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Ann Arbor, MI48106 ,/ MARGARET SANGER AND THE BIRTH CONTROL MOVEMENT IN JAPAN, 1921-1955 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAll IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OFTIIE REQUIREMENTS FORTHEDEGREE OF IXX.:'fOR OFEDUCATION IN EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIONS DECEMBER 1987 By Malia Sedgewick Johnson Dissertation Committee: Victor N. Kobayashi, Chairman Ann Keppel Royal T. Fruehling Ralph Stueber Cyril Roseman © Copyright by Malia Sedgewick Johnson, 1987 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is dedicated to my mother, Dr. Rose Whelan Sedgewick, who taught me that a woman should reach for her dreams and to my children. At an early age, they recognized and understood the importance of my attraction and long-standing interest in China and Japan. lowe a special dedication to Junius for all of his support for my travel to various distant locations to do my research. He also encouraged me in the conceptualization of this work and stimulated me to finish a project that took longer than the original plan. lowe a special thanks to my committee members who assisted me as individuals and as a group, Dr. Royal T. Fruehling, Dr. Ann Keppel, Dr. Ralph Stueber, Dr. Cyril Roseman and especially to Dr. Victor N. Kobayashi, Chairman, who truly paved the way for my trip to Tokyo. Finally, this dissertation is dedicated to the memory of Margaret Sanger and her fascinating counterpart 10 Japan, Senator Shidzue Ishimoto Kato. They were both emancipated women in an era when autonomy and independence were not easily achieved, maintained or nurtured. iii ABSlRACf The purpose of this biographical study was to examine the influence of Margaret Sanger on the birth control movement in Japan from 1921-1955. As part of this study, Sanger's personal and professional relationship with Senator Shidzue Ishimoto Kato was highlighted. Both of these women were named In a 1984 Japanese survey identifying the most influential women in 20th Century Japan.! Three major primary data sources were used. Archival materials were examined from the Margaret Sanger Papers in the Library of Congress and the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. The Diet Library in Tokyo provided a copy of an important speech Sanger gave in Tokyo in the House of Councillors in 1954. Other primary sources included letters, speeches, diaries, newspaper articles, photographs and transcripts of oral history interviews with Sanger's two sons. A recently taped interview with Senator Kato in Tokyo provided further evidence of Sanger's important contributions to the birth control movement in Japan. Autobiographies by Sanger and Kato were consulted along with five biographies of Sanger. The findings indicated' (hat Margaret Sanger was truly one of the great nursing pioneers of the 20th Century for her work as an ) educational leader in the birta control movement in the United States \. and Japan. She served as an important international change agent who facilitated the transfer of birth control technology and innovative 1Based on personal correspondence between Yuriko Ashino, Information Officer, Family Planning Federation of Japan, Inc., and the writer, May 30, 1985. iv educational ideas to Japan through her personal contact with Japanese opinion leaders such as Senator Kato. Sanger and Kate's relationship represents an example of international networking to achieve a larger objective--the education of women regarding birth control so that women could have more control over their future. v TABLE OF CON1ENTS ACKNOWl£DGE~S iii ABSlRACT .iv PREFACE viii CHAPTER I. WOMAN REBEL: IDSTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF A CHANGE AGEN1' 1 The Early Years: i879-1911.. .l The Rebellious Years: 1911-1921 8 CHAPTER II. A FORTUITOUS MEETING WITH THE BARONESS: mSTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF A JAPA.lI>,ffiSE OPINION LEADER 31 The Meeting: 1920 31 The Early Years: 1897-1914 35 The Transformation: 1915-1922 .40 CHAPTER III. THE COMMON MISSION: SANGER'S VISIT TO JAPAN IN 1922 51 The Kaizo Invitation 51 Important Connections 57 Arrival in Japan 61 CHAPTER IV. SANGER'S AND ISIDMOTO'S I~RUENCEIN JAPAN PRE-WORLD WAR ll 74 Networking 74 Strategies 78 Tokyo Birth Control Clinic 85 One Package of Japanese Pessaries 88 An Important Dedication 91 CI-T.ft~PTER V. POST-WAR L\1PLEME!\TTATION OF BIRTH CONTROL IN JAPAN: SANGER'S TRIUMPHANT RETURN 95 MacArthur's Refusal 102 VI An Important Visit 105 The Diet Speech 107 CHAPTER VI. MARGARET SANGER, SOCIAL CHANGE AGENT: SUMMARY AND REFLECTIONS II0 APPENDICES A. Interview with Senator Shidzue Ishirnoto Kato in Tokyo 121 B. Margaret Sanger's 1954 Speech to the Japanese Diet 146 C Margaret Higgins Sanger: A Biographical Chronology 180 D. Shidzue Ishimoto Kato: A Biographical Chronology 182 BIBLIOGRAPHY 184 Vll PREFACE From my experiences as a nursing educator for the past twenty five years, I developed an interest in Margaret Sanger's work as an educational leader in the birth control movement. I was surprised to learn that Sanger had been trained as a nurse because there had been no mention of her work in the two nursing history courses that I had taken as a student. A two volume bibliography of nursing literature covering the period from 1859-1971 and numerous nursing history books that I reviewed did not acknowledge Sanger's contributions to the birth control movement. 1 This omission is particularly striking because of the important and well documented role that she played as a change agent who set into motion this important 20th Century socio-political movement in the United States. In a recent interview, sociologist Esther Lucile Brown, author of the 1948 classic study, Nursin~ for the Future. stated that Margaret Sanger was the "one nurse who had the largest impact upon the welfare of society." Brown considered Sanger to be an equal of Florence Nightingale and yet remarked that "a large part of the nursing profession has never known she was a nurse."2 There has been extensive writing on Margaret Sanger's contributions to the birth control movement in the United States. Two 1Alice M. C. Thompson, ed., A Bibliography of Nursing Literature 1859 l..2..6Q (London: Staples Printers Limited, 1968) and A Bibliography of Nursing Literature 1961-1971 (London: Staples Printers Limited, 1974). 2Betty Bear, "The Influence of Esther Lucile Brown on Nursing Education: An Oral History," (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, 1986), p. 76. Vlll of her major biographers grve special attention to her work in the United States but do not attach great significance to her work internationally. David Kennedy's dissertation, completed at Yale University, served as the basis for his book Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret San~er (1971). In Kennedy's introduction, he limits his study by excluding Sanger's influence on the birth control movement internationally. However, Kennedy concludes that Sanger "slipped quietly from her position of leadership" in the birth control move . -nt and "left the front" in the 1940's."3 Kennedy stated that "the praise Margaret Sanger received often seemed out of proportion to her achievement."4 His interpretation fails to note her many documented accomplishments and the important role she played in the international birth control movement until the late 1950's.5 Madeline Gray mentions Sanger's international work in her biography, Mar~aret Sant:er; A BiQ2raphy of the Champion of Birth Control (1979), but does not highlight its importance in terms of her influence on birth control policies in China, India and Japan. Gray devotes too much attention to details of Margaret's personal life and passes lightly over her many accomplishments in the birth control movernent.v Sanger's international influence is also discounted by historian James Reed in his book The Birth Control Movement and American 3David M. Kennedy, Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971), pp. 270-271. 4Ibid., p. 275. 5Emily Taft Douglas, Mar~aret San~er: Pioneer of the Future (Maryland: Garrett Park Press, 1975), p. 256. 6Madeline Gray, Mafl~aret San2er: A Biography of the Champion of Birth Control (New York: Richard Marek Publishers, 1979). IX Society: From Private Vice to Public Virtue (1978) when he states that "nothing substantial" came of her tours to Japan and India in the 1920's and 1930's.7 My research at the Library of Congress, Smith College and the Diet Library in Tokyo support my hypothesis that Margaret Sanger had a far reaching influence internationally on key opinion leaders such as Senator Shidzue Ishimoto Kato of Japan and through this influence she had an effect on national birth control policies in Japan.