western nations and their trans-Atlantic connections while leaving Asian women in the background of their examinations.7 Unlike such Eurocentric studies of transnational women’s
activities, this essay concentrates on women of both America and Asia,
especially Japan and China, and their role in constructing the wartime
trans-Paciﬁc dialogue. It also explores the vicissitudes of the white ribbon sisterhood during the wartime period.

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DETERIORATING SISTERHOOD: JAPANESE MILITARY AGGRESSION IN
CHINA AND THE WCTU
After the ﬁnancial avalanche initiated by the collapse of the New Yorkstock market in 1929, the Japanese leaders assumed that securing
Japanese hegemony in Manchuria was crucial in order to save Japan froman economic crisis. However, the outbreak of war in China drove
American WCTU members into an awkward position between theirChinese and Japanese sisters. These American women, who constituted
57 percent of the membership of the world union, refrained from blaming Japan and prudently avoided becoming entangled in the crisis byfavoring either China or Japan.8 The aloofness of the World’s WCTU to
the Manchurian disputes during the early 1930s protected the White
Ribbon League of Nations from disintegration.9
In sharp contrast to the retreat of the American union from the realpolitik of the Far East, both the Japanese and Chinese WCTUs aggressively
involved themselves in the Manchurian crisis. A letter from Chinese
women in Shanghai triggered a heated dialogue between the two groups.
The letter was predicated on the fact that the Manchurian Incident wasagainst the Washington Conference agreements and requested theJapanese union to lobby the government against the escalation of military
aggression.10 The Japanese union, however, declared that the Manchurian
dispute was nothing more than a defensive action and never violated the
Washington Conference agreements, although the union would support
peaceful resolutions of international disputes.11 In addition to making apublic statement, the Japanese union sent Hayashi Utako and Kubushiro
Ochimi to China to inspect Manchuria and negotiate with Chinese
women leaders, including Ting Shu-ching, the national secretary of theYoung Women’s Christian Association in China, Wu Yifang, the femalepresident of Ginling College, and Liu-Wang Liming, the president of the
WCTU and the Shanghai Women’s National Salvation Alliance. These
Chinese women greeted guests from Japan with great anger and accused
Japan of assaulting the fragile new Republic that had already been torn
apart by domestic political turmoil and numerous natural disasters.12
What annoyed the Japanese union members more was that some
women’s organizations in the United States stood behind China and initiated political actions to put pressure on Japan. The U.S. Section of the
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), forinstance, lobbied the White House, the State Department, and politicians

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to invoke the Kellogg-Briand Pact and the Nine-Power Treaty and pressure Japan through economic sanctions and an arms embargo.13 Suchactions led Japanese women to make an international statement that they
were the victims of mounting anti-Christian feelings within Japan after
the Manchurian dispute, not perpetrators of rising militarism. Kubushiro
Ochimi and Kawai Michi, the general director of the YWCA, coauthored a book in English, Japanese Women Speak, and argued thatJapanese Christians were “closely watched and severely criticized by the
non-Christian elements of the country, as well as by the Christian peoples of the West.”14 Addressing the international audience, Japanese
Women Speak argued, “Morally speaking we cannot say Japan is all
wrong, but religiously speaking we must acknowledge and confess weare wrong” (italics in original). This statement revealed a departure fromher original legitimization of Japan’s military actions in Manchuria as
purely defensive.
The published statement was, however, not made in the Japanese language. It was aimed primarily at an international audience, not a domestic one. Rising militarism accompanied by increased oppression of peace
movements and mounting suspicion of Christians as foreign spies might
have made it difﬁcult to overtly challenge the national policy and publish
critical statements within Japan.15 In order to cope with these sociopolitical situations, the Japanese union and its allies directed a peace-loving
image toward the international audience while meeting the expectationsof the authorities at home.
Liu-Wang Liming of the Chinese union extended certain sympathies
to these Japanese women who were caught in difﬁcult circumstances between public pressure and a desire to repair estranged relations between
Japan and China. In particular, the letter of apology from the Women’s
Peace Association led to her resuming a dialogue with the Japanesewomen; Gauntlett Tsune of the WCTU headed this association at thattime. In the spring of 1934, Liu-Wang made a daring trip to Japan inspite of opposition from her family and friends.16 During her stay inJapan, she met many inﬂuential Japanese women, including the WCTU
leaders. She discovered little anti-Chinese sentiment in Japanese society
and felt sorry for “a great many Japanese men and women who were
helpless with their militarists and who desire universal brotherhood justas much as peace-loving people do in all other parts of the world.”17
The sense of coalition between women of Japan and China built by
Liu-Wang’s trip, however, did not completely eliminate disagreement

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with each other. Rather, the smoldering discord between the women of
China and Japan remained deep in their minds and occasionally came tothe surface. The eruption of the discontent of the Chinese with Japaneserule took shape during the presidential election for the Pan-Paciﬁc
Women’s Association which was organized by ruling male elites in
Hawaii in 1928. When the association elected Gauntlett Tsune as thenext president in 1934, out of ten nations and regions, only the Chinesedelegates voted against her.18 After the election, China decided not tosend any delegates to the Pan-Paciﬁc Women’s Conference (PPWC) as
a protest against the Japanese presidency. Therefore, Gauntlett visited
China and convinced the Chinese female intellectuals to send delegatesto the next conference in Vancouver.19
THE ESTRANGEMENT OF JAPANESE AND CHINESE UNIONS AND
INCREASING PRO-CHINESE SENTIMENT IN THE UNITED STATESWhen Japanese and Chinese forces clashed at the Marco Polo Bridgein 1937, Gauntlett Tsune was in Vancouver preparing for the forthcoming PPWC. Since she and the other executives of the association excluded the issue of the new all-out war in Asia from the agenda, themeeting proceeded smoothly. However, the intensiﬁcation of ﬁghting in
China entailed snowballing suspicion, fear, and hatred between Japanand China.
Japan’s military action and the shocking report of its atrocities against
civilians as the “Rape of Nanking” received considerable attention fromthe American public and excited sympathy for the Chinese. In addition,
Japan’s bombing of the U.S. gunboat Panay infuriated Americans. The
notoriety of the Japanese force grew along with the positive Chinese reputation. China’s heroic resistance became a major story that year.20
Behind the expanding sympathy for China’s plight and the growing
belief in Japan’s culpability, there were pro-Chinese individuals andgroups who promoted pro-Chinese and anti-Japanese sentiments in the
United States. Pearl S. Buck, author of the best-selling novel The Good
Earth (1931), and Henry Luce, owner of an inﬂuential media conglomerate, Time Inc., were representative spokespeople who disseminatedpositive images of China. The nominal uniﬁcation of China under
Chiang Kai-shek and his conversion to Christianity, and the presence ofAmerican-trained Chinese in his regime, also improved China’s image
in the United States. Furthermore, Soong Mayling, or Madame Chiang

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Kai-shek, captivated Americans and presented a picture completely
opposite to that of Japan, represented by brutal Japanese male soldiers.
Unlike her husband, she spoke ﬂawless English and developed ties withprominent Americans who were later called the “China Lobby.”
These positive images of the Chinese symbolized by Madame ChiangKai-shek compelled more and more Americans to support China. Since
the late 1930s, certain Americans had engaged in relief efforts in Chinathat merged to become United China Relief by late 1940. The American
Committee for Non-Participation in Japanese Aggression, organized in
New York to inﬂuence legislation preventing the sale of war supplies toJapan, included Carrie Chapman Catt of the National Committee on the
Cause and Cure of War (NCCCW) and other prominent women.21
The presence of Catt at the Committee signaled the women’s peaceorganizations’ increasing concern about hostilities in Asia and rising
compassion towards China. The Chinese WCTU moved to make themost of it and increased its presence in the United States. In her answer
to letters from Americans who were anxious about the safety and thecondition of the WCTU in China, Liu-Wang harshly attacked Japan’s
invasion of China as an attempt to crush China and establish itself as acontinental empire.22 At the same time, she denounced the hands-off
policy of the American unionists and urged them to take immediate
action to end destructive militarism and abandon their fence-sitting neutrality.23 However, the American union as an organization avoided ofﬁcially condemning Japan even after the beginning of the all-out war, andto Liu-Wang’s frustration, did not call for stronger actions to halt Japan’s
militarism. Instead, the American union kept portraying the Japanese aspeace lovers and separated the militarists from the rest.24
The careful ideological separation of militarists from the rest of theJapanese was however, soon overwhelmed by the tragic death of LiuWang’s husband in April 1938. This incident not only turned her into acelebrity as a symbol of Chinese patriotism but also brought a drasticchange in the neutral and noncommittal position of the American union
members. Liu-Wang’s husband, Liu Zhan’en or Herman C. E. Liu, waspresident of Shanghai University and the chair of the Shanghai National
Salvation Association. When the Japanese puppet government inNanjing tried to recruit him as the minister of education, he refused thepost and continued his resistance against Japan. On April 7, 1938,
Chinese secret agents working for Japan assassinated Liu.25 Liu-Wangskillfully used this personal experience to obtain sympathy and support

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from the international community. Soon after the death of her husband,she published a book, The Death of My Husband, Dr. Herman C. E. Liu,in both Chinese and English. In this book, she highlighted the brutalityof the Japanese militarists in their treatment of the Chinese. In sharp contrast, she described her husband as a saint-like patriot who sacriﬁced hislife for national salvation “like Lincoln, like Jesus, [to] die in his workof saving others.”26 Then, she expressed her indomitable determination
to follow in his footsteps. In her narrative, she did not clearly state who
actually shot him to death even after the arrest of two Chinese suspects.
Instead, she obscured the puzzling political situation of China, which
was torn into pro- and anti-Japanese factions.
Liu-Wang’s self-representation as a celebrated martyr’s widow
seemed decisive in propelling a previously neutral American WCTU toside with China. After the death of Liu-Wang’s husband, the American
union became predominantly supportive of China and against Japan. In
December 1938, the Union Signal, American union’s biweekly journal,
carried an article entitled “Japs Land Beer After Fall of Hankow” andcritically reported that Japan unloaded 2,000 cases of Japanese beer on
the Hankow Bund.27 This was the ﬁrst time that the Union Signal useda racial slur in referring to Japanese. Having been persuaded that Japanwas fundamentally to blame for the ravages of China and the dissemination of alcohol, American temperance workers switched their previous
neutral position to the Chinese side. Liu-Wang succeeded in letting theWhite Ribbon League of Nations discard a hands-off policy regarding
regional conﬂicts, even at the risk of offending its Japanese members.
The Japanese unionists, on the other hand, grew less patient with therapidly increasing pro-Chinese sentiment in the United States. Kubushiro
Ochimi deplored the fact that “Japan has been changed from a hero of
the international community into a hated person since the Manchurian
Incident in 1931. After the Incident of China, Japan has been treated asa consummate villain.”28 Restoring Japan’s international honor becamea primary objective of the Japanese union.
THE STRENGTHENED TIE BETWEEN THE TEMPERANCE WOMEN OF
CHINA AND THE UNITED STATESThe Japanese union members thought that a rapid spread of anti-Japanand pro-China sentiment in the United States was produced because
Japan lacked the equivalent of Pearl Buck. Unlike China, Japan did not

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have a popular and sympathetic messenger to defend Japan.29 Kubushiro
began publishing a monthly English journal entitled Japan Through
Women in the beginning of 1938 and started conveying Japanese voices
to Americans. This journal carried articles about the social reform movement in Japan of which the Japanese WCTU had been the vanguard. It
also published biographies of Kubushiro’s late husband, who dedicatedhis life to religious work, and various news regarding prominent
Japanese women and their church activities. Through the narratives of
the Japanese who dedicated their lives to the cause of the least privileged
people and world peace, Kubushiro endeavored to present an alternative
to the image of the Japanese as brutal warmongers. However, thisjournal, with its limited circulation, was far from inﬂuential enough torival Buck’s The Good Earth.30
The Japanese women also attributed the popularity of Madame ChiangKai-shek and the ascendancy of other intellectual Chinese women to thepro-Chinese sentiments of Americans. Seeing the example of Madam
Chiang’s noticeable inﬂuence in international politics, the Japanese recognized the prominent contributions of Chinese intellectual women tovarious aspects of politics and social reforms at home and abroad. Although Japanese women looked at the Chinese as inferiors in need of
their guidance, they became aware that middle-class, educated Chinese
women could rival Japanese. This discovery challenged the modern
assumption of the Japanese that positioned themselves above other
Asians in terms of the “progress” of women.
Japanese WCTU members and their allies became highly apprehensive about the rise of Chinese women when they heard that Madame
Chiang Kai-shek was about to attend the Pan-Paciﬁc Women’s Conference in New Zealand scheduled in January 1940. The WCTU Japan
dispatched Gauntlett Tsune, then the ﬁrst vice-president of the Pan-Paciﬁc Women’s Association and well known in the women’s communityof the Paciﬁc Rim, to the United States for the preparation of the forthcoming conference.31 They were afraid that the presence of Madame
Chiang at the PPWC would further strengthen pro-Chinese sentiments
and disadvantage Japan in the Paciﬁc community. The Japanese women
expected Gauntlett to counter Madame Chiang and manipulate the conference procedure so that the discussions would not be taken over by her.
An expected confrontation between Gauntlett and Madame Chiang,
however, never occurred. The outbreak of war in Europe in 1939 and thedeclaration of war by New Zealand against Germany led to the cancellation of the conference. The PPWC was adjourned until 1949.

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Germany’s invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War II in
Europe soon involved Asia. Nazi Germany’s sweep over Europe fascinated Japanese policy-makers who were looking for raw materials andmarkets in the South Paciﬁc. The Japanese occupation of northern
Indochina and the conclusion of the Tripartite Pact with Germany and
Italy compelled Washington to place an embargo on aviation fuel, topgrade scrap iron, and later, all scrap metals. The Japanese WCTU looked
upon the deteriorating relations with the United States with mixed feelings. Its members still held emotional ties to the United States and GreatBritain, especially to the former. In sharp contrast, American women
exhibited increased antipathy to Japan and sympathy for China. The
chasm of feelings between the women of the two nations grew wider andwider with the worsening diplomatic relations. The deteriorating relations between Japan and the United States compelled Gauntlett Tsune tomeet with American women to redirect their anti-Japanese agenda.
When war broke out in Europe, she was in the United States exchanging ideas with her old acquaintances, Carrie Chapman Catt, and otherprominent leaders of women’s movements, the academy, and religious
groups.
Her interactions with American leaders were, however, far from frictionless and comfortable. Strong anti-Japanese feelings pervading various aspects of American society depressed her.32 Carrie Chapman Catt,for instance, did not stop public denunciation of Japan for its military
actions in China and the NCCCW supported Roosevelt’s policy of withdrawing economic aid from Japan and giving aid to China.33 The
Program of the NCCCW for 1940 included giving economic aid to China
and renouncement of U.S. special rights there.34 This program wasadopted in the presence of Chinese guests; the Japanese were absent.35
While Gauntlett carried out fruitless private diplomacy in the UnitedStates, Liu-Wang and her Chinese sisters of the WCTU deliberately
strengthened U.S.-China ties through her constant presence in the publications of the American union. She kept informing American readersof the indescribable suffering caused by the Japanese invasion and of her
people’s “beautiful spirits which are vital to the upbuilding of New
China.”36 As a result, China received sizable grants and ﬁnancial support from the world’s and American WCTUs. Upon the request of LiuWang, between 1937 and 1940 the world union granted the largest
amount of ﬁnancial support it had ever given to China. In 1937, 700 dollars or about 16.7 percent of the total appropriation to its member nations
went to China; the amount jumped to 1800 dollars or 20 percent in the

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next year, 1938. In 1940, the total budget of the World’s WCTU shrank
due to the outbreak of war in Europe. However, 24 percent of all money
sent to its branches was allocated to China.37 The American union also
called for donations and sent money and gift packages to China. LiuWang used the aid from the world and American unions for her social
reform projects.38
THE WOMEN’S VERSION OF THE GREATER EAST ASIA CO-PROSPERITYSPHEREThe increasing support to certain nations manifested a departure fromthe World’s WCTU’s original policy of neutrality. Through massive
amounts of ﬁnancial support to China, the world union was indirectly
involved in the war and fought against Japan. The WCTU of Japan
looked unhappily upon the strengthening of emotional and economic ties
between China and the U.S. in the late 1930s.39 Instead of seeking thefavor of Americans, possibly in vain, it seemed more productive to build
a solid and better bridge with China. The rejection by the United States
led the Japanese union women to embrace the Asiatic cause of the war
propagated by the Japanese authorities, such as the New Order of East
Asia and the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Soon, they embarked on benevolent works for poor Chinese. Among various new enterprises, the creation of a medical settlement called Airinkan (the hallof neighborly love) in the slum district of Beijing was the best manifestation of such an attempt. The establishment of the Airinkan was the collective project of the Japanese Christian women’s community, and the
WCTU took the initiative in this new work.40 At its opening ceremonyin 1939, not only the women who were involved in the project, but also
high-ranking ofﬁcers of the Japanese military, representatives of theJapanese embassy, and Chinese ofﬁcials of a puppet Japan-oriented
provisional government attended and/or delivered congratulatory
addresses.41 The Airinkan thus began with the deep involvement ofJapanese imperialism. In addition to the creation of the Airinkan, the
WCTU established educational and social reform institutions in various
parts of China.
These new WCTU enterprises aimed to alleviate distress, not to eliminate the cause of the suffering—i.e., Japan’s imperialist thrust into
Manchuria and China. The union supported Japan’s military offensive
as a punitive action for China’s “irrational resistance” and accepted theESTRANGED SISTERHOOD

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propaganda of the Japanese military force as an agent for bringing stability and prosperity to China. The enforcement of discipline and tightening of morality promoted by the authorities under the rationale of anational emergency also pleased the union women. They hailed stoic
Emperor Hirohito, who did not drink, smoke, or have a concubine, as
the apotheosis of their ideal manhood.42 Therefore, they found no reason to oppose spreading his authority throughout his expanding empire.
Contrary to their expectations, their reform projects in China did not
mitigate the strong public indignation of the Chinese toward Japan, nor
did it thwart the rising sympathy of Americans toward China. Their
American union also ignored such Japanese enterprises in their publications. Instead, the white ribbon binding China and the United States
jointly refuted Japan’s dream of becoming the moral leader of Asia andshattered its intention to win the recognition of Americans. Japan’s
attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, conﬁrmed the estranged relations between the “White Ribbon Co-Prosperity Sphere” and its rivals,
the United States and China.
THE CLASH BETWEEN THE WHITE RIBBON ALLIES AND THE GREATER
EAST ASIA CO-PROSPERITY SPHERE
The majority of neither the Americans nor the Japanese desired theoutbreak of the Paciﬁc War, despite disagreement over the issue ofChina. Although the American public was sympathetic toward the victims of aggression, the sense of isolationism still remained strong among
the Americans, including the American WCTU. Their abhorrence of war
was ampliﬁed by the fear of expanding liquor sales in canteens, training
camps, and territory adjacent to the camps.43 For the Japanese WCTU,
the military clash between Japan and the United States was the least
favorable choice. Its members held their breath watching the diplomatic
process between Washington and Tokyo oscillate between war andpeace.
However, the failure of diplomatic negotiations between Japan andthe United States and Japan’s stunning victory at Pearl Harbor triggered
racialized arguments among the Japanese union members. Giving astanding ovation to the Japanese victory, Kubushiro Ochimi declaredthat the time had come to challenge Anglo-Saxons for their arrogant
sense of racial superiority over the past three hundred years.44 Until theoutbreak of war, she had not blamed the United States for racism against

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the Japanese, even when controversy over the exclusion of Japaneseimmigration was ﬁerce. After the failure of negotiations between Japanand the United States, Kubushiro bitterly looked back at the history of
the Japanese exclusion movements in the United States beginning at theturn of the twentieth century. She now stated that war between the twonations seemed to be an “inevitable” result of American hostilities toward Japan since 1900.45 Other Japanese union ofﬁcers also attributed
the cause of the war to the United States and accused it of bluntly turning down Japan’s sincere efforts for peace.46
With the intention of facilitating empire building, the Japanese temperance women moved to inaugurate a new seminar series, “Kôa joshishidôsha kôshûkai” (a lecture class for female leaders in Asia), where
they aimed to train new female leaders in Asia.47 The new training
program, geared to middle-class, “respectable” Japanese women, was acountermeasure against the exportation of prostitutes. The union was
afraid that the expansion of the empire might encourage the trafﬁc of
prostitutes to cater to Japanese as well as native men. The union women
also lobbied the government and politicians to raise the minimum drinking age from 20 to 25 years. They justiﬁed this agenda by arguing that
protecting the youth would increase the efﬁciency of the military, andthat the poisonous inﬂuence of alcohol would damage servicemen andfuture soldiers. The union was also worried about the negative effects ofalcohol on health in the tropical climates into which the Great East Asian
Co-Prosperity Sphere stretched.48 The wartime plans of the WCTU,
campaigns against trafﬁcking in women and the sale of liquor to youth,
derived from concerns about national honor and the healthy development of the Japanese empire.
The increasing inﬂuence of military personnel in the activities of the
WCTU during the Paciﬁc War mirrored the growing collaboration
between the battleﬁeld and the home front. The union made the best useof the stoic wartime situation to implement their long-time plans of abolishing prostitution and promoting prohibition. The military government
needed as many healthy soldiers as possible. Both parties feared that
intemperance and exposure to licensed vice would damage national
strength and hinder the smooth construction of the Co-Prosperity Sphere.
The agreements between the union and the military over moral issues
resulted in their frictionless cooperation. The WCTU’s collaboration
with the military led it to visit the Yasukuni Shrine and pay its respects

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to the spirits of the dead servicemen enshrined there. It also severed its
afﬁliation with the World’s WCTU.49
Despite such actions, the authorities maintained their doubts about theloyalty of its members. The Special Thought Police suspected that thepatriotism of the Japanese Christian churches and organizations, including the WCTU, was a camouﬂage.50 These suspicions were ungrounded,
but there was some evidence indicating their implicit emotional attachment to their former fellows. Despite its declaration of separation fromthe World’s WCTU and its substantial support for the war against the
Allied Powers, the Japanese union could not completely suppress a subconscious bias toward the Americans and the English; whether for emulation or rejection, the United States and Great Britain still remained amodel for the Japanese union members. Anger against the racism of theAnglo-Saxons was the other side of the coin of their longing for full
acceptance. Such an ambivalent love/hate consciousness occasionallybecame apparent during the Paciﬁc War. When Kubushiro Ochimi published a biography of Yajima Kaji in 1942, she mentioned the ﬁrm friendship between Yajima and Maria True, a Presbyterian missionary and thepillar of the Sakurai Girl’s School (later Joshi Gakuin) whose principal
was Yajima.51 In her article on venereal diseases published during thewar, she heavily quoted information obtained from her research trip to
the United States.52 When Gauntlett Tsune argued about depopulation
issues in Japan, she even encouraged her readers to learn from the efforts
of consecutive British Cabinets to solve the problems of the shrinking
population in Great Britain.53 In the middle of the trans-Paciﬁc hostilities, the Osaka branch members held an annual meeting on February 17,
1943, the forty-ﬁfth anniversary of Frances E. Willard’s death.54 Theynever ofﬁcially announced that they had gathered to commemorate
Willard, but it was obvious why they had chosen that particular day toassemble.
After the Japanese force started losing to the Allied Powers, the government tightened thought control to eliminate American and British elements from all areas of Japanese life. Thereafter, the names of Americans
and Britons completely disappeared from the publications of theJapanese union. In 1944, due to a paper shortage, the government denied
allocation of paper to the WCTU; thereafter, the WCTU completely lostits independent voice.55 The intensiﬁcation of air raids in Tokyo and other
cities, large and small, severely curtailed temperance work.

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MANAKO OGAWATEMPERANCE RACISM IN THE UNITED STATES
After Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack, the national, state, and local WCTUs
assumed responsibility as patriotic citizens and collaborated with authorities as did the Japanese union members. The executive committee of theAmerican union adopted action plans that included cooperation in war
activities: purchasing defense bonds and stamps, contributing to thewell-being of the armed forces, cooperating with local branches of the
Red Cross and Defense Council, and supporting women in war industries and servicemen’s wives. The campaign for wartime prohibition andthe prevention of juvenile delinquency were also a part of its primary
agendas.56
The American WCTU also participated in perpetuating bestial imagesof the Japanese, just as many other popular wartime writings portrayed
the Japanese as immoral pagans.57 The Union Signal introduced opinions that the war in Asia was “started by men who did not know Christ”
and denounced the “Nipponese interpretation” of Christianity.58 These
explanations implied that the absence of Christianity or the nativizationof Christian ethics and teachings drove Japan to war.
Quite contrary to the expectation of the Japanese unionists, theAmerican union members assumed that the Japanese military advancement would be accompanied by moral corruption and the perpetuationof liquor and drug abuse. They alleged that the Japanese force in Attu
fell before the U.S. attacks because they drank too much sake, Japaneserice wine, before going into battle.59 They also shared news that Japanbrought “medicines” and “vitamins” such as morphine, cocaine, andheroin, in order to “improve the people’s health” in Thailand.60 The
American union argued that intemperance and sneakiness were inherent
in Japanese culture and essential characteristics of the Japanese people.
They reported that some Japanese in the “Jap Relocations” [JapaneseAmerican Relocation Centers] rejected drinking beer and set a new orderof prohibition with the assertion that the initiator of the new rule “mustbe American born.”61 This statement insinuated that Japanese raised inJapan could not resist the lure of alcohol.
These stories and opinions blended temperance issues with highly
racialized arguments. By repetitively referring to the Japanese in derogatory terms, these writings reafﬁrmed the racial and cultural hierarchy
allocating the Japanese subhuman status. The temperance advocates in
America always identiﬁed the Japanese as Japs and Nipponese, whether

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they were military ofﬁcers in China or detainees at a relocation camp in
the United States. Historian John Dower revealed that the popular
wartime discourse in the United States tended to distinguish between
good and bad Germans and portrayed German atrocities as “Nazi”
crimes, while the Japanese brutality was almost always presented as
being simply “Japanese.”62 Temperance activists developed similarly
essentialized arguments regarding the Japanese and portrayed them as
the source of moral corruption. They dehumanized the Japanese by associating them with drugs and liquor and argued that the spread of Japaneserule meant the spread of poisons; they were afraid that Japan would pollute the purity of white nations.
In contrast to the repeated references to narcotics and alcohol, theAmerican union dropped sexual issues from its argument. The prostitution problems that haunted the Japanese union and sexual violence byJapanese soldiers were a life-or-death problem for many women in Asia.
But the American unionists paid not the slightest attention to these sexualissues. These problems were part of the life experiences only of womenon the other side of the Paciﬁc and not of American women; Japan’s“narcotic invasion” seemed much more threatening to them. Highlighting only what posed an imminent threat to their own lives weakened theeffectiveness of the American union as an organization working towards
improving their Asian sisters’ lives.
THE CELEBRATION OF A GREAT HUMANITARIAN IN CHINA:CONFIRMED FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN THE CHINESE AND AMERICAN
WCTUS
The elevated description of the Chinese accompanied the degrading
representation of the Japanese by the American WCTU. American
WCTU women bestowed an encomium on Liu-Wang Liming, or the“Frances Willard” of China, for her dedication to the welfare of womenand children and her patriotic zeal. They often referred to her spiritualstrength to stand up to the tragic loss of her husband and to her work onbehalf of the least privileged women and children. Her facilities for
women and children, an institute for refugee children, an around-theclock nursery to care for the children of working women, and a vocational school for young women refugees, soldiers’ families, and poor
girls, always suffered from skyrocketing prices.63 Only money sent fromthe United States enabled her to continue these enterprises.

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MANAKO OGAWA

Liu-Wang’s work for the welfare of needy women and orphaned children and her unshakable determination to resist invaders paralleled idealized images of women in wartime America. Lack of manpower causedby the mobilization of men to the front drew women into the workforce
and even into the military. However, the chief propagandists reafﬁrmed
the familiar values of devotion to family despite the war-generated depictions of women in nontraditional pursuits.64 The wartime emergency also
boosted women’s patriotism and utilized their domestic skills, such as
canning, knitting, and even the management of personal ﬁnances, for the
war effort.65 Through “mothering” orphans and “caring” for war victims,
Liu-Wang carried out patriotic activities without undermining the ideology that women’s primary role was devotion to home and mothering.
The name of her institution, “Victory Nursery” in Chungking, represented an ideal combination of patriotism and the celebration of motherhood. She perfectly ﬁt into the idealistic wartime gender roles of theUnited States. The WCTU members in the United States did not hesitate
to support her patriotic, yet feminine, mission.
Liu-Wang’s personal connection with Madame Chiang Kai-shek also
buttressed her high appraisal among American women. Aware thatMadame Chiang was the most popular and celebrated Chinese woman
in the United States in those days, Liu-Wang prudently dispatched messages that highlighted close associations between the Chinese WCTU
and Chiang’s regime. For instance, she reported in 1942 that the chairperson of the WCTU board of directors was the wife of a high-ranking
government ofﬁcial who was second in honor and power only to the Generalissimo.66 The appearance of such news in the Union Signal coincidedwith Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s visit to the United States. Her trip created tremendous public appeal among Americans.67 Her perception that
Christianity and nationalism could coexist to reconstruct China and herefforts to utilize the aid of missionaries and Christian churches concurredwith Liu-Wang’s ideas and activities.68
Contrary to the fact that the union women in the United States highlighted points in common between Madame Chiang Kai-shek and LiuWang Liming, Liu-Wang actually held a ﬁrm nonpartisan position
during the war. She supported the position of the Chinese Communist
Party (CCP), acquainted herself with Zhou Enlai and his wife Deng
Yingchao, and sent her eldest son to the CCP-run military college, while
sending her younger son to a KMT-run military school.69 Despite her
connection with both the KMT and the CCP, she emphasized exclusively

ESTRANGED SISTERHOOD

179

her relation with the former without mentioning her association with thelatter in her letters to the American union. She portrayed the KMT leaders and its military force as if they were paragons of virtue, although shedared to criticize KMT corruption openly at home.70
As the result of Liu-Wang’s English publications catering to the interests of temperance women in the United States, generous ﬁnancial support kept pouring in from the United States and enabled her to carry out
her projects throughout the difﬁcult wartime.71 However, the unilateralﬁnancial ﬂow from the United States to the Chinese union made the latter dependent on the mercy of its patrons. Moreover, the efforts of theChinese WCTU to win the favor of Americans reinforced the hierarchical relationship between the Chinese and American women.
TOWARD THE REPARATION OF BROKEN SISTERHOOD: THE WORK OFFORMER MISSIONARIES STATIONED IN JAPANWhen the tide of the war shifted in favor of the Allied Powers and U.S.
troops started to gain the upper hand over Japan in the Paciﬁc theater,
positive representations of Japan reappeared in WCTU publications. C.
Burnell Olds, a former American Board missionary who had lived inJapan for thirty-six years, wrote to the Union Signal in 1944 that theJapanese government applied the law prohibiting alcohol consumption
by minors to all territories over which Japan had jurisdiction.72 Other
missionaries stationed in Japan also offered pictures of the Japanese aspeace lovers. Through narratives about the leaders of the WCTU andtheir sisters’ efforts for social reform and world peace, these missionaries
rejected an essentialist and monolithic description of the Japanese anddistinguished the “good” Japanese from the rest.73 Gladys D. Walser, thewife of a former Presbyterian missionary in Japan and member of theJapanese WCTU, acted more aggressively for the Japanese in the UnitedStates by trying to help Japanese Americans in internment camps. Since
the American WCTU did not collectively respond to the relocation of
110,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry, she found the stage for her
action in the WILPF. As the chair of the WILPF’s Committee on
Japanese in America, organized in early 1943, she succeeded in convincing the WILPF to support the Japanese in and out of the camp throughproviding basic necessities and helping evacuees who left the camps forresettlement.74
In addition to former missionaries in Japan, some American union

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MANAKO OGAWA

members concerned with the restoration of world peace stood up against
racism. As the Allied powers defeated the Axis in both Europe and the
Paciﬁc and the war drew gradually to a close, they started thinking seriously about how to restore world peace. The most prominent of thisgroup was Berthalee Broyles, National Director of the Department ofInternational Relations for Peace. She was one of the few American
union members who criticized the relocation of Japanese Americans on
the grounds of race.75 She also deplored the treatment of the Japanese in
American journalism where “the words ‘ape-men’ or ‘monkey-men’
were among the milder of favorite epithets.”76
Indeed, interest in the post-war world was evidently growing in theAmerican WCTU, as its president Ida B. Wise Smith admitted.77 Plans
for the year’s work adopted by the executive committee in 1943 included
not only patriotic actions but also a post-war agenda to awaken people
to the need for “just and durable peace.”78 As a Christian organization of
a potentially victorious nation, the American union had started developing a post-war vision to regenerate the war-torn world prior to the endof war. They still continued to support the Chinese union, but their vision
gradually shifted from how to ﬁght back against Japan into how to reintegrate it into the white ribbon international community.
Ella A. Boole, president of the World’s WCTU, joined the argument
about the reconstruction of the organization. Even after the Japaneseunion disavowed its ties with the world union, the World’s WCTU preserved its membership along with other branches of the Axis powers.79
This treatment implied that once the worldwide hostilities were over, theworld union would restore associations with these branches. Throughsuch treatment, the world union laid the groundwork for post-war
activism. The wartime preparation for peace and the reevaluation of theJapanese paved the way for the reparation of broken sisterhood after thewar. Former missionaries in Japan and several executive members of theworld and the American unions played a pivotal role in redirecting theagenda.
CONCLUSION
The trans-Paciﬁc exchange of the WCTU women between 1931 and1945 revolved around the United States. Both Japanese and Chinese
branches sought patronage and support from Americans, because winning the United States over to their side would be key for these nations

ESTRANGED SISTERHOOD

181

in solving pending diplomatic problems. While wooing the UnitedStates, the Japanese and Chinese unions disagreed with each other overthe military conﬂicts between Japan and China; the Japanese womenendorsed the military operation of their nation as an unavoidable act ofself-defense, while the Chinese women rebuked Japanese arguments as
self-serving and self-righteous. The American women remained aloof
from the Japan-China military disputes and preserved the “White Ribbon
League of Nations.” However, the death of Liu-Wang Liming’s husband
in 1938 propelled them to switch their previous neutral position to theChinese side. Thanks to the skillful diplomacy of Liu-Wang, the informal U.S. alliance in the white ribbon world had already been formed
before the outbreak of the Paciﬁc War.
Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor transformed the United States into anofﬁcial ally of China. Through drastically increasing ﬁnancial and material support to China and the dissemination of highly racialized accusations that the Japanese were subhuman ringleaders of the contaminationof the world by liquor and drugs, American white ribboners participatedin the war against Japan. Meanwhile, the Japanese union reinterpreted
the failure of diplomatic negotiations between the U.S. and Japan as anultimate rejection by Americans. Seeing themselves as victims of antiJapanese propaganda and racism in the trans-Paciﬁc community, theycame to embrace the Asiatic cause of Japan’s imperialism and contributeto the construction of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Spherethrough their social reform agendas.
However, the clash between the United States and Japan did not completely destroy the white ribbon bond which they had nurtured for
decades. Japanese women’s long-term desire for full acceptance by the
U.S. and tacit respect for prominent American women were inherent intheir wartime discourse. Ostensibly accusing Americans, their implicit
attachment to Americans remained an undercurrent of their consciousness and paved the way for the post-war reconciliation with the World’s
WCTU community.
Meanwhile, the wartime discourse of Americans colored by racial
prejudice and hatred did not survive after 1943. When the tide of the war
shifted in favor of the Allied Powers, the American white ribboners
regained a sense of leadership and started thinking seriously about reconstructing the war-torn world. Their hostilities toward Japan were gradually replaced by a new plan of reintegrating their former enemies into
the World’s WCTU. Soon after the end of the war, Ella A. Boole wrote

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MANAKO OGAWA

to Gauntlett Tsune, then the president of the Japanese union, “Eventhough a nation fought against a nation, our mutual friendship based on
Christianity has never changed. We, members of the WCTU, prayed foryou during the war.”80 This letter deeply touched the heart of Gauntlett,then the president of the Japanese WCTU. Ashamed of having supported
the war and having betrayed the peace promoted by the WCTU, she
resumed her work at the union. The world union welcomed back its
Japanese branch and moved to post-war activism.
NOTES
1
Ruth Bordin, Woman and Temperance: The Quest for Power and liberty, 1873–
1900 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981), 5; Jack S. Blocker, Jr., “Give tothe Winds Thy Fears”: The Woman’s Temperance Crusade, 1873–1874 (Westport,
Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985), 97–99.
2
Bordin, Woman and Temperance, 3–4; Patricia Hill, The World Their Household:
The American Women’s Missionary Movement and Cultural Transformation, 1870–
1920 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1985), 195.
3
Anna Addams Gordon, “World Prohibition, World Purity, World Peace Our International Goal,” Union Signal (November 23, 1922): 3.
4
Manako Ogawa, “The ‘White Ribbon League of Nations’ Meets Japan: the TransPaciﬁc Activism of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, 1906–1930,” Diplomatic History 31, no. 1 (January 2007): 21–50.
5
The American chapter called itself the “National” WCTU. Since this study deals
with more than one “national” chapter of the WCTU, it uses the “American WCTU” inorder to avoid confusion.
6
Works include: Harriet Hyman Alonso, Peace as a Women’s Issue: A History of the
U.S. Movement for World Peace and Women’s Rights (Syracuse: Syracuse University
Press, 1993); Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, Changing Differences: Women and the Shaping ofAmerican Foreign Policy, 1917–1994 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press,
1995); Carrie Foster, The Women and the Warriors: The U. S. Section of the Women’s
International League for Peace and Freedom, 1915–1946 (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1995); Leila J. Rupp, Worlds of Women: The Making of an International
Women’s Movement (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997); Linda K. Schott,
Reconstructing Women’s Thoughts: The Women’s International League for Peace andFreedom before World War II (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997); Nitza
Berkovitch, From Motherhood to Citizenship: Women’s Rights and International
Organizations (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999); Bonnie S.
Anderson, Joyous Greetings: The First International Women’s Movement, 1830–1860(New York: Oxford University Press, 2000); Laura Wexler, Tender Violence: Domestic
Visions in an Age of U.S. Imperialism (Chapel Hill and London: The University of North
Carolina Press, 2000).
7There are several exceptions. See Rumi Yasutake, Transnational Women’s Activism: The United States, Japan, and Japanese Immigrant Communities in California,
1859–1920 (New York: New York University Press, 2004); Karen J. Leong, The China
Mystique: Pearl S. Buck, Anna May Wong, Mayling Soong, and the Transformation ofAmerican Orientalism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005).

ESTRANGED SISTERHOOD

183“W.C.T.U. in the News of the Day,” Union Signal (March 5, 1932): 8.
See “Miss Byrnes Visits Japan’s W.C.T.U. Headquarters,” Union Signal (December
12, 1931): 4; “Helen Byrnes Visits China” Union Signal (January 34, 1932): 4; “Helen
Byrnes in the Orient,” Union Signal (February 6, 1932): 11; “The International Outlook,”
Union Signal (November 11, 1933): 11; “Young People’s Branch,” Union Signal (November 11, 1933): 5.
10
Kubushiro Ochimi, “Rimpô Chûka Minkoku” [The Republic of China, our neighbor], Fujin Shimpô, no. 404 (November 1, 1931): 3
11“Jikyoku ni taisuru honkai no taido” [Our attitude toward the current situation],
Fujin shimpô, no. 405 (December 1, 1931): 6–7.
12Kubushiro Ochimi, “Shanhai, Nankin houmon to Nichi-shi no shourai” [Our visit
to Shanghai and Nanjin and the future of Japan and China], Fujin shimpô, no. 407(February 1, 1932): 10–11.
13
Foster, The Women and the Warriors, 192–208; Schott, Reconstructing Women’s
Thoughts, 112–13.
14
Michi Kawai and Ochimi Kubushiro, Japanese Women Speak (Boston: Central
Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions, 1934), 168.
15
Gonoi Takashi, Nihon Kirisutokyôshi [History of Christianity] (Tokyo:
Yoshikawakôbunkan, 1990), 293–97.
16
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of China, A Record Year of Achievement:
Annual Report of W.C.T.U. of China (1934–5), Special Collections, Frances E. Willard
Memorial Library, Evanston.
17
See ibid., 2; Tsuneko, “Nichi-shi kan no kakehashi to narumono: Shanhai Kyôfûkai
soukanji Liu fujin to kataru” [Building a bridge between Japan and China: dialogue with
Mrs. Liu, president of the Shanghai WCTU], Fujin shimpô 433 (April 1, 1934): 44–5.
18
Gauntlett Tsune, Shichijû shichinen no omoide [My memories of seventy-sevenyears] (Tokyo: Ôzorasha, 1989), 146.
19
See ibid., 147.
20
Harold R. Isaacs, Scratches on our Minds: American Views of China and India(Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 1958), 173.
21
Christy Jo Snicer, “The Inﬂuence of Transnational Peace Groups on U.S. Foreign
Policy Decision-Makers during the 1930s: Incorporating NGOs into the UN,”
Diplomatic History 27, no. 3 (June 2003): 377–404; “To Oppose Japanese Aggression,”
Women and Missions (July 1939): 118.
22
Frances W. Liu, “An Appeal from China,” Union Signal (November 27, 1937): 4.
23
See ibid.
24
J. Kenneth Morris, “Samurai’s Daughter Dedicates Life to Christian Welfare Work,”
Union Signal (June 19, 1937): 14.
25
Liu Guanghua, “Wo de muqin Liu Wang Liming” [My mother Liu Wang Liming],
Renwu 6 (November 6, 1981): 146.
26
Liu-Wang Liming, The Death of My Husband Dr. Herman C. E. Liu (Hong Kong:
Women’s Christian Temperance Union of China, 1939), 30.
27“World News and Events,” Union Signal (December 3, 1838): 4.
28
Kubushiro Ochimi, “Sennen mo ichinichi no gotoku,” [One thousand years seem
like a day] Fujin shimpô, no. 489 (December 1938): 5.
29
Senbongi Michiko, “Jiji zakkan” [A discussion of current events], Fujin shimpô, no.
477 (December 1937): 19.
30
For the inﬂuence of The Good Earth on American society, see Leong, The China
Mystique, 26–29.
31
Kubushiro Ochimi, “Shasetsu” [Editorial article], Fujin shimpô, no. 498 (August1939): 5.
8
9

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MANAKO OGAWA

Gauntlett Tsune, “Taibei gokagetsu” [Five months in the United States], Fujin
shimpô, no. 503 (February 1940): 12–16.
33
Alonso, Peace as a Women’s Issue, 140.
34
Elinor K. Purves, “Conference on the Cause and Cure of War—Program for 1940,”
Women and Missions (April 1940): 22.
35
See ibid., 425.
36
Frances Willard Liu, “Greetings, White Ribbon Comrades!” Union Signal (November 23, 1940): 5.
37
Margaret C. Munns, “Report of the Honorary Treasurer,” Seventeenth Report of theWorld’s Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (1944): 30.
38
Liu, “Greetings, White Ribbon Comrades!” 5.
39
Kubushiro Ochimi, “Shasetsu” [Editorial article], Fujin shimpô, no. 517 (March
1941): 4.
40“Nichi-shi no yûwa to Kirisutosha no shimei” [Appeasement of the Japan-China
problem and the mission of Christians], Fujin shimpô, no. 483 (June 1938): 14–7.
41“Tenkyô Airinkan kaikanshiki” [The opening ceremony of Tenkyô Airinkan], Fujin
shimpô, no. 496 (July 1939): 7–8.
42
Hayashi Utako, “Fujin no kakugo” [The determination of women], Fujin shimpô,
no. 478 (February 1938): 29.
43“Resolution Adopted,” Union Signal (August 24, 1940): 11.
44
Kubushiro Ochimi, “Shasetsu” [Editorial article], Fujin shimpô, no. 525 (January1942): 1–2.
45
See ibid.
46
Gauntlett Tsune, “Shinnen no inori” [A New Year prayer], Fujin shimpô, no. 525(January 1942): 1; Hayashi Utako, “Shinnen o iwau” [Celebrate New Year’s], Fujin
shimpô, no. 525 (January 1942): 12; Moriya Azuma, “Konogoro” [Recent times], Fujin
shimpô, no. 525 (January 1942): 18.
47“Kôa joshi shidôsha kôshûkai” [A lecture class for female leaders in Asia], Fujin
shimpô, no. 528 (April 1942): 18.
48“Shasetsu” [An editorial article], (September 1943): 2–3.
49
Kubushiro Ochimi, Haishô hitosuji [Pursuing the abolishment of licensed prostitution], 252.
50
Dohi Akio, Nihon Purotesutanto Kirisutokyô shiron [The history of Protestant
Christianity in Japan] (Tokyo: Shinkyô Shuppansha, 1987), 215–16; Gonoi Takashi,
Nihon Kirisutokyôshi [A history of Christianity in Japan] (Tokyo: Yoshikawakôbunkan,1990), 298; Doshisha Daigaku Jinbunkagaku Kenkyûjo Kirisukyô Shakaimondai
Kenkyûkai ed., Senjika no Kirisutokyô [Christianity during the war] vol. 1, 178; vol.3:
287 and 330.
51
Kubushiro Ochimi, “Warera no sendatsu” [Our pioneers], Fujin shimpô, no. 530(June 1942): 5.
52
Kubushiro Ochimi, “Junketsu Nihon kensetsu tojô ni okeru seibyô mondai,”[Venereal diseases and the process of constructing a pure Japan], Fujin shimpô, no. 536(November 1942): 4–5.
53
Gauntlett Tsune, “Jinkô mondai” [Population problems], Fujin shimpô, no. 541(May 1943): 1.
54“Osaka bukai dayori” [Report of Osaka branch], Fujin shimpô, no. 540 (April 1943):
8.
55
Thereafter, Fujin shimpô was merged into Shinseimei published by the Japanese
Christian Church.
32

ESTRANGED SISTERHOOD

185“Plans for the Year’s Work as Adopted by the Executive Committee,” Union Signal(August 28, 1943): 4.
57
John W. Dower, War without Mercy: Race & Power in the Paciﬁc War (New York:
Pantheon Books, 1986), chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7.
58“Lest We Forget,” Union Signal (January 8, 1944): 9; “Hope for Christian Activities
in Japan,” Union Signal (March 13, 1943): 4.
59“Japanese Lose Through Sake,” Union Signal (July 1943): 3.
60“Japan Drugs to Siam,” Union Signal (February 1944): 13.
61“No Alcoholic Beverages in Jap Relocations,” Union Signal (April 17, 1943): 3.
62
Dower, War without Mercy, 34.
63
Margaret C. Munns, “A Great Humanitarian—Heroic Francis Willard Wang Liu,”
Union Signal (March 11, 1944): 10.
64
Maureen Honey, Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War II (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984).
65
Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (NewYork: Basic Books, 1988), 63.
66
Margaret C. Munns, “The Money You Sent for China’s Orphans,” Union Signal(September 5, 1942): 23.
67
For her impact on Americans, see T. Christopher Jespersen, American Images ofChina 1931–1949 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), 89: Leong, The China
Mystique, 117–54.
68
Leong, The China Mystique, 118–19.
69
Wang Zheng, Women in the Chinese Enlightenment (Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1999), 140.
70
See ibid.; Margaret C. Munns, “A Great Humanitarian—Heroic Francis Willard
Wang Liu,” Union Signal (March 11, 1944): 4.
71
From April 1942 to May 9, 1945, China received 21,657 dollars from the American
Union. Margaret C. Munns, “Gift of Mercy World War II Style,” Union Signal (June 2,1945), 14.
72
C. Burnell Olds, ‘Temperance Was Basic in the Active Christian Movement inJapan,” Union Signal (May 6, 1944): 21.
73
P. A. Smith, “One Day, One Life,” Union Signal (May 6, 1944): 12–13; Mildred
Anne Paine, “The WCTU in the Orient Japan,” Union Signal (April 14, 1945): 7.
74
Foster, The Women and the Warriors, 299–300.
75
Berthalee Broyles, “International Relations for Peace,” Union Signal (November
13, 1943): 6.
76
Berthalee Broyles, “Peace is Growing,” Union Signal (June 2, 1945): 12.
77
Ida B. Wise Smith, “. . . Statement of the National Woman’s Christian Temperance
Union on Peace Plans,” Union Signal (June 5, 1943): 3.
78“Plans for the Years’ Work as Adopted by the Executive Committee,” 5.
79
Eighteenth Report of the World’s Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, (1944):
5.
80“Bankoku Kirisutokyô Fujin Kyôfûkai kaitô Ella A Boole-shi yori no tsûshin,” [Aletter from Ms. Ella A. Boole, the president of the World’s WCTU] Fujin shimpô, no.
563 (November 1946): 3; Gauntlett, Shichijû shichinen no omoide, [My memories ofseventy-seven years] 154–55.
56