Elisheva A. Perelman
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9789888528141
- eISBN:
- 9789882204959
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888528141.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
The tuberculosis epidemic of Meiji and Taishō helped to define the relationship between Japan’s government and the foreign, Protestant nondenominational evangelist organizations and individuals who ...
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The tuberculosis epidemic of Meiji and Taishō helped to define the relationship between Japan’s government and the foreign, Protestant nondenominational evangelist organizations and individuals who had recently arrived on the archipelago. For those willing to undertake medical missionary work, particularly concerning public health issues that the government chose to ignore, tuberculosis could have provided an arena in which to prove both utility to the nation and enthusiasm for Japan’s industrial modernization, a moral enterprise. Yet theirs was also a utilitarian mission—more converts would mean more funds for the mission, either from the pockets of the recently converted or from foreign supporters who were bolstered by promising statistics. The victims of the tuberculosis epidemic were pawns in the interactions between the Japanese government and foreign evangelists, as their existence (physical and spiritual) was often used to mediate the relationship between their government and their caretakers. These potential caretakers included the Y.M.C.A., The Salvation Army, and individuals who formerly fell under the auspices of each. These organizations, and the Japanese government, at whose behest they often worked, parsed and differentiate the value of human life medically, politically, culturally, and in terms of gender, labor, and utility.Less
The tuberculosis epidemic of Meiji and Taishō helped to define the relationship between Japan’s government and the foreign, Protestant nondenominational evangelist organizations and individuals who had recently arrived on the archipelago. For those willing to undertake medical missionary work, particularly concerning public health issues that the government chose to ignore, tuberculosis could have provided an arena in which to prove both utility to the nation and enthusiasm for Japan’s industrial modernization, a moral enterprise. Yet theirs was also a utilitarian mission—more converts would mean more funds for the mission, either from the pockets of the recently converted or from foreign supporters who were bolstered by promising statistics. The victims of the tuberculosis epidemic were pawns in the interactions between the Japanese government and foreign evangelists, as their existence (physical and spiritual) was often used to mediate the relationship between their government and their caretakers. These potential caretakers included the Y.M.C.A., The Salvation Army, and individuals who formerly fell under the auspices of each. These organizations, and the Japanese government, at whose behest they often worked, parsed and differentiate the value of human life medically, politically, culturally, and in terms of gender, labor, and utility.
Elisheva A. Perelman
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9789888528141
- eISBN:
- 9789882204959
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888528141.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Chapter VI analyzes the arrival of the Young Men’s Christian Association in Japan and with it, the rise of the moral enterprise in evangelical work. For the Y.M.C.A., this meant balancing the need ...
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Chapter VI analyzes the arrival of the Young Men’s Christian Association in Japan and with it, the rise of the moral enterprise in evangelical work. For the Y.M.C.A., this meant balancing the need for converts in the nation with maintaining an amiable relationship with the Japanese government, both for the survival of the organization and for the presentation of powerful sponsorship to the home office of the Y.M.C.A. and its donors abroad. The organization found a successful niche with the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, serving as army workers on the front lines and on the home front. By ministering to soldiers, the Y.M.C.A. managed to ingratiate itself with both the military and the government, although these friendly ties did not eventuate in mass conversions to Christianity. Similarly, the work of the organization in the aftermath of the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 helped appease government naysayers. Nevertheless, these efforts were often at the cost of attention to problems like tuberculosis plaguing the Japanese state.Less
Chapter VI analyzes the arrival of the Young Men’s Christian Association in Japan and with it, the rise of the moral enterprise in evangelical work. For the Y.M.C.A., this meant balancing the need for converts in the nation with maintaining an amiable relationship with the Japanese government, both for the survival of the organization and for the presentation of powerful sponsorship to the home office of the Y.M.C.A. and its donors abroad. The organization found a successful niche with the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, serving as army workers on the front lines and on the home front. By ministering to soldiers, the Y.M.C.A. managed to ingratiate itself with both the military and the government, although these friendly ties did not eventuate in mass conversions to Christianity. Similarly, the work of the organization in the aftermath of the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 helped appease government naysayers. Nevertheless, these efforts were often at the cost of attention to problems like tuberculosis plaguing the Japanese state.
