WHO/WHAT: Dr. Malia McAndrew, 2018-19 East-West Center visiting scholar and associate professor of history at John Carroll University, will give a talk titled “Recruit the Women: The Life and Career of Lt. Ethel B. Weed in Post World War II Japan.”
The United States occupied Japan from 1945 until 1952 (and Okinawa until 1972) with its primary goals being to demilitarize and democratize its former enemy. Gen. Douglas MacArthur instituted women’s suffrage because he believed Japanese women to be likely supporters of the American agenda and tasked Lt. Ethel Weed with ensuring broad-based female political participation throughout Japan. With only four months of training in Japanese language and culture, she recruited a cadre of Japanese feminists who had been silenced by Japan’s wartime leadership to advise her. McAndrew’s talk is based on archival materials not previously available in the U.S. or Japan.
WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, Feb. 6, 12-1:30 p.m. in the Tokioka Room, Moore Hall, Room 319, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa.
ADMISSION: Free. Co-sponsored by UH Center for Japanese Studies and the East-West
Center. For more information, call 956-2665 or email cjs@hawaii.edu.
