Reforming Japan:: The Women's Christian Temperance Union in the Meiji Period

Lublin (history, Wayne State U.) examines the activities of the middle class leaders and members of the anti-alcohol group as agents for moral and social reform during the early 20th century. She investigates why Japanese women became involved with the Union during the Meiji period, why they pursued the reforms they did, and what they hoped to accomplish. The answer she finds is that they shared with most men and women, Christian or otherwise, a keen sense of duty as Japanese to further their country's progress, by which they meant Westernization. The first part of her study is an organizational history of the Union in Japan, from its founding in 1886, through the tumultuous early years in Tokyo 1886-92, to the development of the national organization to 1912. Then she focuses on major pillars of its reform program: the fight against prostitution, the struggle to create a sober society, and imperial loyalty and patriotic service. Distributed in the US by UTP Distribution. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)