Aiko Takeuchi-Demirci

Contraceptive Diplomacy

Reproductive Politics and Imperial Ambitions in the United States and Japan

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Aiko Takeuchi-Demirci is a Lecturer at Stanford University.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 336
• Erscheinungstermin: 9. Januar 2018
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 226mm x 152mm x 20mm
• Gewicht: 454g
• ISBN-13: 9781503604407
• ISBN-10: 1503604403
• Artikelnr.: 48062843

Autorenporträt

Aiko Takeuchi-Demirci is a Lecturer at Stanford University.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
Introduction:
chapter abstract
The introduction situates the work in the broader scholarship of
transnational American studies; Asian American studies; US-Japan relations;
imperial history; women's studies; and science and technology studies. It
provides a historical context of changing international dynamics and
political ideologies that defined the trajectory of the transnational birth
control movement. It also explains the "bio-politics" of reproduction,
examining the politics surrounding the female body from three overlapping
angles: the sexual body; the racialized body; and the national/imperial
body.
1The Women Rebels: Transnational Socialism, Feminism, and the Early Birth
Control Movement
chapter abstract
This chapter starts with the aftermath of World War I, when liberal
intellectuals and radical activists across the Pacific, influenced by the
1917 Russian Revolution, searched for an alternative world order to the
chaos caused by European colonialism. Birth control became a subject of
special interest among socialists and feminists in the United States as
well as in Japan, as it seemed to represent a key to working-class and
female empowerment against capitalist and imperialist exploitation. A
socialist network of Japanese immigrants and American radicals in New York
played an important role in bringing the birth control movement to Japan.
The chapter details Sanger's first visit to Japan in 1922 and Japanese
reactions to it. As the Japanese embarked on their own birth control
campaigns, male Neo-Malthusian elites ultimately assumed control over the
relevant knowledge and technology while feminists were relegated to the
role of secondary participants.
2Spreading the Gospel of Birth Control: The Limits of International Women's
Activism
chapter abstract
This chapter analyzes Margaret Sanger's birth control activism in Japan and
Ishimoto Shizue's lecture tours in the United States in the context of
emerging international women's networks during the interwar period. Sanger
and Ishimoto shared with other internationalist women their vision of
pacifism based on maternal love. Their activism worked in parallel with,
not within, the semi-official women's networks, as most contemporary women
considered birth control too controversial to be included in their agenda.
Like other internationalist women, however, Sanger's and Ishimoto's
reformism never directly confronted the patriarchal structure of the
nation-state and the hierarchical relations between the West and East.
Consequently, the bonds of universal sisterhood, with birth control as one
of its central causes, collapsed under the mounting pressure of nationalism
and imperialism in the late 1930s.
3Danger Spots in World Population: The Eugenic and Imperial Struggles in
the Pacific
chapter abstract
This chapter examines the period leading to World War II, when American
biologists and social scientists became increasingly preoccupied with the
issue of differential fertility between races and nations. The imperial
struggles for territories in Asia and the flow of Asian immigrants to the
US West Coast added to eugenic fears about "race suicide" and the decline
of white world hegemony. In this context, the birth control cause attracted
powerful support from American intellectuals in the new field of population
studies, who saw it as a solution to Japan's overpopulation and
expansionism. These scholars attempted to distance themselves from the
racist and pseudo-scientific work of some earlier eugenicists by
emphasizing the rationality and neutrality of their research. The prewar
and wartime studies and discussions on overpopulation in Japan, supported
by US non-governmental organizations, laid the groundwork for larger-scale
population control projects in the postwar period.
4Between Democracy and Genocide: US Involvement in Population Control in
Occupied Japan
chapter abstract
The fourth chapter looks at the United States' continuing investment in
Japan's population problem during the US Occupation. In addition to the
mission to tame the former enemy, it became strategically important for the
United States to establish a docile, "democratic" ally in Asia as the
nation entered the Cold War. As the moral leader of the "free world,"
however, America sought to avoid accusations of imperialism and genocide by
the Soviets-or by American Catholics. The Occupation government therefore
established an outward position of "benevolent neutrality" on population
matters in Japan and adamantly denied the involvement of controversial
activists such as Margaret Sanger. On the other hand, they welcomed the
intellectual input of American private consultants, tacitly guided Japanese
politicians to implement birth control programs, and accepted the resources
of nongovernmental organizations such as the Rockefeller Foundation and
other American individuals of wealth.
5Re-Producing National Bodies: Promoting Eugenic Marriages in Postwar Japan
chapter abstract
This chapter analyzes the discourse and rhetoric that Japanese leaders used
to abandon the wartime pronatalist ideology and inculcate instead a
national policy for population reduction with the enactment of the Eugenic
Protection Law. Against the backdrop of postwar devastation, supporters
described birth control as a temporary, eugenic measure to prevent racial
degeneration, believed to be exacerbated by differential fertility between
the urban elites and the rural poor (gyaku t¿ta). Through the media and
field instructions, politicians, feminists, scientists, physicians, and
midwives promoted birth control to Japanese women, especially those in
rural areas, as integral to modern and scientific "eugenic marriages" as
practiced widely in Western nations. Some women actively resisted any
state-imposed advocacy for fertility control, while many others took
advantage of the availability of contraceptive knowledge and devices for
economic and personal reasons.
6Birth Control for the Masses: Technological Imperatives for Global
Population Control
chapter abstract
The final chapter centers on the interaction of American and Japanese
activists and scientists that led to the development of oral contraceptives
and other birth control devices in the 1950s. When laws and social barriers
against birth control made the research for new contraceptives difficult in
the United States-and against the backdrop of the Cold War and fears of a
"population explosion-overpopulated nations served as important
laboratories for contraceptive experiments. The cooperation of Japanese
birth control leaders, who successfully hosted the Fifth International
Conference on Planned Parenthood in Tokyo in 1955, proved vital for
Margaret Sanger and a team of American researchers to give momentum to
contraceptive research. Japanese leaders and scientists seeking to redeem
their position as leaders of the Asia-Pacific provided vital resources and
advice to Americans leading the US project to introduce scientific and
"advanced" contraceptives into the Third World.
Epilogue:
chapter abstract
The epilogue reviews some of the contentious issues regarding female
reproduction in contemporary Japan and the United States, relating them to
the more general discussions in the book on population size, racial
quality, and international politics. Social and political debates about low
fertility rates in Japan; the religious backlash against U.S. funding to
reproductive services abroad; the "anchor-baby" debates in the United
States; and the current global system of "stratified reproduction" are all
examined. Bringing historical perspective to these issues helps illuminate
the persisting gender inequalities and racial hierarchy attached to women's
reproduction and informs perspectives on the ways women can exert their
rights and agency in such hostile environments.