Yamada Waka: Difference between revisions

{{refimprovemore citations needed|date=September 2013}}

{{nihongo|'''Yamada Waka'''|山田 わか||1 December 1879 -– 6 September 1957}} was a pioneering Japanese [[feminist]] and social reformer, active in the late [[Meiji period]], [[Taishō period|Taishō]] and [[ShowaShōwa period]]s of [[Japan]].

Born Asaba Waka in [[Kurihama|Kurihama Village]], [[Miura District, Kanagawa|Miura County]] (present day [[Yokosuka]]), in [[Kanagawa Prefecture]] to a poor peasant family, at age 18, in 1897, she went to nearby [[Yokohama]] to look for a job. However, she was kidnapped and ended up being trafficked to [[Seattle]] to be a [[forced prostitution|prostitute]], becoming known there as "Arabian Oyae".<ref>{{cite book|title=[[Women in World History|Women in World History, Vol. 17: Y-Z]]|year=2002|publisher=Yorkin Publications|location=Waterford, CT|isbn=978-0-7876-4076-X7|pages=16–17|last=Johnson|first=Linda L.|chapter=Yamada Waka|title-link=Women in World History}}</ref> She was held as a sex slave there until 1900, when she met a Japanese journalist, Tachii Nobusaburo or Shinzaburo Ritsui (立井信三郎), who became interested in her plight and helped her to escape to San Francisco. Her erstwhile savior then pimped her out himself, until she fled from him and found Cameron House, a Presbyterian mission set up to help prostitutes escape their plight. She converted to Christianity and worked there while taking English lessons. In 1903, she met Kakichi Yamada (山田嘉吉), a sociologist who ran an English school. They fell in love and married the following year, and in 1906 moved back to Japan.

They moved to [[Tokyo]]’s [[Yotsuya]] Ward, where she encountered the writings of pioneering Swedish women's rights advocate [[Ellen Key]], who wrote a great deal on motherhood, pregnancy, childbirth, childcare, and the state protecting those roles. In addition, her husband began teaching foreign languages in his school to [[Osugi Sakae]], who then introduced Waka to [[Hiratsuka Raicho]]’s magazine, ''[[Bluestocking (magazine)|Bluestocking]]''. Yamada then embarked upon a career of fighting for women’s rights. She became one of the most prominent members of the Japanese women’s movement, including being a frequent contributor to ''Bluestocking'' (‘’Seito’’). She made known her own victimization as a prostitute, despite the social stigma associated with such an admission. She had a regular “women’s” column in the newspaper ‘’[[Asahi Shimbun]]’’. She became the Japanese translator for [[Olive Schreiner]].

She differed from many other Japanese feminists of the era in that her central interest was in protecting and elevating women's roles as wife and mother. This goal was similar to that of her ideological inspiration, [[Ellen Key]], and it also put her goals in line with the goals of imperial Japan, which advocated the importance of good wives and wise mothers, and had a very pro-[[natalism|natalist]] ideology in order to encourage children to support the war. This attitude put her at odds with most of the other feminists of the day, many of whom were not supporters of the Japanese imperial goals, and who emphasized more equality with men without being as concerned about the roles of wife and mother. Yamada advocated for a “Maternal and Child Protection Act”, which culminated in the founding of the New Women’sWomen's Association ([[Shin Fujin Kyokai]]). In 1934, she founded the Women’sWomen's League (soon renamed the Maternity Protection League ([[Bosei Hogo Renmei]])) and became its chair.

In the graphic novel ''[[{{ill|Sous le soleil de minuit]]|fr}}'', published in 2015 by writer [[Juan Díaz Canales]] and artist [[{{ill|Rubén Pellejero]]|es}}, a fictionalized version of Waka Yamada is "rescued" by [[Corto Maltese]] in 1915 in [[Dawson City|Dawson]], [[Alaska]] where she was "retained by a madam on behalf of a Japanese syndicate."<ref name="Corto">{{in lang|es}}''Bajo el sol de medianoche'', [[Juan Díaz Canales]] and [[Rubén Pellejero]], [[Norma Editorial]], Barcelona, 2015. {{ISBN|978-84-679-2054-3}}</ref>

[[Category:JapaneseVictims prostitutesof forced prostitution]]