Takeda Kiyoko

Cho Kiyoko (June 20, 1917 – April 12, 2018), better known as Takeda Kiyoko (武田清子), was a Japanese scholar of the history of ideas. In the 1950s she contributed to the people-to-people diplomacy that was hurt by the World War II, aimed at restoring human relations and understanding among Asian people, including Chinese, the Filipino, Indian and other Asian countries. She was the founder for the Social Studies Institute at the International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo, Takeda Kiyoko was a professor emerita at ICU with a PhD in Literature from the University of Tokyo in 1961.

Biography

Takeda Kiyoko was born in Hyogo Prefecture, and after graduating from the Department of English Studies at the Kobe College, she went to the United States in 1939 and studied at Olivet College as an exchange student. When she finished Olivet, she extended her study abroad at Columbia University for two years,[1][1] transferred to Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York Graduate School. Takeda's chance to move from Olivet University in Michigan to New York was that her teaching adviser M. Holmes Hartshorne, a scholar and translator for works by Kierkegaard and Immanuel Kant.[2][3][4] Hartshorne introduced her to his own mentor Reinhold Niebuhr, and Takeda was invited to New York. Niebuhr and his wife Ursula[notes 1] took care of her as guardians when Japan and the United States opened up the war so that she could stay in the United States for further studies.[notes 2] Takeda was one of those students who were deported to Japan on a Swedish vessel on personnel exchange treaty.[1]

Coming back to Japan

During World War II in Japan, Takeda tried to lay out before military officers in charge of a factory where she was employed facts about how those Japanese high school and college students volunteer at the facilities were malnourished. She backed her argument with a chart showing their weight[7][8] She was nicknamed "Urashima Tarō" by students, meaning she struck them as a person completely lost coming back from abroad. While pretending to obey the military official and national propaganda that Japan would win the War, Takeda was relieved to learn that those students disbelieved the propaganda or they whispered among them the signs of defeat.[9]

Post-war activities

It was during the Christian Youth Convention in Amsterdam in 1939 which she joined as an undergraduate at the Kobe College, and she started her thought about Japan and her relationship to other countries with lasting impact that she was unwelcome as a young woman coming from Japan. As she tried to acquaint with a Chinese woman student who lead the student protest activities in China, that person replied Takeda needed to persuade the Japanese forces to leave her nation before becoming a friend of hers.[10]

Soon after Japan surrendered, she published Shisō no Kagaku with Tsurumi Shunsuke and his sister Kazuko along with Maruyama Masao.[11] Shisō no kagaku was among numerous magazines popped up post-war period, when common people wanted to express themselves. It was unique as it accepted essays from anybody with no discrimination on the authors' academic or sociological background, not limited to politically active students, and printed them on their pages pieces written by nurses, teachers, or social workers for poor factory areas in Tokyo.[12]

Takeda appreciates the trend in the late 1940s to early 1950s in Japanese philosophy that people sought to find their own policy, or defined it as "common men's philosophy " (hitobito no tetsugaku).[12] To realize world peace after World War II, Takeda started to analyze politics and international relations from the viewpoint of ideological history, and on the other hand, she showed an example of <private diplomacy> or emphasized people-to-people trust among Asian including Japanese and Chinese, the Filipino, Indian and others. She confirmed with herself at the 3rd World Conference of Christian Youth held in India in December 1952.[12][13]
In 1953 Takeda started teaching as an associate professor at International Christian University researching to review the historic relationship between Japan and Asia, and led a community that evolved to the Asian Culture Research Institute in 1971.[14]

Takeda received a PhD of Literature from the University of Tokyo in 1961 with her book "Ningenkan no sōkōku : kindai Nihon no shisō to Kirisutokyō" (1967).[15] It was in 1978 when she received the Publishing Culture Award from Mainichi Shinbun for "Tennōkan no sōkoku : 1945-nen zengo", originally a serial in the "World" magazine,[16] translated as The dual-image of the Japanese Emperor.[17]

In 1997, she was awarded the Christian Merit Award from the Christian Association of Japan with recognition of long-standing achievements in the Christian world. She has served for "Kujo kagakusha no kai"[18] (Article 9 Society) in Japan as a founding member. Kiyoko died in April 2018 at the age of 100.[19]

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See also

Shunsuke Tsurumi, Masao Maruyama (scholar), Yuasa Hachiro

Bibliography

The dual-image of the Japanese Emperor (1988)[20]

Notes
  1. Takeda recalls about the Niebuhrs in her essays as 「学者として妻として : ニーバー夫人のこと」 "Gakusha to shite, tsuma to shite : Mrs. Nībā no koto"[5] and Ⅱ『思想の科学』と私（創立同人へのインタビュー）武田清子「〈ひとびとの哲学〉を探る」 (Sōritsu dōjin eno intabyū—"Shisō no kagaku to watakushi").[6]
  2. Takeda met both Niebuhr and Paul Johannes Tillich while studying in the US and became a scholar of Christian Ethics, Religious Phylosophy and History of Ideas. At the first World Conference of Christian Youth held in Amsterdam, Takeda had joined the Japanese delegate, when she met the lecturer Niebuhr.[6]

References
  1. Ward, Vanessa B. (2008). "Takeda Kiyoko: A Twentieth-century Japanese Christian intellectual" (PDF). New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies. University of Otago. 10 (2): 70–92.
  2. Hartshorne, M. Holmes (1990). Kierkegaard, godly deceiver : the nature and meaning of his pseudonymous writings. Columbia University Press.
  3. Hartnack, Justus (1967). Kant Erkendelsesteori [Kant's theory of knowledge]. Translated by Hartshorne, M. Holmes. Harcourt, Brace & World.
  4. Hartshorne, M. Holmes (1963). The faith to doubt : a Protestant response to criticisms of religion. Prentice-Hall.
  5. Takeda, Kiyoko (1948). "Mrs.Niebuhr: a scholar and a wife". Fujin kōron. Vol. 34 no. 11. pp. 31–33.
  6. Yasuda Tsuneo; Amano Masako, eds. (1992). In search for the common men's philosophy: Kiyoko Takeda—Interviews to the founding members II. The Sengo 'Kēmō' shisō no nokoshita mono— 'Me', fukkokuban "Shisō no kagaku" (The remains of the post-war enlightment: from reprint edition, 'Me' by "Shisō no kagaku"). Kyūzansha. pp. 181–191. OCLC 122740495.
  7. Takeda Kiyoko; Mitsuuchi Mikiko (1986). "Joshi daigakusei no taikei ni tsuite no chosa" [The survey of university students and their physical being]. Journal of Sugino Junior College (in Japanese) (23): 1–15. ISSN 0286-2778. OCLC 5171987012.
  8. Takeda Kiyoko; Mitsuuchi Mikiko (1987). "Joshi daigakusei no taikei ni tsuite no chosa" [The survey of university students and their physical being]. Journal of Sugino Junior College (in Japanese). 2 (24): 1–12. ISSN 0286-2778. OCLC 5171987168.
  9. Takeda Kiyoko (2014-05-16). "貝殻型の人間像". 戦後史証言プロジェクト : 日本人は何をめざしてきたのか （２０１４年度「知の巨人たち」ひとびとの哲学を見つめて～鶴見俊輔と「思想の科学」～３）. Retrieved 2017-01-24.
  10. 社会部、山本有洋 (2015-07-31). "思想史学者・武田清子氏「違う文化尊重を」（戦争と私）" [To respect different culture (Me and the War)]. 戦後70年インタビュー. Interviews on the 70th year Post-war (in Japanese). The Nikkei. Retrieved 2017-01-23.
  11. Takeda Kiyoko (2014-05-16). "雑誌「思想の科学」創刊". 戦後史証言プロジェクト : 日本人は何をめざしてきたのか (２０１４年度「知の巨人たち」ひとびとの哲学を見つめて～鶴見俊輔と「思想の科学」1). Retrieved 2017-01-24.
  12. Takeda Kiyoko (2014-05-16). "日本の地下水" [Groundwater of Japan]. 戦後史証言プロジェクト : 日本人は何をめざしてきたのか (２０１４年度「知の巨人たち」ひとびとの哲学を見つめて～鶴見俊輔と「思想の科学」～5). Retrieved 2017-01-24.
  13. Takeda had an interview with Prime Minister Neal of India in Tokyo through Christian connections.
  14. Cho (Takeda) Kiyoko, first president of ICU Institute of Asian Cultural Studies, Professor Emeritus at ICU (1998-12-24). "Ajia bunka kenkyujo 40-shunen kinen kokusai shinpojiumu" [the symposium for the 40th anniversary of ICU Institute of Asian Cultural Studies]. ICU Institute for Asian Studies. Retrieved 2017-01-26.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. "Ningenkan no sōkoku : kindai Nihon no shisō to Kirisutokyō (Book, 1967) [WorldCat.org]". Retrieved 2017-01-26.
  16. "Tennōkan no sōkoku : 1945-nen zengo (Book, 1978) [WorldCat.org]". Retrieved 2017-01-26.
  17. "The dual-image of the Japanese Emperor (Book, 1988) [WorldCat.org]". Retrieved 2017-01-26.
  18. "Kujo kagakusha no kai" was established in March 2005 with 196 members including 20 founding members. Their declaration was published on 10 June 2004."九条科学者の会" [Scientists for Article 9]. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
  19. 武田清子さん死去　国際基督教大名誉教授
  20. "The dual-image of the Japanese Emperor (Book, 1988) [WorldCat.org]". Retrieved 2017-01-26.
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