Introduction

On 1 September 1923, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake shook the Kanto region of Japan. The city of Tokyo and surrounding areas were engulfed in flames, as it happened a few minutes before noon when many people were cooking. The fires inflicted an unprecedented level of destruction. Emperor Taishō was too sick to handle affairs of the state, but his regent, Crown Prince Hirohito, immediately visited disaster-struck areas and offered material and monetary assistance to the survivors. By the end of the month, Empress Teimei, coming out of the secure Imperial villa of Nikkō, also started to visit the victims. Offers of support and assistance came both domestically and internationally. One of the organizations involved in a relief effort was the Patriotic Women’s Association (愛国婦人会 Aikoku fujinkai), headed by Shimoda Utako. Long known as a prominent leader of female education, Shimoda, then in her late 60s, wrote to the members of the Association a few months after the quake:

The sentiments expressed here were in line with “national morality” (国民道徳 kokumin dōtoku), an ideology expounded in the late Meiji era which continued to be influential throughout the Taishō era. Chiefly developed by Inoue Tetsujirō, a philosopher at Tokyo Imperial University, national morality called for a return to the virtues deeply rooted in Japanese history and tradition as in Shintō and Confucianism. In the face of what they perceived to be the “dangerous” Western ideas, namely individualism, communism and feminism, influencing the younger generations, the older nationalists such as Shimoda and Inoue (both in their 50s in the late Meiji era), saw the need to reinvigorate the sense of national identity and loyalty to the state.