Press translations [Japan]. Social Series 0181, 1946-01-19.
Date19 January, 1946
translation numbersocial-0844
call numberDS801 .S84
Persistent Identifier
SOCIAL SERIES: 181
ITEM 1 Conditions in the Japan Red Cross Central Hospital - Yomiuri Hochi - 18 Jan 46. Translator: H. Nishihara.
Summary:
The Employee's Union of the JAPAN Red Cross Central Hospital began a strike a week
ago, but no solution is expected in the
near future. The Union is taking charge of the hospital and has achieved a certain
measure of success in attaining a fair
distribution of goods and increasing the employees' pay.
In this strike, the attitude of the girls in the Nurses' Training Institute and in
the dormitory YOSHINRYU, has attracted
public attention. This institute aims to train girls who are destined to work as nurses
in all the Red Cross Hospitals in
JAPAN. In this Institute, absolute militaristic obedience is forced upon the girls.
If one enters the entrance hall of the
hospital, he will see many slogans posted on the walls, "We appeal to you, girls",
"Prolong consulting hours" "Purge
professional military men". But the girls say, "We would be ashamed of ourselves to
start a strike. We wish the slogans were
taken off."
The staff-members of the institute, who forced the girls to repeat the slogans, are
Major General (Medical) WAJI, chief of the
institute, and Lieutenant-General (Medical) FUJIFAMI, president, (who both give lectures
on morals), Colonel KITAGAWA and
Lieutenant Colonel TSUTSUMI, who give the girls military training. A senior sister
is in charge of the dormitory; three
sisters and eight senior nurses assist the senior sister.
Regulations called "The JAPAN Red Cross Relief Members Morals," which are totally
militaristic, control the girls' behavior.
These regulations include strict penalties. For instance, a girl who forgot to hand
her name card to the door keeper when she
went out, was forbidden to go out for a month. All members of a room were ordered
to remain standing for an hour because one
of them spoke during roll-call.
This reporter asked a girl, "Why don't you join the union?" and the girl replied,
"It is bad manners for a girl to discuss
matters concerning money." A graduate said, "I heard that the girls who wish to improve
conditions are punished, in spite of
the fact that they state their wishes at the request of the senior sisters." The union
wanted the girls to write down their
demands and promised that strict precautions would be taken not to let the senior
nurses know. As a result, 400 girls wrote
down their demands which included the abolition of the censorship of letters, permission
to go to their families when one of
the family is seriously ill, permission to spend a night at their families' homes
when a national holiday follows Sunday,
double the pay of 14 yen a month, fair distribution of goods, et cetera.
About ten girls run away from the institute every year and the graduates say, "If
the senior nurse would resign, matters would
be improved." These facts clearly show the oppressive attitude of the staff-members.
SOCIAL SERIES: 181 (Continued)
ITEM 1 (Continued)
A medical college graduate receives a pay of 107 yen, 64 sen a month after six years
service. This pay is based upon a
regulation which was promulgated some 60 years ago, and the girls are being trained
in accordance with ideas which go hack 60
years.
The current strike will help change militaristic ideas of the JAPAN Red Cross Association
to ideas of humanity and love. And
to complete the reform the training of nurses should be revised at once.
ITEM 2 Opinion on Birth Control and Women's Suffrage - Mainichi Shimbun - 18 Jan 46. Translator: Y. Akabane.
Summary:
Birth Control.
MINOBE: In present-day JAPAN the question of population plays a very important role,
so I am anxious to know what stand the
Social-Democratic Party will take on birth control.
KATAYAMA: I am of the opinion that birth control should be made a part of Government
administration and that full knowledge of
its necessity must be given to all, when reaching a certain age, leaving the actual
means to physicians or some other
specialists.
TANAKA: I think it is fundamentally wrong to consider birth control as a means of
solving the population question. I don't
know what the Ministry of Welfare means when they say that they are not thinking of,
or advocating birth control, but
unraturelness or artificiality should be avoided, from the standpoint of religion,
moral life and human dignity. Men should
refrain from shirking from the result or responsibility due to satisfying their physical
wants. It is paradoxical for us to
refuse to assume responsibility.
KATAYAMA: At present, actual conditions are such that we cannot properly rear children
for various economic reasons. It may be
that the Government is not thinking of instituting such policies or is financially
incapable of carrying them out. If so I
think it better to practice birth control in order to prevent social and financial
difficulties arising from focundity.
TATSUNO: Birth control is supposed to be practiced to a certain extent by the bourgeosie,
who are rich enough but are leath to
decrease their riches. It will not be practiced by the working masses, who need it
most. Therefore, it must be made
compulsory, even though it may be very difficult.
TAKAKA: There is ample room all over the world to accommodate a surplus population.
I think it imperative to call on world
wide opinion to accept the Japanese, for instance, in AUSTRALIA, BRAZIL or ARGENTINA.
Though it may be difficult to do it at
once the future prospect will by no means be dark if such emigrants endeavor to contribute
to the welfare and prosperity of
the country they go to, with due respect for its customs on the principle of "when
in ROME, do as the Romans do."
KATAYAMA: As an urgent expedient at this time, when conditions are extreme, birth
control should be officially recognized in
JAPAN. If JAPAN is allowed to send its emigrants abroad freely, the matter can be
settled easily, but this may be difficult
for some time to come, during which period we will be confronted by many difficulties
in food and other problems
YAGI: There are two questions facing the country: The population question and the
economic question. I support Mr. KATAYAMA's
opinion in emphasizing the necessity for birth control to alleviate the difficulties
of our economic life.
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SOCIAL SERIES: 181 (Continued)
ITEM 2 (Continued)
Women's Suffrage.
KATAYAMA: Although it is thought in some quarters that, when women suffrage is realized,
they will show a rightist tendency. I
do not think the tendency will be so apparent in the actual elections. There may be
a pretty large number of conservative
votes, but this is unavoidable. Women will be educated politically after two or three
elections. What is desired is to avoid
making them use different voting cards than the men. Women must be treated on the
same basis as men. At first, women will be
influenced by the men in their families, wives will obey their husbands and the sisters
will go to the poles accompanied by
their older brothers. This cannot be helped for the time being but will be improved,
as time goes by, with the dissemination
of political education.
YAGT and TATSUMO: Women under 30 years of age are as idealistic, as young men are
and, accordingly, seem to have sympathy with
socialists or Social-Democrat policy. The Social-Democrat Party will command the majority
of the votes of young people,
including, of course, young women.
KATAYAMA: I hope this will be shown by their unbiased votes.
TATSUNO: Another thing I want to add is that voters are anxious to know candidates.
It may be difficult to determine for whom
to vote, after studying each party's policy. Voters are apt to select candidates according
to their appearance rather than
according to the policies of the parties to which they belong.
KATAYAMA: A label with the inscription, "One sardine is better than women's suffrage"
was posted up near my home. There may be
some candidates who intend to gather women's votes, by promising to endeavor, if elected,
to supply electors' households with
more sardines, without emphasizing political theories or ideologies in their election
campaigns.
YAGA: However it may be one sardine in itself constitutes a political ideology. Although
we want even one sardine more in
these days of difficult living, there are many for whom one sardine is a very trivial
question or, rather, out of the
question. We ordinary citizens cannot but hold a strong antipathy for these rich people.
DISTRIBUTION "X"
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