User:Harunando/Japanese friendship dolls

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The Friendship Dolls were an international program to exchange dolls between Japan and United States in 1927. The dolls were meant to improve the deteriorated relationship between Japan and America.

The reason why the friendship dolls were born
The friendship dolls were created to improve the worsening relationship between Japan and the United States. It resulted from the Immigration Act of Japan in 1924. The Immigration Act had factors about significant Japanese immigrants to the United States. First significant immigration of Japanese was occurred in 1880s when federal legislation, Chinese Exclusion Act, ended Chinese one. Chinese immigrants had begun in California Gold Rush and fierce conflicts were happened between Chinese and other immigrants like Irish in the lack of gold. Then, the United States banned the Chinese immigrants and created a demand to for cheaper immigrant labors. At the beginning, Japanese immigrants worked as agricultural and railroad laborers. In near the twenties century, they spread their economic activity and began to compete with people who were not Asian for trades and as landowning farmers. This movement of Japanese immigrants originated anti-Japanese exclusion movements in California and other parts of the US. When the Immigration Act of Japan was enacted in 1924, the conflicts between Japan and the United States were also intensified. In this situation, Sidney Lewis Gulick and Eiichi Shibusawa made efforts to improve the relationship by suggesting the project of "Friendship dolls."

People to create the friendship dolls
The Friendship dolls’ real purpose was not to make Japanese children happy, as commonly believed, but actually to inspire American children to cultivate true friendship toward Japan. This movement was meant to help to build world peace in the future, and it was based on each other’s cultural understandings which interested the generation of children. There were organizations which mainly dealt with the project. The Committee on World Friendship Among Children played an important role in this project. This committee was established by the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, and the Commission on International Justice and Goodwill. Then, Sidney Lewis Gulick and Eiichi Shibusawa played a central role in the plan. Gulick was an American missionary. Shibusawa was not just a Japanese rich businessman but a leader of the modernized private economy. Gulick and Shibusawa failed to amend the Immigration Act of Japan and cooperated through the Friendship Dolls project to improve the relationship between Japan and the US. In a letter dated from April fifteenth, 1928, Gulick wrote to Eiichi Shibusawa about changing into a policy to relieve the anti-Japanese sentiment of the American people without touching the immigration laws, especially focusing on the children's understanding of Japanese culture. Eiichi Shibusawa established Japan International Children's Friendship Association to receive the dolls. He also requested to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Education about cooperation of the project. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was asked about the exemption from import duties. The Ministry of Education was asked about distribution of the dolls to give for Japanese children. Both of the ministries hesitated to cooperate because of insufficient budget. Shibusawa did not give up and continued to negotiate. Then, he promised that the affiliates which had connection with Shibusawa would bear more than half of the cost of receiving the dolls.

Children who symbolized world peace
The children was actively featured in the mass media as messengers of peace and the main characters of touching tales. The reason why the project focused on children is that the media firmly established the image of clean and innocent children in the people. The style that the pure children thought about the happiness of the neighboring country and wished for friendship and peace was completed by the Friendship Dolls. The media at that time learned about that through the successful experience of the Friendship Dolls. After that, children were a symbol which featured peace in the world, for instance, in the goodwill exchange between Japan and Manchuria. That way to utilize children as a peaceful symbol was a very effective to be accepted favorably by the people. Entrusting the improvement of the relationship between Japan and the United States to the future children through the Friendship Dolls might seem romantic at first sight, but from a different perspective, it showed hopelessness toward adults. Gulick believed that a deeper understanding of different cultures from children's age could prevent the friction created by cultural prejudice. This corresponded to the preface, “The Purpose of the Project”, in the report named “Doll of Friendship” of the Committee on World Friendship Among Children. The preface stated that there is no other way for eternal world peace other than education.

Effective way to interest children
There were several ways to interest children, but, sending friendly messages directly to the children who are in Japan, together with a “doll friendship” was perceived as the best way for world peace. There are a big difference to use dolls by American and Japanese children. Dolls for American were basically mannequins to decorate shop windows or toys for children, but dolls for Japanese went beyond the American basics and have many facets. Japanese dolls were used for purification and holding the belief that they could possess spirits within them. Japan also has a cultural festival for children’s dolls called “Hina Matsuri” in Japanese. In the festival, children could generally decorate their own dolls freely at that time. Gulick had knowledge about Japanese dolls’ multi-sided roles for children, so he discovered the possibility of cross-cultural exchange. According to DOLL MESSENGERS of FRIENDSHIP published by The Committee on World Friendship Among Children, publishers firstly suggested that American children at schools and homes should know a lot about the beautiful festival (Hina Matsuri), the Japanese love for children and family, and be familiar with the country of Japan. They secondly proposed exchanging American dolls for Japanese ones and making the American dolls be Messengers and Ambassadors to communicate children’s feelings of friendship toward Japanese. They also asked American parents and teachers to utilize the plan of exchanging the dolls as an educationally beneficial event.

Dolls' structure
Friendship Dolls’ structure had various features. The dolls were durable, safe, clean, cheap and the latest designs. They were called American Composition Dolls and very popular at that time. The Dolls were made in consultation with three doll makers: Averill Manufacturing Co., Effanbee, and E.I. Horsman & Co. The Dolls had some features, for instance, they were new, made in the United States, wearing beautiful clothes that could be washed, approximately 30 cm in height, had mobile limbs, eyes that could blink called Sleeping Eye, sewn hair, cotton-filled torso, included a voice feature that said “mom”, and special friendship display dolls. They represented a part of the rise of American culture at that time. Some of friendship dolls are other than three companies, which were made from German bisque dolls, other manufactures, and unknown companies. Therefore, it was found that children brought their favorite dolls individually as “Hina Matsuri”.

The reward dolls
The reward dolls were sent from Yokohama, Japan to the United States in time for Christmas in 1927. The period to create the reward dolls was much shorter than the Friendship Dolls which had been presented for Japanese children. For this reason, Japan thought better of the doll's quality rather than the quantity. Japan tried to show the high aesthetic level of Japanese dolls to American people. Japanese reward dolls were also basically made by artisans in a shared manner. A total of 58 dolls were created by them. A Represented doll was named "Yamato Hideko" by Eiichi Shibusawa. The name mean that the dolls departed from Japan. Other dolls were named after their hometowns, for instance, "Tokyo Hanako", "Tsukuba Kasumi", "Nikko Sachiko" and so on. The reward dolls were sent to the United States after being shown in various places. The farewell party was held at the Nippon Seinenkan in the outer gardens of Meiji Shrine. A lot of people came together there. They included imperial family, the member of ministers of education and foreign affairs, the American Ambassador and two thousands American and Japanese girls. When leaving from Yokohama Port, two thousands five hundreds elementary school students who lived in Yokohama and Tokyo saw off the reward dolls. The reward dolls arrived in San Francisco on November 25th, 1927. On December 25th, The dolls also arrived in Chicago. The official welcome party was held at the National Theater in Washington. After that, dolls festivals related to "Hina Matsuri" were being held all over the United States.

Conflicts of the friendship dolls
The project between Japan and America looked like an ideal incident for peaceful step. However, there are some conflicts. One of these was that Japanese people who joined the project had almost no sense of goodwill to the United States. This is because Japanese people tended to contribute to the funds for the reward dolls feeling that each school competed to do so. Another one was that sending limited high quality dolls represented the inside out of humiliation, and Japanese had refracted emotions against American. The refracted emotions were self-esteem which many Japanese people had at that time. The complex, however, represented a kind of aspiration toward the United States. American Friendship Dolls sent in time for Hina Matsuri of Japanese traditional festival inspired Japanese prides to welcome the dolls enthusiastically.

The plan about the Friendship Dolls was gradually proceeded. In a short period of time, 22,379 dolls were collected from 47 of the 48 states in the United States. In fact, 11,975 dolls were sent for Japanese children according to the historical materials of Eiichi Shibusawa. The factor of the small number of the dolls was the policy, “sending excellent products even in small numbers” by the Committee on World Friendship Among Children. But, on the other hand, many ordinary people said that the plan to promote the international relationship by exchanging the dolls was nonsense.

During World War II, many of the Friendship Dolls were destroyed because they were considered as a false symbol of the goodwill. The dolls were pocked with a bamboo spears, beaten, and burned by the incinerator orders. The dolls which could survive in the age were managed to hide by brave Japanese teachers. When the hided dolls were found in the early 1970s, their story was regarded as an ideal and peaceful education. Various media such as radio and television introduced the story at that time.