University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2016 St. Luke’s College of Nursing, Tokyo, Japan: The intersections of an Episcopal Church Mission Project, Rockefeller Foundation Philanthropy, and the Development of Nursing in Japan, 1918-1941. Kathleen Mary Nishida University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the History Commons, and the Nursing Commons Recommended Citation Nishida, Kathleen Mary, "St. Luke’s College of Nursing, Tokyo, Japan: The intersections of an Episcopal Church Mission Project, Rockefeller Foundation Philanthropy, and the Development of Nursing in Japan, 1918-1941." (2016). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1919. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1919 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1919 For more information, please contact [email protected]. St. Luke’s College of Nursing, Tokyo, Japan: The intersections of an Episcopal Church Mission Project, Rockefeller Foundation Philanthropy, and the Development of Nursing in Japan, 1918-1941. Abstract ST. LUKE’S COLLEGE OF NURSING, TOKYO, JAPAN: THE INTERSECTIONS OF AN EPISCOPAL CHURCH MISSION PROJECT, ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION PHILANTHROPY, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF NURSING IN JAPAN, 1918-1941. Kathleen M. Nishida, MSN, CNM Patricia D’ Antonio PhD, RN, FAAN The leadership at St. Luke’s International Hospital and its nurse training program were very vocal about being a state of the art medical facility that sought through its nurse training program to raise the quality of nursing education and practice in Japan. They very clearly sought to reproduce American styled nursing education at St. Luke’s. To achieve this they brought nurses from the United States to teach and manage the nurse training program and brought Japanese nurses from Japan to the United States for post graduate studies and observation experiences. This study examines the tensions that exist at the intersections of a foreign Episcopal Church mission project, Rockefeller Foundation philanthropy, and the development of nursing in Japan. This study uses historical methodology and is a transnational study. A theory of Critical Transnational Feminism (CTF) is used to consider issues of race, class, and gender at St. Luke’s International Hospital and School of Nursing in Tokyo, Japan in the early twentieth century. The collaboration between Japanese nurses, physicians, and board members with American missionary nurses and doctors to lead and develop a world class medical center and school of nursing provides an opportunity to probe issues of power based on gender, race, and class. The CTF lens calls attention to the tendency of transnational history to often be Western-centric and has provided a framework to go deeper into an equitable representation of transnational studies. This study has found that lay medical missionaries prioritized their professional goals over the Christianizing goals of the church. The study reveals that power in the transnational space was a shifting and contested quality. Although Japanese and American actors at St. Luke’s talked about cultural diplomacy the relationships that they had were still hierarchical across race, gender and professional boundaries. Nursing at St. Luke’s represented progressive professionalization movements for women for both Japanese and American nurses. Nurses who traveled had elite social opportunities because of the associations that they had in their international work. Finally, St. Luke’s was uniquely positioned to develop public health nursing in Japan and they had significant impact in that area. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Nursing First Advisor Patricia D'Antonio Keywords Diplomacy, Gender Studies, Japan, Missionary, Rockefeller Foundation, Transnational Subject Categories History | Nursing This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1919 ST. LUKE’S COLLEGE OF NURSING, TOKYO, JAPAN: THE INTERSECTIONS OF AN EPISCOPAL CHURCH MISSION PROJECT, ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION PHILANTHROPY, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF NURSING IN JAPAN, 1918-1941. Kathleen M. Nishida A DISSERTATION in Nursing Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2016 Supervisor of Dissertation _______________________ Patricia D’Antonio, PhD, RN, FAAN Killebrew-Censits Endowed Term Chair in Undergraduate Education in Nursing Graduate Group Chairperson ________________________ Eileen V. Lake, PhD, RN, FAAN Jessie M. Scott Endowed Term Chair in Nursing and Health Policy Dissertation Committee Patricia D’Antonio, PhD, RN, FAAN, Chair, Department of Community and Family Nursing Eiichiro Azuma, PhD, Alan Charles Kors Term Associate Professor of History Barbra Mann Wall. PhD, RN, FAAN, Thomas A. Saunders III Professorship in Nursing, University of Virginia School of Nursing ST. LUKE’S COLLEGE OF NURSING, TOKYO, JAPAN: THE INTERSECTIONS OF AN EPISCOPAL CHURCH MISSION PROJECT, ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION PHILANTHROPY, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF NURSING IN JAPAN, 1918-1941. COPYRIGHT 2016 Kathleen Mary Nishida Dedicated to: My daughter Isabel Louise Nishida who was with me every step of the way. And to the memories of the nurses who traveled between Japan and the United States to develop St. Luke’s College of Nursing. You have become like friends to me and I wish I could meet you at the train with a smile and a laugh. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENT First and foremost I would like to thank my committee chair and advisor Dr. Patricia D’Antonio who from the time we first met via email communications regarding my interest in the history of nursing has always taken the time to give me guidance and constructive feedback. Despite an intensely busy schedule and her many commitments at the School of Nursing and at home, she has always made room for me in a way that we both take very seriously and yet is also warm and friendly. I am extremely grateful to my committee members Dr. Barbra Mann Wall and Dr. Eiichiro Azuma who have guided this dissertation thesis with thoughtful advice in their areas of expertise, by directing me towards excellent resources, and by giving constructive feedback during exams. Thank you sincerely to my dissertation readers Dr. Cynthia Connolly and Dr. Kimberly Trout. During my time at Penn, the School of Nursing has been a beloved community for me to live and grow in. The Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing has been my home, and the faculty and students there, like my family. I want to acknowledge Dr. Julie Fairman, Dr. Jean Whelan, Tiffany Collier, and Elisa Stroh, faculty and staff members at the Center. To my fellow history students Linda Maldonado, Katharine Smith, Briana Ralston, Amanda Mahoney, and Hafeeza Anchrum, you have made this journey colorful with your friendship and support. I have especially fond memories of my original cohort that started in the fall of 2010 but also made friends in some of the classes before and after. I have especially appreciated the friendship and support of Max and Leah Topaz, Youjeong Kang, Susan Malone, Ruth Masterson Creber, Olga Jarrin, Therese Waite, Lisa Hilmi, Timothy Sowicz and Ashley Ritter. To my husband Wataru and my daughter Isabel I give great thanks for your sacrifices, love and support. I wish to thank my mother Kathleen and my parents –in- law Naoki and Hiroko as they too provided support on many occasions. A special thanks to my father-in-law for his interest in my study and help with research in Japan. We had some special times together with this work and that will always be a treasure to me. Love and thanks go out to the rest of our family as well, both in Japan and the United States. Essential to this study was access to archival resources and the support of their staffs. Specifically I would like to thank, in the United States, Tom Rosenbaum at the Rockefeller Archive Center, Elizabeth Lawson of New York Presbyterian Cornell-Weill Archive Center, and Sarah Dana of the Episcopal Church Archives. In Japan, I would like to thank Dean Hishinuma Michiko, Hatakeyama Komaki, and Watanabe Hisako at St. Luke’s College of Nursing; Toyoda Masayuki at Rikkyo Gakuin Archives; and Kakuda Ayumi at the Japanese Red Cross Society. A special thanks to Yumiko Miwa Moseley who provided me with translation services in Japan. I would like to acknowledge my gratitude for the financial support for my doctoral education by the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Nursing. In addition, scholarships and fellowships have contributed to research and travel funds. On that account I would like to thank the Lillian Brunner Sholtis Fellowship; Sigma Theta Tau International, Xi Chapter; The Episcopal Women’s History Project; the Office of Nursing Research and GAPSA at the University of Pennsylvania; as well as the Research Institute of the Cultural Humanities for their support. iv Finally, I would like to thank my current colleagues in clinical practice for their friendship and support as I finish the dissertation process. Warm thanks goes out to Megan Gilbert, Becca Choitz, Melissa Naser, Shwetha Shrivatsa, Laura Fish, and all of our support staff. I could not have completed this project without the support of my dear friend and spiritual advisor Sara Macro Forrest. A shout out to my sweet pets Chico, Hector, Hippy Chic, Zeus and Houston for their daily love. v ABSTRACT ST. LUKE’S COLLEGE OF NURSING: THE INTERSECTIONS OF AN EPISCOPAL CHURCH MISSION PROJECT, ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION PHILANTHROPY, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF NURSING IN JAPAN, 1918-1941. Kathleen M. Nishida, MSN, CNM Patricia D’ Antonio PhD, RN, FAAN The leadership at St. Luke’s International Hospital and its nurse training program were very vocal about being a state of the art medical facility that sought through its nurse training program to raise the quality of nursing education and practice in Japan. They very clearly sought to reproduce American styled nursing education at St. Luke’s.