Timeline

1885

Inazo Nitobe converts to Quakerism in Baltimore, Maryland.

1885

1887

The first dedicated Quaker school for girls in Japan is established in Tokyo, named “The Friends Girls School”.

1887

1900

Umeko Tsuda founds Tsuda College (originally known as the Women’s English School).

1900

1902

Michi Kawai attends her first YWCA camp in Silver Bay, New York, sparking a lifelong association with the organization.

1902

1911

Inazo Nitobe is named an inaugural exchange professor for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and delivers a series of lectures at Columbia University in New York City and other American colleges.

1911

1918

Tokyo Woman’s Christian University is established by Inazo Nitobe, who is appointed the first president.

1918

1920

Narcissa Vanderlip accompanies her husband, Frank, for her first trip to Japan where she becomes connected with Japanese feminist circles.

1920

1923

The Great Kantō Earthquake—one of the largest natural disasters in modern Japanese history—destroys Tsuda College’s facilities along with much of Tokyo.

1923

1924

Anna Hartshorne establishes the headquarters of the “Tsuda College Emergency Committee” in Philadelphia and recruits Narcissa Vanderlip to lead the New York branch office.

1924

1926

The New York branch of the Emergency Committee raises over $200,000 (roughly $1.7 million today), 40% of the total needed to rebuild the school.

1926

1928

Ai Hoshino receives a Masters degree from Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City.

1928

1929

Michi Kawai founds the Keisen School for Young Women, the predecessor to modern day Keisen University.

1929

1932

Construction of Tsuda College’s new campus is completed and its main building christened “Hartshorne Hall”.

1932

1943-1944

U.S. State Department officials including Quakers Hugh Borton and Gordon Bowles begin drafting plans for reforms to the Japanese education system in the event of an allied victory in WWII.

1943-1944

1945

Japan surrenders and the position of Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, or SCAP, is created. Japanese society begins to undergo a series of changes in its government, economy, industry, and education, overseen by the American occupation forces and SCAP. Kawai and Hoshino join SCAP to promote women’s education throughout the country.

1945

1946

The 1946 U.S. Education Mission travels to Japan. The head of the mission was New York State Commissioner of Education George Stoddard, and the staff (composed of 27 official members) included fellow New Yorkers Virginia Gildersleeve, president of Barnard College, and George S. Counts, a professor at Columbia University. The mission was further assisted–and in many ways guided–by colleagues from the Japanese educational system.

1946