Wikipedia

Tamaki Uemura

Tamaki Uemura (植村環) (August 24, 1890 – May 26, 1982) was a YWCA executive, pacifist, and Christian pastor in Japan.

Tamaki Uemura
植村環
An older Japanese woman, wearing a dark suit
Uemura Tamaki, from a 1955 photograph
BornAugust 24, 1890
Tokyo
DiedMay 26, 1982
Tokyo
Occupation(s)Pastor, YWCA executive
ParentUemura Masahisa

Early life edit

Uemura was born in Tokyo, the daughter of Masahisa Uemura and Sueno Yamanouchi.[1] Her father was a prominent Presbyterian minister.[2][3] She attended a women's college in Tokyo, then Wellesley College in Massachusetts from 1911 to 1915, on a four-year scholarship.[4][5][6] Later, after her father, son, and husband had all died, she studied theology at the University of Edinburgh, from 1925 to 1929.[7][8]

Career edit

Uemura was appointed as the national director of the YWCA in Japan in 1937, and she served as the vice-director of the International YWCA from 1938 to 1951.[9][10] In 1934, she became one of the first women ordained as a Christian pastor in Japan.[1] She taught at Tsuda College and other institutions, and was principal of the Tainan Presbyterian Girls' School in Taiwan in the 1930s. During World War II, she was the only female member of the executive committee of the United Church of Christ in Japan.[3] Under the United States' occupation of Japan immediately after the war, she was known for her stance as a prostitution abolitionist.[11][12]

In 1946, Uemura became the first Japanese civilian to visit the United States after the war, when she accepted an invitation from a national women's organization in the United Presbyterian Church.[13] She toured speaking at local churches across the United States.[8][14][15] Her appearances sparked a controversy over the question of women serving Communion, and renewed calls for ordination for women pastors in the American denomination.[16][17] From 1947 to 1951, she taught weekly Bible lessons for the Japanese imperial household, including Empress Masako.[18] In 1954 she wrote an open letter to Mamie Eisenhower, advocating for the United States to pay compensation to the Japanese victims of hydrogen bomb testing in the Pacific. "I sincerely wish you and President Eisenhower, who are Christians, will forgive this rude letter," she wrote.[19][20] She was a member of the Committee of Seven in 1956, encouraging Japan's admission to the United Nations as a "stepping stone away from reliance upon force and armaments toward a world of law, justice, and disarmament."[21] In 1961, she was one of the world leaders who signed an international call for a "world constitution" for peace.[22] She was decorated with the Second Class of the Order of the Sacred Treasure in 1965.[7] She retired from pastoral duties in 1973.[4]

Personal life edit

Uemura married Shuzo Kawado in 1918; they had daughter, Machiko, and a son. She was widowed very young, and her son died from polio in 1923. Uemura died in 1982, in Tokyo, aged 91 years.[7]

References edit

  1. ^ a b Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2002). Japan Encyclopedia. Harvard University Press. p. 1008. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5.
  2. ^ Soltau, Addison. "Uemura Masahisa (1857-1925) First GenerationPastor, Christian Leader and Instinctive Proponentof Indigenized Christianity in Japan" (D.Th. dissertation, Concordia Seminary, 1982): 232-233.
  3. ^ a b Chung, Meehyun (2006). Breaking Silence: Theology from Asian Women's Perspective. ISPCK. p. 66. ISBN 978-81-7214-926-0.
  4. ^ a b Shelton, Joanna Reed (2016-01-05). A Christian in the Land of the Gods: Journey of Faith in Japan. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4982-2492-5.
  5. ^ Shackford, Martha Hale (February 1914). "Japanese Students at Wellesley College". New York Japan Review. 2: 65–66.
  6. ^ "The Wellesley Legenda (yearbook)". Wellesley College Digital Collections. 1915. p. 171. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
  7. ^ a b c "Tamaki Uemura (1915)". Wellesley College. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  8. ^ a b "Jap Leader to Speak Here Friday Night". The Tribune. 1946-11-18. p. 7. Retrieved 2021-11-11 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Seymour-Jones, Carole (1994). Journey of Faith: The History of the World YWCA, 1945-1994. Allison & Busby. pp. 37–38. ISBN 978-0-7490-0265-7.
  10. ^ Garner, Karen (2004). "Global Feminism and Postwar Reconstruction: The World YWCA Visitation to Occupied Japan, 1947". Journal of World History. 15 (2): 191–227. ISSN 1045-6007. JSTOR 20068612.
  11. ^ Bjønness, Jeanett; Nencel, Lorraine; Skilbrei, May-Len (2021-09-23). Reconfiguring Stigma in Studies of Sex for Sale. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-87672-1.
  12. ^ Fujime, Yuki (2006). "Japanese Feminism and Commercialized Sex: The Union of Militarism and Prohibitionism". Social Science Japan Journal. 9 (1): 41. doi:10.1093/ssjj/jyl009. ISSN 1369-1465. JSTOR 30209792.
  13. ^ Englund-Krieger, Mark J. (2010-02-01). The Presbyterian Pendulum: Seeing Providence in the Wild Diversity of the Church. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4982-7218-6.
  14. ^ "Will Speak". The Capital Times. 1946-09-08. p. 24. Retrieved 2021-11-11 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Union Service Scheduled". The Southwest Wave. 1947-03-06. p. 19. Retrieved 2021-11-11 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ Lloyd-Sidle, Patricia (2006-01-01). Celebrating Our Call: Ordination Stories of Presbyterian Women. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-664-50287-4.
  17. ^ Smith, Gary Scott; Kemeny, P. C. (2019-07-01). The Oxford Handbook of Presbyterianism. Oxford University Press. p. 271. ISBN 978-0-19-060840-8.
  18. ^ Shillony, Ben-Ami (2008). The Emperors of Modern Japan. BRILL. p. 175. ISBN 978-90-04-16822-0.
  19. ^ "An Open Letter to Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower from Mrs. Tamaki Uemura, President of Japan YWCA" (April 30, 1954).
  20. ^ Smith-Norris, Martha (1997). ""Only as Dust in the Face of the Wind": An Analysis of the BRAVO Nuclear Incident in the Pacific, 1954". The Journal of American-East Asian Relations. 6 (1): 21–22. doi:10.1163/187656197X00109. ISSN 1058-3947. JSTOR 23612829.
  21. ^ United States Congress Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (1960). Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security with Japan: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Eighty-sixth Congress, Second Session, on Ex. E, 86th Congress, 2d Session. June 7, 1960. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 46, Appendix E.
  22. ^ Letters from Thane Read asking Helen Keller to sign the World Constitution for world peace (1961); Helen Keller Archive, American Foundation for the Blind

External links edit


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