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Abstract
The Allied victory in the Second World War was a turning point for women’s rights in
contemporary history. Though the women’s rights movement had been in full swing for roughly
a century up until the start of the war, the devastation wrought unto civilian populations, and
contributions by women to the defense of their countries, firmly ingrained into the collective
consciousness the need to recognize and protect universal human rights, and recognize women
as equal to men in those rights. The war did not bring immediate change for the wellbeing of
women, however the war did bring the issue of universal human rights to the forefront of
international politics, and this attention to human rights bolstered the strength and confidence of
women’s rights advocates in the coming decades. This thesis takes an Asian perspective to the
war’s involvement in the struggle for women’s rights, in China, India, and Japan, and how the
Table of Contents
Abstract 2
Acknowledgements 3
Table of Contents 4
Introduction 5
Chapter 1: Historical Background of the Women’s Rights Dialogue in China, India, and Japan 8
Suffragette Movement in Japan 10
3
Chapter 2: China, India, and Japan, and the Foundation of Human Rights 24
China and India and the Drafting of Human Rights 27
Human Rights and Women’s Rights 32
Japan and the Rise of Human Rights 37
Chapter 3: World War II: An Agent Toward the Emancipation of Women 43
Second Sino-Japanese War in China: Fighters and Slaves 44
Japan, Patriarchal Idealism, and Maternal Feminism 50
Women in the Raj 56
Conclusion 61
Bibliography 65
Introduction
After the Second World War, in 1948, the representatives of the victorious United
Nations of the Allied powers deliberated the international codification of human rights. Though
previous conferences in international bodies had discussed the conduct of warfare and
international politics, this was the first time international bodies discussed what rights human
beings were entitled to regardless of race, sex, religion, nationality, and other backgrounds.
Before, the marginalization of minorities was perceived as a sovereign right, and in many cases
a traditional heritage. This was the case for women in most, if not all, cultures around the world,
and no major event challenged this status quo quite like the Second World War did.
4
This thesis is about the Second World War’s role as an agent towards the progression of
women’s rights, in particular in China, India, and Japan. The reason I have chosen to focus on
the progression of women’s rights is because women have consistently been a marginalized
demographic for most societies throughout most of human history, with their progression of
rights coming into the 21st century being a considerable development compared to any other
time in history. My decision to choose China, India, and Japan as case studies rather than
European nations or the United States is to not only bring forth an Eastern perspective to a
usually Western discussion, but to also present experiences that are surprisingly familiar, if
unknown, to many in the West. Despite the cultural differences between countries, the Eastern
experiences prove the merit of the word “universal” in “universal human rights”. The Women’s
Rights Movement was just as much a major development in Asia as it was in Europe, the
Second World War ravaged Asia as much as it did Europe, and Asia participated just as much
in the drafting of human rights as Europe had. A common struggle brought forth international
dialogue that had not previously existed before, not even during the Paris peace conference.
It is not that World War II ended human rights violations, or was even fought over human
rights violations. What this most brutal war did was make human rights an international concern,
and human rights abuses a justification to antagonize abusive regimes. It also made proponents
for human rights more conscious and confident about their causes, as rights advocates pushed
harder for anti-chauvinist policies rather than retreat. Not only did the war influence the global
legal approach to human rights, but also the cultural approach to human rights. Some rights for
previously marginalized demographics have secured themselves into tradition after generations
of acceptance, such as the right to vote and the right to work, and while it is false to claim that
races and genders are treated fully equally today, in Europe and America suggesting the
dissolution of women’s rights earns considerable ire compared to previous points in history. The
cultural environment also became tame enough for women with tragic experiences from the
war, or their descendants, to appeal to courts about wartime abuses against them with greater
5
confidence that they would less likely be humiliated, when even in the interwar period reporting
The thesis covers three chapters. The first chapter discusses the historical backgrounds
behind the Women’s Rights movements in China, India, and Japan, from the 19th century
leading up to the Second World War, describing the political atmosphere and the status of the
Women’s Rights movement by the 1930s in each of these three countries. The second chapter
skips over to past the war with the drafting of the Declaration of Human Rights, discussing
China and India’s contributions primarily, and describing Japan’s position in relation to human
rights during the early post-war period. Finally in the third chapter we return to the war itself, with
the existing political climate in mind as well as the priorities of the DHR drafters after the war
known.
This thesis is one perspective on how far human conflict went for human rights to even
be considered as an international concern. The current political climate and the rise of
reactionary elements that wish to blame human rights for comparably small inconveniences
make it necessary to remember what moral lessons we as a species learned from the Second
World War without repeating the same tragedies, lessons such as how unfounded social
Chapter 1
Historical Background of the Women’s Rights Dialogue in China, India, and Japan
Just as in the West, the rights of women became greatly topical in Asia in the early 20th
century. Centuries of absolutism and millenia of feudalism had come to an end by the turn of the
parliamentary bodies, and saw the average standard of living and literacy elevate in the wake of
industrialization. The Asian nations were facing the same problems and asking the same
questions as the West, now that information, especially the philosophies of progressive thinkers,
6
was much more accessible across the world. What rights were men entitled to? These
developments that would affect the men of Asia would also affect the women as well. More
women were able to go to school, and even become self employed. Yet the elevation of
circumstances of China, Japan, and the former British Raj, and the sickly economic environment
of the interwar period. This chapter will contextualize the ethos’ of women’s rights, but also the
* * * *
The fastest way to introduce the circumstances of China, Japan, and India before the
war that would influence the rise of the rights of women would be to address China’s political
turmoil after its republican revolution in 1911, Japan’s conservatism and rise of the military class
in 1927, and India’s status as a British colony and complicated independence movement. As
social pressures were driving the push towards equality between the sexes as there were
hindering its progress. Local cultural pressures also influenced not only how these societies
would react to women’s rights advocacy, also how the women’s rights movements themselves
would behave.
Just as in the West, “personhood” became a foundational topic for liberalism in Asia. The
agreement between each of the three cultures was the recognition that personhood needed to
be made an integral part of society and law, and women would need to be recognized as
“persons before the law”. Education was commonly perceived as one of the main solutions for
women’s lack of personhood within their societies. Though China, India, and Japan had long
standing traditions of science, arts, and philosophy, these intellectual endeavours discriminated
based on class, heredity, and sex, as were the same in the West. Like the West, the
introduction of new educational institutions such as public education, vocational schools, and
universities provided new opportunities for not only women but also men of lower social
statuses to elevate themselves in the eyes of the public. Women’s rights advocates knew that
for women to become equal to men they could not be disadvantaged by ignorance. Of course,
7
along similar lines as education, political rights were advocated. Women needed to actively
laws.
Much of the rights advocacy before World War Two, like in Europe, centered around
enfranchisement, and opposed existing legal structures. After World War One, efforts to
dismantle discriminatory social institutions would start budding, but would only really take full
steam after World War Two. Not many advocacy groups concerned themselves with gender
roles the way second-generation feminists would, and in China, India, and Japan the issue of
gender stereotypes and the enforcement of discriminatory extralegal social practices remain
issues in the 21st century. World War Two would highlight the roots of some of these early
movements, as the war forced more women into otherwise typically masculine environments.
However the intention initially was not to achieve a society where men and women could
individually be interchangeable in most situations in society, mostly because there was minimal
consideration for the idea. 1920’s Japan would see some of the earliest organized women’s
Finally, the last consideration for feminism in Asia is the participation of men. Every early
20th century feminist movement was supported by at least some men, however the divisions
between men and women in China, India, and Japan were perceived as more social than
biological. As a result that was significant male sponsorship for women’s rights, and intergender
dialogue helped bolster male appeal to women’s rights. This is not so much as to suggest Asian
feminism saw more male support than Western feminism, but more to suggest that social
stigmas that were common in the West against male support for women’s rights were much less
prevalent in Asia.
* * * *
* * * *
8
Japan was the first Asian country to industrialize, and likewise the first in Asia to
system, and an education system dedicated to hard and soft scientific pursuits. Through this
education Japanese women would try to push for their rights. In the late 19th century, most
early Japanese feminists subscribed to the idea that education was the only way for women to
prove their own worthiness for rights1, as improved education would improve women’s
subjectivity2. By this time the new Meiji government, the Emperor’s regime that replaced the
previous military government, had already established a rudimentary public school system, with
some secondary educational institutions. Women’s education had already been vaguely
introduced by foreign missionaries who taught girls at the request of Japanese noblemen. The
Meiji government began to establish women’s institutions in the early 1870s, and the members
of the government and the Emperor himself expressed interest in the education of women3.
Early Japanese education was nonetheless segregated, and in 1891 the Ministry of Education
enforced a segregation clause for girls and boys past the third grade4. This segregation was not
challenged by many feminists outside groups who supported more immediate pushes for
women’s political participation and rights. The effectiveness of the existing educational structure
Women needed to become leaders through example, assuming existing gender roles just with
more controlling rather than submissive attitudes. This was a popular, though not universal,
belief of the time, and as mentioned before other feminists saw greater urgency in winning
political rights for women, and later even dismantling discriminatory institutions.
1
“Others, inspired by John Stuart Mill, stressed improved education as a way for women to gain the
subjectivity that would make them eligible for rights” (Molony, "Women's Rights, Feminism, and
Suffragism in Japan, 1870-1925," 643)
2
"’Subjectivity’ refers here to personhood endowed with the ability to think, feel, and reason,
accompanied by some degree of individual agency” (Molony, "Women's Rights, Feminism, and
Suffragism in Japan, 1870-1925," 643)
3
“‘Females hitherto have had no position socially, because it was considered that they were without
understanding; but if educated and intelligent they should have due respect’” [Meiji Emperor] (Margaret,
Education of Women in Japan, 45)
4
“The instructions of the Ministry of Education stated: ‘...Recognizing the necessity of sex segregation in
education as our national custom demands, the policy of separating boys from girls in class is hereby
adopted…’” (Koyama, The Changing Social Position of Women in Japan, 18)
9
In the political participation camp, contemporary writer Shimizu Tomoko argued “Women
needed to be citizens, to have the right of participation, because they should educate their
children as citizens and support their husbands in the exercise of their citizenship” 5. Even then,
Tomoko did not advocate total political rights for all individuals based on their personhood, as
she “posited in 1890 that women’s political rights arose from their relationship with those who
had (some) rights”, and that “rights were relational, not social” 5 . Later movements, such as by
the New Women Association or NWA, lobbied more for universal rights after addressing
state-protected sexual abuse, first starting in the 1910’s to secure divorce rights and protection
from sexually transmitted diseases6. Further pushes were made to amend the Public Peace
Police Law’s Article Five which “prohibited women’s membership in political parties as well as
attendance at political meetings and rallies” 6 were made by NWA leaders Hiratsuka Raichō,
Ichikawa Fusae, and Oku Mumeo. Later, Raichō, Fusae, and Mumeo petitioned on January 6,
1920 equal citizenship and inclusion in the state under recognition of the Public Peace Police
Law7. The petition, and similar calls for political and social rights, were shot down in the Diet8,
however in July 1920 after receiving the NWA’s petition, Representative Tabuchi Toyokichi
supported the removal of the word “women” from Article Five, saying “Although I do not
advocate giving women complete suffrage at this time, women are also human beings who have
a right to free speech... I believe we must exercise the basic premise of ‘democracy’ which
fosters concepts of equality and support for the weak… I urge you not to derive pleasure from
oppressing the weak, but to work for the thirty million [women] subjects of Japan”9. Despite
ambitions to secure rights, the feminist movement was greatly divided. There were
disagreements between Hiratsuka Raicho and Ichikawa Fusae over the goal for mothers’ rights
(disregarding non-married women) and women’s rights respectively. The introduction of the
socialist feminists would further convolute the movement10. Opinions on what rights were
5
Molony, "Women's Rights, Feminism, and Suffragism in Japan, 1870-1925," 644
6
Molony, "Women's Rights, Feminism, and Suffragism in Japan, 1870-1925," 646
7
Molony, "Women's Rights, Feminism, and Suffragism in Japan, 1870-1925," 647
8
Molony, "Women's Rights, Feminism, and Suffragism in Japan, 1870-1925," 650
9
Molony, "Women's Rights, Feminism, and Suffragism in Japan, 1870-1925," 649
10
Molony, "Women's Rights, Feminism, and Suffragism in Japan, 1870-1925," 652
10
enough remained controversial, as for some social and political freedoms were a means to an
end leading to better livelihoods, while for others the freedoms were the end11.
Hiratsuka Raichō’s philosophy was bokenshugi, the principle of mothers’ rights, differed
challenged the idea that women’s rights could not be won through education alone, as by the
1920’s Japanese women were already enjoying a high literacy rate without any real success at
winning political rights. She also criticized that men also did not need the same level of
education to achieve political rights, leading to the conclusion that education, though desirable,
was effectively redundant in the existing system13, and that only absolute rights based on
equality could succeed. Hiratsuka maintained social distinctions between men and women,
positing that their social roles should exercise equivalent magnitudes of responsibility, and
cooperate harmoniously, while women still fundamentally being different from men. Maternal
protection, protection of mothers from abuse from their husbands, were of greater importance to
Hiratsuka over general rights, not even raising the issue of voting rights unlike Ichikawa14.
Ichikawa on the otherland advocated equal rights even beyond just political rights. 1927 marked
the start of Japanese militarism, after Emperor Taisho death in 1926 and a coincidental
depression in 1927 lead to ambitions by the military to assume control, and pressure to maintain
traditionalist attitudes towards women’s rights grew. In 1931, cabinet under Hamaguchi Osachi
sponsored a limited suffrage bill that would grant women’s rights to vote up to at most a
municipal level, at least at age 25, and with permission from their husbands15, which was shot
down by the House of Peers16 for being too liberal. After the Manchurian incident in 1931,
11
Molony, "Women's Rights, Feminism, and Suffragism in Japan, 1870-1925," 651
12
Molony, "Women's Rights, Feminism, and Suffragism in Japan, 1870-1925," 652
13
“Women had not earned equality by gaining subjectivity through education, Ichikawa argued. What
women did - that is, cultivating themselves through education or fulfilling maternal roles - was still not
enough to achieve rights” (Molony, "Women's Rights, Feminism, and Suffragism in Japan, 1870-1925,"
653)
14
Molony, "Women's Rights, Feminism, and Suffragism in Japan, 1870-1925," 646.
15
Nolte, “Women’s Rights and Society’s Needs: Japan’s 1931 Suffrage Bill,” 690-691.
16
The House of Peers is the upper house of the Japanese Imperial administration.
11
further talk of rights was hushed to prioritize resources towards the preparation of a war
economy.
* * * *
* * * *
A Confucian tradition is what Japan inherited from China, and just as well the patriarchy
was a mandatory social institution for much of China’s history. Culturally, women’s position
rooted in the yin and yan dichotomy. Yin elements, feminine in nature, are “dark, weak, and
passive” contrasting the strong and bright masculine yan elements17. According to the Book of
Changes, “Great Righteousness is shown in that man and woman occupy their correct places;
the relative positions of Heaven and Earth” 17. Women, excluding cases so exceptional even by
Japanese or Indian standards, were exempt from all public affairs in both public and private
settings. Socially, girls in the family were treated as liabilities compared to sons. The expectation
was that the son would provide for his father's, while the daughter was married off and severed
all ties with her parents. Feminism in the early 20th century had to combat these cultural
restraints, and was helped by the revolutionary fervor of the period after the Empire and other
The drive to elevate women’s rights in the modern age started with the Taiping Rebellion
(1850-1871), among rebel forces. The southern Chinese rebels largely had peasant
backgrounds, and the rebellion challenged the economic failure of the Qing Empire, advocating
land redistribution and communal property rights, and equality between the sexes18. Within the
rebellion, of course, total equality was not achieved, and rights were inconsistent throughout the
rebellion empire due to corruption and conflicting interests between Taiping leaders. However a
rapid elevation of rights was achieved in some places, when women were permitted to take
exams and hold public office. As the war raged women were also found performing combat
duties, and most public institutions were desegregated, though combat units remained
17
Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China, 24.
18
Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China, 51.
12
segregated. August Frederick Lindley, a British volunteer to the Taiping Army19 whose wife
Marie a sniper as well in the Taiping Army, described “the open presence, the free intercourse
of Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan, assumed supreme command over the women’s corps, and by
1853 the Taiping fielded one hundred thousand women soldiers divided among forty armies20.
Later in the war the egalitarian system collapsed on itself, with even the Heavenly King
“Women in the rear palaces should not try to leave; If they should try to leave it would be
like hens trying to crow. The duty of the palace women is to attend to the needs of their
husbands; And it is arranged by Heaven that they are not to learn of the affairs outside” 21
Total war created a limited instance where women were equal to men in Chinese society, and
Chinese culture caught up to the war as it waged for decades to return women to their
traditional roles. Despite the laws, women also faced sexual abuse during the rebellion. The
rebellion however finally legitimized women’s rights and equality to men as a revolutionary
concept, and attempts to try again later were inevitable following the 1911 revolution that
and industrialization strengthened anti-traditionalist sentiments among women and men alike.
Women’s illiteracy and practices like footbinding were turned into national shames, being
blamed for contributing to China’s lack of respect on the world’s stage22. Kang Yuwei, leader of
the reform movement in the late 19th century, even postulated that Chinese children were less
fit compared to Western children due to the physical consequences of footbinding on Chinese
women and mental consequences of denied education. Yuan Shikai described China’s
intellectual unfitness compared to the West, attributing China’s previous success to scientific
prowess and supporting that as a result women’s education was a necessity. This early
19
The British government openly supported the Qing government against the Taiping.
20
Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China, 51-52.
21
Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China, 52.
22
Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China, 57.
13
discussion to raise women’s rights was not meant to be total, as women were still expected to
Like in Japan, education became another means by which women hoped to elevate their
statuses in China. Unlike in Japan, the situation for women in China was desperate enough for
the mere act of going to school was an achievement, as early and rather unsuccessful
European treaty-port schools opened after the Opium War to poor female students23. These
schools were met with ridicule, as were the students. Eventually these schools became popular
among noblemen to send their daughters to. Not too soon after Chinese-hosted girls schools
were established, and by the end of the 19th century the Qing government invested in further
expansion on these schools24. Girls schools lead to women's schools. Schools provided women
opportunities to leave the house, some assuming teaching careers, and also provided spaces
for dialogue about the woman’s position in society. These schools were set up to train women
for household duties, however many women saw the opportunity to network and boost
consciousness about their personhoods through the formation of societies. The Chinese
Women’s Journal compiled tabloids about the lives of the emancipated women who wrote them.
Jiu Jim, one of the publishers of the journal along with Xu Zihua, justified their journal:
“We want to unite our two hundred million sisters into a solid whole, so they can call to
each other. Our journal will act as a mouthpiece for our women. It is meant to help our
sisters by giving their life deeper meaning and hope, and to advance rapidly towards a
bright new society. We Chinese women should become the vanguard in arousing women
to welcome enlightenment.” 25
Rebellious attitudes towards the social order were extremely rare, and many women of
these women’s societies still largely bent knee to the traditions, elevating themselves
more on par with Japanese women in Meiji Japan. These women’s societies also
23
Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China, 54.
24
Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China, 63.
25
Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China, 70.
26
Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China, 72.
14
They also showed support for the revolutionaries in 1911 though political, material, and
manpower support. Scenes on Sun Yat Sen’s 1911 Revolution were reminiscent of those
“We heard for instance, of regiments of Chinese women getting measured for mens
uniforms and going up to fight at Nanking and Hankou. We heard of turbulent crowds of
women in enthusiastic meetings flinging their jewellery on the platform for the warchest of
the revolutionary cause; we heard of women bomb throwers, of women spies, of women
members of the Dare to Die corps and of a dozen other picturesque and spirited
activities.” 27
Following the 1911 revolution and collapse of the Qing Empire, women’s societies then
began to push for political rights. They advocated for a democratic China following along the
Anglo-Saxon model, where women could vote and hold public office28. The early republic
however ran mostly as a dictatorship under Yuan Shikai, the former Qing reformer who
advocated the expansion of women’s education in the late 19th century. Rights dialogue was
Inspired by British suffragettes, a locally famous women’s rights advocate Tang Yunying
established the Chinese Suffragette society in Beijing, demanding “education for women,
services for women in industry, encouragement of modesty in dress, introduction of better terms
of marriage, establishment of political rights, and overall elevation of the position of women
within the family”.30 Straying from traditional norms bolstered publicity, and other similar
27
Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China, 76.
28
“The collapse of the Manchu dynasty in the revolution of 1911 made way for a new form of government
based on a constitution which attempted to introduce Anglo-Saxon democratic practices. Arrangements
were made for Sun Yat-Sen to be the new President of the Republic and to elect a new National
Provisional Assembly to sit in Nanking. Many women began to form organisations to assert the rights of
women to elect and be elected as representatives to the new National and Provisional Assemblies” (Croll,
Feminism and Socialism in China, 82)
29
“Reported in the North China Herald i n 1912: A girl about to elope with a militiaman near Canton was
arrested and publicly executed as a lesson to her peers. It was said that this was an example of the wild
notions held by some Chinese women who had misinterpreted the new freedoms supported by the new
Republic. These did not include the personal freedom to do what they like” (Croll, Feminism and
Socialism in China, 88)
30
Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China, 83.
15
institutions popped all over China, diverse in their goals. Some advocated for the right to vote,
while others remained more limited, advocating just for education or work rights, with divides
forming between feminists movements over matters like wealth differences and openness to
Western culture. Into the 1920’s, after the May 4th demonstrations in 1919 that challenged the
lack of real democracy in the new Republic, later movements pushed for further political and
civil rights for women, the media as an indispensable tool. Independent journals and tabloids
nd
laid clear what rights their women writers demanded, such as Girls Daily, Women’s Bell, a
New Woman. New Woman made demands for the removal of “all obstacles which hinder the
new woman from self-realisation.”31 Journals like The Revolution in Thought denounced the old
Confucian order, with this specific journal introducing to its readers Nietzsche’s theory of
reevaluation to criticize their home institutions.32 Traditional values were in full conflict with
active defiance, as women refused to marry, took up intellectual pursuits, engaged in mass
demonstrations, and cooperated with Western feminist movements. While Japan was becoming
a more prominent threat to China, nationalism was also feminized, as women feared that the
sovereignty they could tediously achieve in China would not be possible under a Japanese
hegemon33.
The Russian revolution bolstered the popularity of Marxist and Leninist philosophies, as
observers saw the institution of gender segregation established in early Communist Russia.
Chinese socialists, establishing the Chinese Communist Party which was initially an ally of Sun
Yat Sen’s Kuomintang (KMT, or GMD) party, made the equality between the sexes a paramount
issue in its First Manifesto on the Current Situation in China of 192234. The KMT party in the
mid-20’s before the split and civil war in 1927 made more concessions to further improve
women’s sovereignty, electing some women like activists He Xiangning and Song Qingling into
31
Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China, 96.
32
Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China, 97.
33
“Dear compatriots, everyone must awaken to the fact that China is about to be lost and we shall
become enslaved just as happened to the Koreans, and our women will suffer extreme humiliation.
Taiwan is another example [of Japanese colonialism]. Let us all be aware of China’s predicament and
support native products.” (Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China, 107)
34
Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China, 130.
16
the Central Executive Committee, and issued proclamations in the National Party Congress of
1924 that granted women freedom over their marriage, property rights, and equality clauses for
labour laws. Many of these efforts would devolve during the civil war, after Chiang Kai Shek
antagonized communism after expressing distrust over the Soviet Union’s aide to the KMT.
* * * *
* * * *
India became a formal colony of the British empire in 1858 after the Sepoy Rebellion,
when the British crown confiscated control over the subcontinent from the British East India
Company. For about two centuries previously, the regions of India such as Tamil Nadu and
Bengal were under corporate rule of the British East India Company. Other regions were under
the influence of the waning Maratha Empire of central India and rising Punjab Empire of
northwestern India. An “enlightenment”, using the word similarly as to describe the European
Enlightenment, was budding in population centers around India, however the rights of women
wouldn’t be discussed until not long before the Rebellion.35 Prior, the Company had largely
ignored the local Hindu and Muslim traditions, and legal affairs were largely under princely
authority until the late 18th century with the establishment of supreme courts situated in the
largest cities under Company control. While the Company consolidated more power into the
19th century, it ran parallel to a Bengal Renaissance development that was catalyzed by the
dialogue between Bengali and British scholars in the late 18th century. Scholars including Ram
Mohan Roy and Dadabhai Naoroji advocated for the abolishment of the caste system and
lobbied for equal rights for men and women36 through constitutionalism and furthered education
37
. The first right demanded was the abolishment of sati38 through the middle of the 19th century,
35
By this point, the Company controlled most of the major population centers in India around the Ganges
river and the Deccan Peninsula, with the Marathas and Mughals a distant memory and Punjab a waning
empire.
36
(Manish, Rajagopalan, Sutter, and White, “Liberalism in India,” 433)
37
“As far as we know, the importance of educating women was first discussed publicly in Bengal by the
Atmiya Sabha, founded by Ram Mohan Roy in 1815” (Kumar, The History of Doing, an Illustrated Account
of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism in India, 1800-1990, 8)
17
the practice of cremating a widowed wife alive with her deceased husband, though sati had
been a controversial subject since the first Muslim invasions into India. Controversy continued
with British rule, as the British considered sati to be barbaric, yet were not willing to risk inciting
Hindu unrest with an outright ban until local Indians supported the ban. Mrityunjaya
Vidyalamkara, Chief Pundit of the Supreme Court, stated in 1817 that sati had no shastric, or
scriptural, sanction, and the practice was banned in Bengal in 181839. In 1856, the Company
had also passed Act XV “Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act” that allowed the remarriage of Hindu
widows and maintenance of a limited amount of property, whereas previously a widow may be
These early successes, led almost exclusively by men, started the turbulent process of
women’s rights advocacy in India with its numerous obstacles. It can be described as a
triangular conflict between Indian liberals and feminists, the British Empire, and conservatives
who saw women’s rights as colonial infringement on Indian traditions. Indian feminists were
largely nationalists, in opposition to British rule, yet at the same time at odds with those who
saw women as being given too much freedom by foreign invaders; a conflict that still persists to
some degree into the 21st century. Cultural differences served as yet another obstacle, as
traditional roles for women were neither agreed upon nor necessarily even known throughout
India. Sati for example was not a continent-wide practice, and only really prominent in Orissa
and Bengal, where the first major British adventures in India happened to be41.
The first educational institutions for women in India were established by British and
American missionaries in the early 19th century, and earned much resentment from local
populations for proselytizing, as well as support from religious malcontents looking to challenge
the old Hindu order. The first text on women’s education in Bengali was published by the
38
“In the same year he [Ram Mohan Roy] wrote the first text attacking sati to be published in an Indian
language (Bengali)” (Kumar, The History of Doing, an Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s
Rights and Feminism in India, 1800-1990, 8)
39
(Kumar, The History of Doing, an Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism
in India, 1800-1990, 9)
40
(Carroll, Sarkar and Sarkar, Women and Social Reform in Modern India: A Reader, 78)
41
Kumar, The History of Doing, an Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism
in India, 1800-1990, 9.
18
Female Juvenile Society in Calcutta by Gourmohan Vidyalamkara42. Not long after, Bengali
supporters began opening their own similar institutions. These institutions became more popular
as an Anglicized economy became more apparent, however the schools were also a means by
which Britain could stamp out “barbaric” practices, consequently taking a paternalistic attitude to
the attending women and demanding the denouncement of much of their cultural identity43.
These included popular entertainment customs, and traditional means of women’s expression,
so while women were receiving an education their rights were closely monitored as to meet
Victorian standards. Among indigenous institutions, the reasons to educate women ranged from
the extremes of improving women’s self-agency to Anglophilia. The Society for Acquisition of
General Knowledge, founded in 1838, blamed Hinduism and Islam for women’s illiteracy, and
demanded secular education. Similar other movements such as the Tattavadodhini Sabha
supported rationalist education, while at the same time making golden age arguments
supporting women’s education as ancient to appease traditionalists and combat remarks made
Samaj, in the mid-19th century went so far as to claim Dharmic cultures valued women in a
more elevated position in ancient times, and the culture had been strayed away from as history
progressed45. The historical validity of this claim is unsupported, however these claims sought to
further legitimize efforts for the education and elevation of women in the 19th century, while at
the same time further divide Indians on the issue and validate other restrictive traditions.
42
Kumar, The History of Doing, an Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism
in India, 1800-1990,14.
43
Kumar, The History of Doing, an Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism
in India, 1800-1990, 14-15.
44
Kumar, The History of Doing, an Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism
in India, 1800-1990, 20.
45
“A study of ancient Hindu literature made it abundantly clear that the present unenviable lot of Indian
women was due to a deterioration of their old ideal. In Ancient India, both in theory and practice, women
were placed on a pedestal in society; equal to that of men, if not higher. As regards education and
marriage they held and equal position. The girls were equally entitled to receive education, and no
limitations at all were set on their ambitions in this direction. Study was equally enjoined for the girls as
well as the boys. The only difference was that, in the case of girls, their periods of education expired
sooner than that of boys” (Kumar, The History of Doing, an Illustrated Account of Movements for
Women’s Rights and Feminism in India, 1800-1990, 21)
19
Savitribai Jyotirao Phule was the first woman to open a girls’ school, with her husband
Jyotirao Phule in Pune in 184846. The school was vilified by local brahman for not only educating
girls but also breaching caste boundaries47. They set up a number of schools aimed primarily at
dalit girls, and wrote about how education would elevate the status of the dalit caste.
Approaching the turn of the century many women’s schools were beginning to pay off and more
women started appearing in public spheres, asserting and/or advocating their rights. Women
professionals were becoming more prominent, including novelists like Kashibai Kanitkar,
Nirupama Devi, and Anurupa Devi, and India’s first woman physician was Anandibai Joshi48.
Most of these new women faced intense scrutiny from conservative elements, at times being
disowned or even stoned to death. Great reluctance against recruiting women into nationalist
campaigns also existed. Pandita Ramabai founded the Mahila Arya Samaj, one of India’s first
women’s organization, and pressed women to participate in the newly founded Indian National
Congress, with ten women representing in the 1889 congress, one of whom was elected by a
men’s organization49. Initial topics they brought up included those controversial ones like
depicted as crimes only committed by British soldiers and not by Indian men as well. The
balance of British authority was on the line in Congress dialogue. The Congress argued the
abolishment of a law banning prostitution, arguing that the prostitution act was abused to allow
officers to accuse any woman of being a prostitute and likewise engage in harassment50.
support for women nationalists engaging in the Satyagraha movement after his experiences of
civil disobedience in South Africa. Gandhi however still maintained the opinion of distinguishable
gender roles in the independence movement, exemplifying the womanhood ideals of “Sita,
46
("Savitribai, The Mother Of Modern Girls' Education In India")
47
Savitribai Jyotirao Phule and Jyotirao Phule were dalits, or “untouchables”, the lowest caste.
48
Kumar, The History of Doing, an Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism
in India, 1800-1990, 32.
49
Kumar, The History of Doing, an Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism
in India, 1800-1990, 34.
50
Kumar, The History of Doing, an Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism
in India, 1800-1990, 34-35.
20
Damayanti, and Draupadi”51, core female figures in the Mahabharata though with incredibly
stretched interpretations of their meaning to Satyagraha. Women needed to exercise their own
strength, Gandhi believing that women’s “weakness” was subjective and related to will rather
than objective and spiritually ordained.52 Gandhi’s introduction to the National Congress, as well
support to turn in favour of women nationalists, and by 1910 women became an integral part of
Satyagraha, the Independence movement. It was expected that women’s natural roles could be
turned against the British, by educating children into the nationalist spirit, supporting the boycott
of British textiles through silk weaving at home. There was still a caste struggle that prevented
the middle movement from being totally efficient, as caste differences were also recognized by
women and met resistance from ideas that for the lower caste to elevate, the upper castes
During the salt boycott, where Gandhi ordered the home-refining of salt in attack against
the British salt monopoly, women en-masse eagerly participated in the distilling of salt53.
Kasturba Gandhi, the Mahatma’s wife, “lead thirty-seven women volunteers from the ashram at
Sabarmati to offer satyagraha and to demand abolition of the salt tax”54, and activists like
Sarojini Naidu and Kamaladevi led thousands on processional “raids” against salt works.
Women pressured Gandhi to play a more active role in the Satyagraha movement, much to the
disagreement of Gandhi who believed jobs like picketing and textiles could only be entrusted on
women52. Though these decisions may have had tactical merits in the fight for independence,
they may have just as well had longer consequences by maintaining women in traditional roles.
51
Kishwar, “Gandhi on Women,” 44.
52
Kishwar, “Gandhi on Women,” 44.
53
Kishwar, “Gandhi on Women,” 49.
54
Kumar, The History of Doing, an Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism
in India, 1800-1990, 34.
21
Chapter 2
This chapter will place women’s rights and the three asian countries within the frame of
reference of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. This declaration is important
because it is the first time in modern history the countries of the world gather together to discuss
22
what rights all their citizens are commonly entitled to. There were many reasons for all of the
countries to view the idea of a universal declaration of rights disdainfully. Most of these rights
transcend the authority of the state. Many of these rights breached cultural norms and long
standing traditions. The rights of women, a crucial component of the Declaration, threatened
many of the privileges men enjoyed, especially men of high status. Yet the document was met
incredibly positively, and though the enforcement of these rights have much to be asked for the
rights are idealistic even by 21st century standards. The Declaration represented a changing
world ethos, responding to the horrors of the Second World War. Colonial overlords and
economic domineers were humbled by the devastation wrought by Axis occupiers, and awoken
to the unprecedented level of interpersonal cooperation that came about from the most total of
total wars. Though the UN’s successes are questionable, its status as a turning point for global
morality is not.
The rights of women as both individuals and equals to men are but a small part of the
intentions of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United Nations’
Universal Declaration of Human Rights is itself a small product of a larger and more general
global movement to achieve civil equality and liberty for individual from all various walks of life.
The articles of the declaration attempt to secure their own relevance in all situations, both
cultural and circumstantial. This has unfortunately left the declaration as a very vague and easily
The UDHR has been criticized for Eurocentrism. For example, Chinese ambassador Liu
Huaqiu during the 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights said,
associated with the specific social, political, and economic conditions and the specific
history, culture, and values of a particular country. Different historical development stages
have different human rights requirements. Thus, one should not and cannot think the
human rights standards and model of certain countries as the only proper ones and
demand all other countries to comply with them. For the vast number of developing
23
countries, to respect and protect human rights is first and foremost to ensure the full
The document has been signed and recognized by non-Western countries, including two of my
three example countries. Japan was not a signatory due to not being a UN member in 1948,
and the Republic of China was the representative signatory for China. While politics has
changed drastically for all countries involved since 1948 the rights defined by the UDHR are at
least recognizable. Liu Huaqiu cites pragmatism to support the idea that rights must be
suppressed at times to secure basic human needs for the population as a whole. Though
threats to national security and stability can be abused to secure power and control through the
curtailing of rights, as was witnessed in the dictatorships of the pre-war order, the Second World
War was a lesson that rights need infrastructure. National crisis can curtail rights for citizens,
and delay the victory for rights for subjects, as resources are diverted to fight an immediate
threat or build up preventative measures. As Mr. Liu Huaqiu explains about China, many
countries on Earth even today do not have the infrastructure to enforce human rights, and the
articles of the declaration are most easily enforced in the developed economies of the West.
When a national security crisis is compounded with an already existing challenged infrastructure
that were around 1948, including the Republics of China and India. The few countries who did
not ratify the document were either not UN members (most notably former Axis countries), or
under the Soviet sphere of influence. Reasons for the refusal of ratification, and disagreements
to the terms of the declaration, include both cultural and political reasons, aggravated by the
complications of “repeating” a process that had already pulled through to the drafting of the UN
Charter. South Africa viewed the declaration as a threat to their institution of apartheid55, Saudi
55
“Upon closer scrutiny, however, the South African position can be seen to have been advanced not
because of its philosophical merits, but for the protection of the system of apartheid, which clearly violated
any number of articles in the Declaration. A basic human right, the right of a person to participate in the
government of his or her country, which is included in even the most conservative packages of human
rights, was according to Louw, the South African representative on the Third Committee, not universal”
(Danchin 10)
24
Arabia abstained from ratifying the declaration in disagreement to articles 16 and 18 on religious
rights56. The Soviet Union condemned the committee for the refusal to amend articles 19 and 20
to revoke human rights to supposed fascists and Nazis57, and disagreed with the extralegal
nature of the human rights declaration58 (Danchin 10). Other disagreements were either carried
over from the Atlantic Charter or resolved, such as Britain’s disagreement with a mention from
the Charter59. No member nation outright refused the entire document, and all dissenting
members did no more than abstain to terms on the declaration, while contributing to its draft in
other regards.
Despite every nation either agreeing to the terms of the Declaration of Human Rights or
contributing to its drafting, the vagueness of the terms is telling of the innumerable political,
cultural, ethical, and even comprehensive disagreements that were possible without such
vagueness. Take for example Article 29 (which I will mention again later): that “everyone has
duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is
possible,” and “that in the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to
such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and
respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality,
public order and the general welfare in a democratic society” (UN General Assembly, 1948).
56
“The Saudi Arabian delegation abstained in the final vote mostly for two reasons: because of the
wording of Article 16 on equal marriage rights and because of objections to the clause in Article 18 which
states that everyone has the right to change his religion or belief” (Danchin 10)
57
“The deep animosity that exists between Marxist egalitarianism and Nazi racism led to the USSR
delegation to propose amendments to what became Articles 19 and 20 stating that fascists and Nazis did
not have human rights to freedom of expression and association. When those amendments were
rejected, the Communists, rather than abstaining, which was their custom, voted against these articles”
(Danchin 10)
58
“He retracted most of his acceptance of human rights in a speech on the relationship between the
individual and the state, at times taking a legal positivist approach to the matter of human rights. Human
rights in this approach cannot be conceived outside the State, because the very concept of right and law
was connected with that of the State” (Danchin 10)
59
, “The President [of the US]... and the Prime Minister [of the UK]... deem it right to make known certain
common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base their hopes for
a better future for the world ... . they respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government
under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored to those
who have been forcibly deprived of them” out of fear of separatism with the Empire, a sentiment to which
the United States profusely disagreed ( Bhagavan, “A New Hope: India, the United Nations and the
Making of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, 314)
25
Language and cultural differences can lead to multiple executions of the clause, such as
different interpretations of “duties”, who these duties relate to, and how they may be performed.
The duties are never specified in the document. The Soviet Union disagreed with some of the
extralegal articles of the declaration, but the Republic of China which was still largely a
dictatorship at the time under political tutelage did agreed to all clauses of the declaration.
* * * *
* * * *
The logic behind China’s and India’s contributions to the Declaration of Human Rights
provides insight on local national cultures working in the construction of international human
rights. Human rights are typically seen as a Western concept, however during the drafting of
these rights China and India, as well as many other non-Western countries, contributed
considerably to the wording of the document, none of whom were in opposition to the
fundamentals of the document. China, with representing delegate and drafter Peng Chun Chang
(Zhāng Péngchūn), was one of the major contributing parties to the drafting of the Declaration.
P. C. Chang introduced an Eastern perspective to the drafting of the rights, predicting Western
biases and applying his understanding of Confucian philosophy to the draft60. One example is
rights, arguing against the idea of stating a divine or natural origin to human rights as such
serves as one of the bases for the first article of the declaration, that individuals are also
60
“Chang adopted an implicit strategy to mean that the Western influences might be too great. This story
had laid a foundation for Chang’s incorporating Confucian ideas in the declaration” (Sun, Human Rights
Protection System in China, 10)
61
“Zhang then suggested the addition of the Confucian concept of “Two-man-mindedness [ren]” to
complement the reference to reason and underscore that man also should act in consideration of his
fellow human beings” (Angle and Svensson, The Chinese Human Rights Reader: Documents and
Commentary, 1900-2000, 204)
62
“P. C. Chang supported Count Carton de Wiart of Belgium in a speech in which he pleaded for
‘two-man-mindedness’ and asked the delegates not to impose philosophical concepts such as natural law
on countries where they are alien to the thinking of many millions of people” (Sun 10)
63
as translated by P. C. Chang into ‘two-man-mindedness,’ which was well known in the Western
“Rén w
world as ‘conscience’” (Sun, Human Rights Protection System in China, 4)
26
responsible for the protection of rights of other individuals64, reading: “All human beings are born
free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should
act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood65” (UN General Assembly, 1948). The
responsibilities, or duties, individuals have to the protection of each other’s humanity, Chang
argued, were stated at the end of the document, by Article 29, in order to mention first the rights
and freedoms all humans are entitled to before mentioning their duties to the protection of these
rights66. Relating to my earlier mention of Article 29, the duties were deliberately left vague,
was not completely reflective of China’s situation at the time, nor had the Japanese invasion
made a profound effect on the state’s policy. Drafting the Declaration of Human Rights had just
as much of political goals as it did moral goals for many countries, as the Cold War was looming
over the horizon. Chang was representing the Republic of China, which by 1948 was losing its
civil war to the People’s Republic of China, and nothing of what Chang and other Chinese
representatives wrote into the Declaration was processed through Communist regime. The
recent history at the time of the Republic of China reflected the use of human rights as a political
weapon against Communism. Though by 1948 the Republic had codified a nondiscrimination
64
“Others approved of Zhang’s idea, and the United Kingdom and Lebanese representatives then
suggested that the English word “conscience” be used to express the idea of ren and add to Cassin’s
invocation of reason” (Angle and Svensson, The Chinese Human Rights Reader: Documents and
Commentary, 1900-2000, 204)
65
“Zhang stated his belief that the ‘aim of the United Nations was not to ensure the selfish gains of the
individual but to try and increase man’s moral stature. It was necessary to proclaim the duties of the
individual, for it was a consciousness of his duties that enabled man to reach a high moral standard’.
Zhang followed up this statement a day later when he again referred to the draft proposal for Article 1 that
included the phrase ‘in a spirit of brotherhood,’ and that, to Zhang’s mind, was an implicit reference to
duties” (Angle and Svensson, The Chinese Human Rights Reader: Documents and Commentary,
1900-2000, 204)
66
“Zhang put it, ‘An article which dealt with the limitations on the exercise of the rights and freedoms
proclaimed in the Declaration should not appear at the beginning of the Declaration before those rights
and freedoms themselves had been set forth.’ In the end, only one article in the UDHR mentions duties.
Article 29 (1) now reads: ‘Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full
development of his personality is possible” (Angle and Svensson, The Chinese Human Rights Reader:
Documents and Commentary, 1900-2000, 204)
27
clause in its constitution stating that “all citizens of the Republic of China, irrespective of sex,
religion, race, class, or party affiliation, shall be equal before the law”67, earlier the regime had
criticized human rights as being “inappropriate”68 to China. Chang and other Chinese
of human rights in Chinese culture and its application, however the regime itself took the
opportunity to win favour from the Western democracies by championing human rights for
themselves in return for support against the new Communist regime in Beijing69. Taiwan would
maintain its UN security council position until 1971, and perpetrate human rights violations
themselves, such as the mass arresting and killing of protesters against the Nationalist regime
that took ten thousand lives on February 28, 194770. The Republic would even be accused of
human rights violations by the Communist regime. This isn’t to suggest there wasn’t a genuine
interest among Chinese intellectuals in human rights, with similar contemporary notions of
human rights being argued since the May Fourth movement in 1919 with aims to finally
conclude the Republican revolution and forge an actual democracy. Writer and activist Zhou
Jingwen in 1941 writes during the heat of the Second Sino Japanese War the rights he believes
all Chinese are entitled to: “The rights to life, personal freedom, freedom of residence, freedom
of thought, freedom of speech and publication, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly and
association, freedom of employment, public trial, oppose violence, enjoy a minimum livelihood,
* * * *
67
Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Origins, Drafting, and Intent, 46
68
“While the GMD had earlier argued that human rights were inappropriate to China, it was now prepared
to stress the universality of human rights and work towards guaranteeing that ‘all people were protected in
their inalienable rights’” (Angle and Svensson, The Chinese Human Rights Reader: Documents and
Commentary, 1900-2000, 204-205)
69
“It became politically expedient for the GMD to use human rights critique in the political struggle against
the CCP in order to win the support of the so-called Free World” (Angle and Svensson, The Chinese
Human Rights Reader: Documents and Commentary, 1900-2000, 205)
70
Angle and Svensson, The Chinese Human Rights Reader: Documents and Commentary, 1900-2000,
206
71
(Angle and Svensson, The Chinese Human Rights Reader: Documents and Commentary, 1900-2000,
194-196):“The Program of the Human Rights Movement (1941)” by Zhou Jingwen (1908-1985)
28
India vested its existence on the success of the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights. The
fate of colonial subjects had remained controversial during the drafting of the Atlantic Charter,
with India being represented by a British-selected delegation, and colonies like Belgium’s Congo
and the Netherlands’ East Indies being overall ignored. Prime Minster Nehru and Gandhi had
also predicted the UN to be a crucial instrument for their beliefs in internationalism72, aiming to
bring India among the leaders of a new world order of human equality. This internationalism was
different from its common contemporary understanding, advocating more for a global community
of people rather than a global community of nations73. India’s recent victory in the 1946 General
Assembly in San Francisco in demanding an end to the application of South Africa’s Apartheid
laws to peoples of Indian origins74, by delegate Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, boosted confidence in
the UN’s succession of the flawed and failed League of Nations75. The South Africa debate set a
precedent for the Human Rights Committee that human rights would take priority over national
sovereignty76.
Nehru assigned Hansa Jivraj Mehta to represent India in the human rights delegations
from 1947 on to the completion of the Declaration of Human Rights. Like P. C. Chang, Nehru
72
Bombay ‘Quit India’ Declaration: “The Committee is of the opinion that the future peace, security and
ordered progress of the world demand a world federation of free nations, and on no other basis can the
problems of the modern world be solved...An Independent India would gladly join such a world federation
co-operate on an equal basis with other countries in the solution of international problems” (Bhagavan, “A
New Hope: India, the United Nations and the Making of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, 318)
73
“Gandhi’s reference to ‘internationalism’ in this context is more radical than the contemporary context of
that word would suggest, embodying not a communion of fully sovereign, self-interested nation-states, but
rather a siblinghood of equal states answerable both to their people and to the larger world community”
(Bhagavan, “A New Hope: India, the United Nations and the Making of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights”, 318)
74
India did not challenge the Apartheid Institution, including native Africans and people of non-Indian
Asian descent
75
“The event was immediately read as an ‘Asian’ victory, the triumph of the world’s dispossessed and
aggrieved, and it was significant for setting the tone of what the new UN could and should be” (Bhagavan,
“A New Hope: India, the United Nations and the Making of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”,
324)
76
“Assistant Secretary-General for Social Affairs Henri Laugier: ‘stated that no one part of the action
undertaken by the United Nations to make peace more secure had more power or a wider scope than
this... . The action taken in the case of South Africa established a precedent of fundamental significance
in the field of international action ... . It should be remembered ...that out of these debates the general
impression had arisen that no violation of human rights should be covered up by the principle of national
sovereignty…’ (Bhagavan, “A New Hope: India, the United Nations and the Making of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights”, 325)
29
and Mehta advised caution in the framing of the declaration, emphasizing the extralegality of
human rights while at the same time being reasonable to the roles of governments and states.
“It seems to me that the Human Rights Commission should deal with the subject in its
broadest aspects and not consider particular cases. We must take our stand on the
equality of opportunity for all peoples and races... . The rights of Nationals must
discrimination i.e. Non-Nationals should be treated alike ... . The question of nationality is
a difficult one, more especially in countries which have so far belonged to the British
Empire or Commonwealth Nations. I do not suppose that we need to go into this question
at the Human Rights Commission. Normally speaking, a person will not have a dual
nationality and he will have to choose. The International Bill of Rights should lay down
broad principles which can be applied. Too much detail should be avoided. There is
some reference in the brief to everyone having a right to own property. What is meant I
suppose is that no group should be deprived of any right which others possess. We
cannot object to any kind of legislation, applying to all, which may convert private
Much of Mehta’s efforts were put to the questions involving the enforcement of human
rights, a problem that had persisted since the League of Nations. Chairing the Working
powers at protecting human rights, through means such as international courts and
77
Bhagavan, “A New Hope: India, the United Nations and the Making of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights”, 326
78
Bhagavan, “A New Hope: India, the United Nations and the Making of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights”, 329
30
tribunals79. Mehta and Nehru did however fail at further ambitions of strengthening the
The intention was not to make a planet-wide government, but to instead create a
framework by which the United Nations would enforce, with force if necessary, the drafted
human rights, seeing to the otherwise meaninglessness of the effort if it were not to bear any
real fruition. Such effort was even supported by the United Kingdom and France, but
vehemently opposed by the Soviet Union, which may or may not have further politicized the
human rights discussion. India would internalize not only the human rights discussed but also
the protection of those rights on the international stage in its constitution, under Article 40 that
states:
“The State shall endeavor to – (a) promote international peace and security; (b) maintain
just and honourable relations between nations; (c) foster respect for international law and
treaty obligations in the dealings of organised people with one another; and (d)
* * * *
* * * *
Just as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights sought to define and defend the
rights of all human, it applied its own logic to itself by refusing to categorize the people receiving
the rights. Though Article 2 mentions categories like “race” and “sex” by which people must not
be discriminated, the declaration specifically remains neutral on all regards. This had a duel
79
“The framework proposed and championed by Mehta and eventually adopted by the committee was to
grant a special UN committee on human rights, in conjunction with an International Court, the power to
hear cases by individuals, associations, and (potentially against) states. This power would then be applied
by the General Assembly, and possibly by a special attorney general” (Bhagavan, “A New Hope: India,
the United Nations and the Making of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, 330)
80
“[T]he Human Rights Commission is meeting ... . Our representatives are there. The conception today
is that there are common individual rights which should be guaranteed all the world over ... . What is the
U.N.O.? It is developing into a world republic in which all States, independent States, are represented and
to which they may be answerable on occasions, for instance South Africa over the South Africa Indians’
question, even though this was a domestic question because Indians are South African citizens. [italics
added]” (Bhagavan, “A New Hope: India, the United Nations and the Making of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights”, 332)
31
effect, one that made a statement that nobody was going to received different rights from one
another, and another that dodged the whole topic of women’s rights being a potential issue for
UN signatories. The question of women’s rights was readdressed in 1979 with the creation of
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, or CEDAW,
which fully addressed the rights of women after decades of general human rights violations by
all member states81, however the very beginning of the Declaration’s draft served as a
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the first chairperson of the UN Commission on Human
Rights, was the driving force pushing women’s rights into the full purview of human rights.
Though feminist movements had already been in full force and achieving victories for decades,
the entire world was still largely starving women of their rights, even in the West. Just like the
First World War, the Second World War saw many proofs of concept for egalitarian measures
tried and tested, such as the mass-hiring of women into the heavy arms industry in Europe, and
even the Russian adoption of women combat units. Though these measures would forever
shape human rights dialogue to come, their implementations were never permanent, reassuring
patriarchal authority after the conflict had subsided. During the war in the United States, millions
of women entered the industrial workforce to supply the troops abroad, and yet were refused
employment after the war despite admitting satisfaction with their wartime jobs (“‘Continued
Employment after the War?’: The Women’s Bureau Studies Postwar Plans of Women
Workers”).
Within the Declaration of Human Rights discussion, the issue of women’s rights needed
pressure, pressure that was primarily provided by the Communist member states82 to prioritize
81
“Roosevelt’s progressive push notwithstanding, the claim for equal human rights for men and women
was routinely ignored for the next few decades, leading to the upsurge in feminist and women’s
movements around the globe. As one result of feminist action at the international level, the Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was adopted in 1979 by the UN
General Assembly, essentially providing women with their own human rights treaty” (Friedman, “Bringing
Women to International Human Rights”, 480)
82
“With strong assists from the Indian delegation, the USSR delegation was a crucial player in the
expansion of nondiscrimination items in Article 2. The Communist delegations were also great allies of the
women’s lobby and helped that lobby clear the text of sexist language and insured equal rights for women
32
the Article 2 non-discriminatory clause and word it so that it may encompass all human beings.
Support for this was not exclusively from Communist countries. The use of the word “men” was
also met with heated controversy, with delegates supporting that “men” was a shorthand
reference to “mankind” or “humankind”, and other delegates such Indian delegate Hansa Mehta
83
and Belgian delegate Ronald Lebau84, as well as vice-chairman of the Commission on the
Status of Women Amilia C. de Castillo Ledon85, arguing for the use of “human beings” in
substitute for “men” to clarify gender neutrality across languages86. The completed iteration of
the Declaration consist of gender neutral nouns, asides from the first article’s “in the spirit of
brotherhood”, and articles 23 and 25 that refer to “himself and his family” and “the worker and
Rights met with considerable debating included equality before the law, marriage rights,
and nondiscrimination of income. Article 6, protecting individuals’ equality before the law, was
debated on grounds of redundancy, with the American, British, and Indian delegations arguing
that such an article opened confusion87, while the French and Russian delegations argued the
necessity of an equality clause to combat discriminatory laws88 or biases against women. Article
across the entire range of the Declaration” (Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Origins,
Drafting, and Intent, 95)
83
“Metha, the delegate from India, raised the issue in the regular session of the Commission, saying that
‘she did not like the wording of ‘all men’ or ‘should act...like brothers.’” Such phrases, she said ‘might be
interpreted to exclude women, and were out of date’” (Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, Origins, Drafting, and Intent, 118)
84
“Ronald Lebeau, the Belgian delegate, pointed to the absurdity of tous les hommes, hommes et
femmes and proposed the compromise phrase of ‘all human beings’” (Morsink, The Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, Origins, Drafting, and Intent, 119)
85
“Amilia C. de Castillo Ledon, vice-chairman of the Commission on the Status of Women, said that while
‘her Commission understood that the term ‘all men’ had a general sense, there was a certain ambiguity in
it and it would be better to use the more precise term, which moreover figured in the Charter’” (Morsink,
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Origins, Drafting, and Intent, 119)
86
“By this time the Commission had via the Secretary-General received a draft of Article 1 from the
Commission on the Status of Women, which proposed that ‘all people’ be substituted for ‘all men’ and ‘in
the spirit of brotherhood’ for ‘like brothers’” (Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Origins,
Drafting, and Intent, 119)
87
“The British, Indian and American delegations felt that the general article on nondiscrimination was
sufficient and that there was therefore no need to enter into the murky waters of what it means to be a
"person before the law” (Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Origins, Drafting, and
Intent, 120)
88
“Pavlov joined his French colleague in wanting to retain the idea of a ‘juridical personality.’ He pointed
out that apart from attempts against whole groups, such as those against the Jews in Germany, account
must be taken of the fact that some civil legislation still contained restrictive provisions regarding juridical
33
16, pertaining to marriage rights, provided rights to consensual marriage with no discrimination
in regards to race, ethnicity, or religion. Article 16 was disputed on grounds of divorce rights, as
divorce of any kind was not permissible in Catholic countries8990, and was abstained by Saudi
Arabia who disagreed with nondiscrimination on a basis of religion91. A resolution was made
personal liberty, that in the event of a divorce neither spouse may be discriminated against92.
Article 23, the clause for freedom of employment and fair pay, was debated over the issue that
the article did not explicitly mention women’s rights to equal pay as men, maintaining a gender
neutral “everyone”. The British and Indian delegations opposed the mention of a specific
women’s ‘equal pay for equal work’ clause because they feared reiterating women’s rights in
their own clause would make the article an exception rather than a rule, and imply other articles
not mentioning women were exclusive of women93, while the Byelorussian delegation argued
that the clause was necessary because income discrimination was the most pervasive form of
personality of individuals. Thus, in certain cases, a wife had no juridical personality independent from that
of her husband” (Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Origins, Drafting, and Intent, 121)
89
“M. Amado, the Panamanian representative, said that his delegation could not accept most proposals
since ‘some States were bound by laws based on Concordats with the church and had, in respect of
religious marriage and divorce, obligations which would not permit them to accept the proposed texts’”
(Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Origins, Drafting, and Intent, 121)
90
“Catherine Schaeffer, who represented the International Union of Catholic Women's Leagues, ‘pointed
out that her organization comprised 36 million women divided among 120 associations in 60 countries,’ all
of whose consciences would be offended by the ‘principle of the dissolution of marriage’” (Morsink, The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Origins, Drafting, and Intent, 122)
91
“Baroody, the Saudi Arabian delegate to the Third Committee, ‘emphasized the fact that apparently the
authors of the draft declaration had for the most part taken into consideration only the standards
recognized by western civilization and had ignored more ancient civilizations which were past the
experimental stage, and the institutions of which, for example marriage, had proved their wisdom through
centuries.’” (Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Origins, Drafting, and Intent, 124)
92
“The drafters treated the issue of divorce as one of nondiscrimination rather than a basic and
independent human right” (Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Origins, Drafting, and
Intent, 125)
93
“[Indian delegate] Metha, who had been part of that group, said that only two members had wanted this
provision and that she herself felt that to make ‘specific reference to women in the article would give rise
to the impression that women did not have the same rights in other matters where they were not
specifically mentioned” (Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Origins, Drafting, and
Intent, 127)
34
gender discrimination94. Other matters of women’s rights were discussed for wording’s sake,
The debates prove a common goal with diverse and occasionally conflicting perspectives
on how the goal may be achieved. Women having rights equal to men was a unanimously
accepted ideal among the represented nations, with Saudi Arabia being the only country
abstaining from the Declaration on grounds of marriage rights, the right in question being a
woman’s or man’s right to marry outside of their religion, while the equality between the man
and woman’s limitations was not questioned by the Saudi delegation. Indian delegate Hansa
Mehta, who served on the UN Sub-Commission on the Status of Women95, as was alluded to
earlier, made large contributions to the women’s rights dialogue in the drafting of the
Declaration. Mehta was the one to first propose the use of gender neutral nouns rather than
masculine nouns that were assumed to be gender neutral, and she as well as other delegates
like Minerva Bernardino from the Dominican Republic, Shaista Ikramullah from Pakistan, and
Bodil Begtrup from Denmark96 were among the speakers for women’s rights debates excluding
the Soviet Union who was represented by Alexei Pavlov. Without Mehta and many other women
delegates, the dialogue on women’s rights may have either been minimal or forgotten.
Peng Chun Chang’s contributions cannot be ignored either, as he was also drafting
gender equality clauses for the Declaration. He emphasized his drafting of Article 26, the right to
education, believing that education is the gateway to freedom97, and that gender equality could
only be met when girls have the same education opportunities as respecting merit. Education
94
“Stepanenko, the representative of the BSS: ‘The importance of such a provision was paramount, in
view of the fact that women had been discriminated against in the matter of pay almost more than in any
other” (Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Origins, Drafting, and Intent, 127)
95
Bhagavan, “A New Hope: India, the United Nations and the Making of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights”, 326
96
(Waltz, “Universalizing Human Rights: The Role of Small States in the Construction of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights”, 63)
97
“‘A human being had to be constantly conscious of other men, in whose society he lived. A lengthy
process of education was required before men and women realized the full value and obligations of the
rights granted to them in the declaration; it was only when that stage had been achieved that those rights
could be realized in practice’” (Krumbein, “P.C. Chang - The Chinese Father of Human Rights”, 342)
35
should as well be accessible, with primary being free and compulsory98. He also introduced an
article demanding that education also promote the values of the declaration99. Where the
Declaration fell short at enforcing responsibilities to the protection of human rights, education
would serve as one measure for protection. As generations passed, people educated into the
values of universal compassion would voluntarily inherit the responsibility of protecting other
people's’ rights, needing no international pressure or armed force to maintain these values on
the political stage. Western schools dedicating lessons to teaching foreign cultures and
women’s history are an indirect product of this belief, and succeed in ingraining into at least
* * * *
* * * *
Japan, as with the other Axis-aligned countries, was excluded from the grand design of
universal human rights. Leading the American occupation, General MacArthur was stationed to
turn Japan into a pacifist democracy as was demanded in the Potsdam Declaration100. The
proceedings of the Declaration of Human Rights would directly affect the occupation of Japan,
and instill these values into the previously fascist regime. No Japanese politicians or
intellectuals were present at the drafting of the Declaration of Human Rights, and though the
human rights declaration was taken positively by some Japanese, Japan was subject to the
same cynicism that beset the US going into the Cold War. Human rights came second to
anti-communist policing.
98
“‘Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and
fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory; technical and professional education
shall be made generally available; and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of
merit’” (Krumbein, “P.C. Chang - The Chinese Father of Human Rights”, 340)
99
“Chang also proposed the first sentence of Paragraph 2 of Article 26: ‘Education shall be directed to the
full development of the human personality, to the strengthening of respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms and to the promotion of international goodwill’” (Krumbein, “P.C. Chang - The
Chinese Father of Human Rights”, 340)
100
“‘The Japanese government shall remove all obstacles to the revival and strengthening of democratic
tendencies among the Japanese people. Freedom of speech, of religion, and of thought, as well as
respect for the fundamental human rights shall be established’” (Neary, Human Rights in Japan, South
Korea, and Taiwan, 17)
36
The occupational government brought very little immediate change to the authoritarian
ethos of post-war Japan. It was largely staffed by prewar officials, many who were not swayed
by the changing world ethos101. Though many economic reforms were accepted, Japan’s
political ethos still laid in state guidance, and strict adherence to cultural traditions. Several
decades of being ruled by the conservative Liberal Democratic Party of Japan saw few
legislative advances into human rights, though this neglect hasn’t gone unnoticed by
socialist-leaning parties. Human rights wouldn’t make into the forefront of Japanese dialogue
Drafting the postwar Japanese constitution was also largely a work of the US military
rather than one of the Japanese government. The first proposed constitution brought forth by
Japanese cabinet member Dr. Matsumoto Jôji, which was rejected by the SCAP as
“insufficiently democratic”103. The GHQ of the occupational government provided their own
constitutional guidelines by which the new government would write their constitution. The
constitution renounced the Emperor’s importance compared to the people, and made three of its
most important points about popular sovereignty, human rights, and pacifism104. The preamble
“We recognize that all peoples of the world have the right to live in peace, free from fear
and want. We believe that no nation is responsible to itself alone, but the laws of political
morality are universal; and that obedience to such laws is incumbent upon all nations who
would sustain their own sovereignty and justify their sovereign relations with other
nations”105.
101
“In the immediate post-war period those in power had been educated and socialised in the
predominantly authoritarian system and were not going to change their attitudes overnight. Neither those
in senior positions in Tokyo nor the leaders of local communities had much familiarity with the ideas of
rights. Far more familiar was the idea that individuals and groups should set aside their selfish desires
and work for the good of the community and state” (Neary, Human Rights in Japan, South Korea, and
Taiwan, 28)
102
Neary, Human Rights in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, 28
103
Neary, Human Rights in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, 29
104
Neary, Human Rights in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, 29
105
Neary, Human Rights in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, 29
37
Other political groups also formulated their own drafts of a new constitution that
were not processed through the diet, the Socialists and Anarchists placing greater
emphasis on human rights politics106. These parties also criticized the Liberal party, who
in spite of their name were the conservative camp, for not democratizing the constitution
enough. The constitution dedicates thirty-two articles to human rights, but does not stay
true to the entirety of the Declaration of Human Rights. For example, equal protection
before the law for aliens was not accepted for the constitution, while provisions for the
government made efforts to towards the establishment of institutions that would educate
the population on their newly won rights. Civil Liberties Commissioners were volunteers
who were assigned in numbers to metropolitans areas and prefectures around Japan to
promote the ideals of human rights, stemming off a prewar system of unpaid volunteer
‘district commissioners’, or homeniin, who would spare their time to mediate between the
lower class and social services107. Professor Ian Neary cites the Civil Liberties bureau on
- “To carry out public information and education functions, to diffuse ideas of
rights and take pertinent action such as reporting to the MoJ [Ministry of Justice]
- To provide aid in litigation and take other relief measures for the protection of the
106
Neary, Human Rights in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, 30
107
Neary, Human Rights in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, 37
108
Neary, Human Rights in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, 38
38
The NGO Japan Civil Liberties Union has also been an instrument to the promotion of
human rights in Japan, first directed by democratic socialist Unno Shinshiki, that lead
institutions and the government itself. It even wrote a counter report against a UN human
rights report Japan gave in 1989109. However, state efforts towards human rights
remained rather unofficial, with an actual bureau for human rights not being formed until
1984, and staffed by only ten people initially110. Japanese participation in the UN also
remained rather minimal111, generally following the stance of the United States and
maintaining a position that would protect its own pride and minimize resources for
political opposition112 Until recently, the majority effort to the promotion of human rights,
including women’s rights, was through NGO’s and political opposition, as well as informal
interactions by Japanese citizens. Otherwise, there was, and still is, a great deal of
apathy towards human rights as well as the exercise of those rights. While universal
rights for women were won during American occupation, there is not a great deal of
practice for won social freedoms such as independent living and occupational pursuit, as
“Japanese women are generally content with their prestige and social power as wives
and mothers, and few are encouraged or choose to seek public decision-making
positions”113.
However just because Japan has said very little regarding human rights does not
there aren’t Japanese people who have found the Declaration to be a positive
development, and who dedicate themselves to the furthering of human rights both at
home and abroad. Since the 1990s, with the end of the Cold War, human rights have
109
Neary, Human Rights in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, 36
110
Neary, Human Rights in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, 42
111
“Between 1953 to the start of the 1990s Japan was not an enthusiastic proponent of human rights
within the UN. It participated in the bodies dealing with human rights issues only reluctantly and tended to
respond defensively to proposals it considered at variance with Japanese law or practice” (Neary 43)
112
“Japan was reluctant to expose itself to criticism from abroad and did not want to give indigenous
human rights organisations the opportunity to use international standards or institutions to exert pressure
from outside” (Neary, Human Rights in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, 43)
113
Beer, “Group Rights and Individual Rights in Japan”, 46
39
returned to Japanese intellectual dialogue, with local revival of old means to rights
country, having a history of ethnic chauvinism, losing a world war, and being occupied by
a Western power, have all contributed to the general apathy towards human rights. Yet
Japan, like Germany, is still crucial to the story of the UN and the ethical developments
resulting from World War II, as it provides a perspective from an aggressor who lost to
* * * *
The UN’s foundation of human rights have had mixed successes, as the world plunged
into the Cold War and survival in a nuclear age took greater precedence over the rights of man.
The second wave of feminism, civil rights movement, the death of Mao, and other political
turning points would rehash the ethical questions brought about by the same tension, tragedies,
and exhaustion of the Second World War. The nations represented at the UN Human Rights
talks prioritized their own national interests, taking stances in favour of human rights to win
diplomatic advantages, or against in order to protect traditions. However these nations were
careful in whom they selected to represent them at the UN Human Rights convention, balancing
ferver to the human cause with loyalty to the homeland. The Declaration of Human Rights being
drafted by a collection of individuals with their own convictions, and many without political
backgrounds, ensured this new development wasn’t forged just by politicians replacing a chess
board for a new game of global politics, but instead persons who were just as much going to be
subjects of the new world orders as well as creators of it. Now in writing, all humans anywhere
and everywhere had rights that transcended the state, rights meant to prevail the next time a
nation was invaded, the next time a new government rose, and the next time the world was
rocked by a new technological revolution. Of course, these rights would be hardly enforced, as
every country today, from North Korea to Norway, is guilty of human rights violations, as well as
neglect or denial of these rights. However the UN Declaration of Human Rights is one of the few
40
times where “the thought counts”, because the declaration has wielded enough soft power to
serve as a banner for human rights advocates, from common citizens to world and corporate
leaders, to rally under. The UN Declaration of Human Rights is a testament for how the suffering
of World War II shaped the moral consciousness of all humans. Though a world without the war
would have spared the souls unfortunate enough to have been taken as they were historically,
Chapter 3
The scale of the Second World War had profound effects on how societies reacted to the
roles of women as much as it did the roles of anyone else. The Axis powers occupied and
devastated so much territory, and brought with them genocidal policies, that the need to survive
challenged existing social norms in many of the Allied countries. Within Axis countries social
hierarchies were the lifeline of their chauvinistic ideologies, encouraging women to either follow
or even accept fascist and related tenants. This chapter displays ways in which women and
feminists reacted to the wartime environment, seizing some opportunities and enduring other
tragedies. No nation can truly be compared with one another due to the unique circumstances
beset upon every belligerent party, and this chapter won’t be comparing experiences. The
experiences themselves matter the most to describe how the war changed the course of
feminism.
The war did not directly lead to the liberation of women. World War II played very much
an indirect role to this progression. After all the war itself was a reaction against liberalism, not a
push for it. Allied nations were more concerned with their survival than what rights people did or
did not have, though the war did prove the benefits of alleviating sex and race based hierarchy
in favour of greater meritocracy when waging a total war of survival. There were still countless
abuses against women as a direct result of the war, and many of these abuses amplified
abuses that had already existed even during times of peace. What the war did was make people
41
more conscious about both the abuses against women, and women’s deserving of equality
alongside men. Cultural shifts towards greater gender equality were not profound until long after
the war, however the experience of the war for women’s rights advocates, and their
descendants, however the distance in time does not mean a distance in influence.
* * * *
* * * *
The war in China did not start out as a surprise invasion, but rather a border skirmish.
Neither side quite expected a total war to break out, as none had occurred during Japan’s
occupation of Manchuria in 1931. On top of this escalation, a civil war was waging between
former allies, KMT and Chinese Communist Party. Though the prevailing rights for women
weren’t particularly outstanding compared to the West, as women were no longer completely
Communism, and maintained conservative gender roles. During the Xi’an incident in 1936, the
Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek was detained and forced to sign a ceasefire with the
Communist rebels to turn their attention to the Japanese aggressors. Despite Nationalist
antagonism against feminism, Japan was still the main enemy for many feminists114.
As the total nature of World War II became clear, the Nationalist government became
hard pressed to recruit the services of its women population to the defense of the nation. By
1938, after the fall of Nanjing and the subsequent genocide, the government made its “first
114
“In the Sian [Xi’an] Incident, the next great landmark on the way to unity and active struggle against the
invaders, the release of the seven [members of various National Salvation Associations in Shanghai] was
one of the important demands made on the Generalissimo. These events, and ever-increasing Japanese
pressure, led rapidly toward the achievement of the immediate goals for which every progressive,
patriotic, antifascist Chinese had been working-the cessation of civil war, and armed resistance to
external aggression” (Li Yu-ning Chinese Women through Chinese Eyes)
42
Advisory Committee.”115 The committee mobilized women into supporting roles such as nursing
and feeding soldiers. Other organizations, founded by women, included the National Chinese
Women’s Association for War Relief, Wartime Association for Child Welfare, and the New Life
Movement Women’s Advisory Council. However the Nationalist government worried about
bolstering feminist zeal in light of Communist support, so restricted women to wartime duties
most appropriate to gender norms, using these organizations to promote conservative values
while not losing the benefits of women participation. The government in 1941 reemphasized
conservative norms, encouraging women “to have more children and limit their concerns to
family issues”, and to remain disassociated with the politics of the war116. The Central
“It is harmful for every woman to strive to take part in politics. … Work in the women’s
movement should be concerned with the general education, vocational training, women’s
service, and welfare and daily problems. The Women’s movement will have succeeded
when women reach the level of men in character, knowledge, physical condition, and
technical abilities.”117
Campaigns to improve women’s education were underway to equip women for the tasks
required of the various wartime auxiliary organization mentioned earlier. The government’s aim
was to encourage what they believed to be a less decadent, more collectivist society to bolster
social cohesion for the war effort118 through the recruitment of women in educating other women
on motherly values.
In contrast to the Nationalist government, the Communists were more open towards the
recruitment of women even into combat duties, including the establishment of women’s
115
Elshtain, Women and War: With a New Epilogue, 110
116
Elshtain, Women and War: With a New Epilogue, 111
117
Li Yu-ning Chinese Women through Chinese Eyes
118
“The Party launched a ‘spiritual’ campaign that had several aims, including eliminating the decadent
thoughts of the nation, the selfishness of the population, and the tendency of the Chinese to ‘live without
purpose,’ during the Sino-Japanese War. Council members hoped to nurture moralities that might be
familiar to elites of the past, frugality, loyalty, and benevolence. Added to these qualities were the ideas of
service to the nation, self discipline, and a collectivist ethic which had been nurtured among students, in
part through textbooks, during the Nanjing decade” (Schneider, “Women and Family Education Reform in
Wartime China, 187)
43
paramilitary corps like the Hunan War Service Corps, the Yunnan Women’s Battlefield Service
Unit, the Guangxi Province Women’s Brigade, and the Northwest Women’s Battlefield Group104.
However, for political reasons, the Communists did not provide support for non-supporting units,
even attacking a Li Gua Dao cultist unit staffed ten percent by women members who saw the
China however was too decentralized for state protocol to be exercised to maximum
strictness. Enough room allowed women to take their own initiative, with or without state
support, such as the very immediate organization of nursing and morale units to the 29th army
stationed at the Manchurian border when the Marco Polo Bridge skirmishes occurred at the start
of the war120, several months before official endorsement by the Nationalist government. In the
battle of Shanghai women of all ages volunteered not only to aid in the defense of the city itself
but continued to stay and tend to its denizens during the occupation. Two months into the Battle
of Shanghai, about two thousand volunteer nurses from all walks of life were trained to treat
entertainment, and provided monetary support. Women also participated in and organized
resistance rings behind Japanese lines in Shanxi (Northern China), such as those connected
with the Chinese Eighth Route Army, maintaining communications between occupied villages
and performing sabotage against Japanese military operations. During the Japanese occupation
of Shanxi, many social traditions were relaxed under Eighth Route Army administration. Some
of the Shanxi villages had up until this point maintained Imperial-age gender norms, with women
unable to leave the house, and foot binding still a practice. Wartime difficulties, and
encouragement from women resistance fighters, turned Shanxi culture over on its head as it
119
Elshtain, Women and War: With a New Epilogue, 111
120
“In the very first days after the clash on the Marco Polo Bridge, they organizated nursing, bandage
making, and political propaganda units to work in conjunction with the local garrison - the 29th Army” (Li
Yu-ning Chinese Women through Chinese Eyes)
121
“Volunteers helped to bring the wounded back from the front, rolled bandages and sewed hospital
clothes for their needs, nursed them, wrote letters organized entertainment. Hastily set up classes trained
two thousand emergency nurses in two months. Many women worked right in the zone of fire - mill girls,
society matrons, students, and girl scouts side by side” (Li Yu-ning Chinese Women through Chinese
Eyes)
44
became a more common sight to see women working alongside men, engage in social
intercourse, and pursue personal interests122. Among these many would join militia groups
under command of the Eighth Route Army who trained them for both combat and education123.
Logistics lines like the Burma Road and Northwest Highway, through which Allied powers
provided provisions for the Chinese Nationalist Army, were also staffed by many women
volunteers124.
Though the Nationalist’s conservatism regarding women’s roles in the war rivaled the
social hierarchies of even the Axis countries, women’s institutions that highlighted their
importance to the war at all was a huge leap forward in Chinese history from imperial age
conservatism. In no previous international war had China recruited the services of women, and
joined by the Communist movement more women were conscious than ever about the threat
Japan posed to China and their own sovereignty. Unfortunately, of the atrocities committed in
China during the Second World War, the rape of over 20,000 women in Nanjing and forced
prostitution by the Japanese imperial army are among the most famous. State-sponsored
prostitution had already been a means to provide sexual pleasure for Japanese soldiers
stationed abroad, however greater efforts were made to organize the industry after the Rape of
Nanjing when the first “comfort stations” were established in China in 1938125. This was in
response to the international outcry against the atrocity, as Japan feared further humiliation from
statement was made by the Japanese government immediately after the Rape decrying the
atrocity itself in, and the event still remains controversial regarding the magnitude of the atrocity
122
“In the border region, family relations changed as women attended meetings and worked in the fields
alongside men. Women participated more openly in social intercourse with men; they could more freely
express their joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hate, and desire. Women began to perform in plays, operas,
dances, singing groups, instrumental groups, and stilt walking” (Feng and Goodman, North China at War:
The Social Ecology of Revolution, 1937-1945, 107)
123
Feng and Goodman, North China at War: The Social Ecology of Revolution, 1937-1945, 118
124
“The Kwangtung trade route, which, dodging the blockade for more than a year, secretly moved far
more goods each week than the Burma Road could manage in a month, was composed of endless lines
of sturdy Hakka women-porters, carrying hundred-pound loads in thirty-mile stages” (Li Yu-ning Chinese
Women through Chinese Eyes)
125
Elshtain, Women and War: With a New Epilogue, 112
45
prostitution and trafficking was not new, as the government had already been trafficking women
from Taiwan, Korea, and Taiwan, and many of the institutions were based on a previously
existing sex-trafficking system that sold Karayuki-san, or Japanese girls or women who were
Slavery, which by this time included forced prostitution, had already been banned under
international law in the 1926 Slavery Convention127. As a result, most records pertaining to the
comfort women were destroyed just before the surrender in August 1945128. Justifications for the
institution of military brothels by the Japanese army included not only maintaining a good public
image, but also avoid causing fear and hatred by rape that bolstered enemy resistance,
avoiding the spread of sexually transmitted disease through medically-screened prostitutes, and
more carefully selecting socially isolated women who were incapable of engaging in enemy
espionage129. Consideration for the sentiments of local populations were more pragmatic in
nature rather than moral, fearing that sewing hatred through rape encouraged insurrection
According to various information, the reason for such strong anti-Japanese sentiment
[among the local Chinese population] is widespread rape committed by Japanese military
personnel in many places. It is said that such rape is fermenting unexpectedly serious
just a matter of criminal law. It is nothing but high treason that breaches public peace and
order, that harms the strategic activities of our entire forces, and that brings serious
trouble to our nation...It is necessary to eradicate such acts. Any commander who
126
“...we see how the same discrimination against class and gender that promoted the traffic of Japanese
women overseas in the Meiji and Taisho periods would later justify the large-scale abduction of other
Asian women as military ‘comfort women’ along the Japanese front lines prior to and during World War II”
(Yamazaki and Colligan-Taylor, Sandakan Brothel No. 8: An Episode in the History of Lower-Class
Japanese Women, XIII)
127
Argibay, “Sexual Slavery and the Comfort Women of World War II”, 375
128
Tanaka, Japan’s Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution during World War II and the US
Occupation, 8
129
Argibay, “Sexual Slavery and the Comfort Women of World War II”, 377
46
importance that individual acts by our military personnel be strictly controlled, and that, at
the same time, facilities for sexual pleasure be established promptly, in order to prevent
our men from inadvertently breaking the law due to the lack of such facilities.”130
Every army considers how soldiers are expected to conduct themselves in an occupation
zone, with rape being a major concern. The Japanese Army was more concerned with its
own reputation in the face of international scrutiny than the treatment of the women
themselves. The rape and sexual slavery by themselves however became tools to assert
Japanese dominance over Chinese civilians by paying no legal consideration for the
Only about 25% of all comfort women actually survived the war131, many of whom were
left sterile and infected by sexually transmitted diseases132. During a 1991 lawsuit against the
Japanese government by former Korean comfort women, one of the women Kim Haku Soon
“When I was 17 years old, the Japanese soldiers came along in a truck, beat us, and then
dragged us into the back. I was told that if I were drafted, I could earn lots of money at the
textile company… The first day I was raped and the rapes never stopped.”133
Another former comfort woman Kum Ja Hwang presented her own detailed story:
“I thought I was drafted as a labour worker when, at the age of 17, the Japanese village
leader’s wife ordered all unmarried Korean girls to go to work at a Japanese military
factory. I worked there for three years, until the day that I was asked to follow a Japanese
soldier into his tent. He told me to take my clothes off. I resisted because I was so scared,
I was still a virgin. But he just ripped my skirt and cut my underwear from my body with a
gun which had a knife attached to it. At that point I fainted. And when I woke up again, I
130
Tanaka, Japan’s Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution during World War II and the US
Occupation, 16
131
De Brouwer, Supernational Criminal Prosecution of Sexual Violence: The ICC and the Practice of the
ICTY and the ICTR, 8
132
Unlike the prostitutes, the soldiers were not screened by physicians for sexually transmitted diseases.
133
Watanabe, “Trafficking in Women’s Bodies, Then and Now: The Issue of Military ‘Comfort Women’”, 19
47
From then on, I realized that during the first year I, like all the other Korean girls with me,
was ordered to service high-ranking officials, and as time passed, and as we were more
and more ‘used,’ we served lower-ranking officers. If a woman got a disease, she usually
vanished. We were also given ‘606-shots’ so that we would not get pregnant or that any
We only received clothes two times per year and not enough food, only rice cakes and
water. I was never paid for my ‘services,’ I worked for five years as a “comfort woman,”
but all my life I suffered from it. My intestines are mostly removed because they were
infected so many times, I have not been able to have intercourse because of the painful
and shameful experiences. I cannot drink milk or fruit juices without feeling sick because
Kazuko Watanabe also described based on the 1991 case that these women were “made to
service an average of thirty to forty soldiers per day, with Japanese soldiers standing in line
outside a small room waiting for their turn.”135 Aso Tetsuo, a Japanese military doctor during
World War II, testified to the court the ethos of the clientels, describing the women as being
treated like “female ammunition” and “public toilets.”140 Watanabe also describes racial
discrimination in practice, with Korean and Chinese women reserved for low-ranking soldiers,
while Japanese and white women were reserved for higher officials and officers. Many former
comfort women gained the confidence to share their stories after Chuo University history
professor Yoshimi Yoshiaki on January 16, 1992, discovered documents in the library of Japan’s
Self Defense Force in Tokyo that incriminated the government’s sponsorship of forced
prostitution during the war, as the government had previously denied the claims136. Former
* * * *
* * * *
134
Kim, “The Comfort Women System: Sexual Slavery during World War II”, 33
135
Watanabe, “Trafficking in Women’s Bodies, Then and Now: The Issue of Military ‘Comfort Women’”, 20
136
Watanabe, “Trafficking in Women’s Bodies, Then and Now: The Issue of Military ‘Comfort Women’”, 21
48
To Chinese women, Japan was the gravest threat of the era to their sovereignty,
reacting to their atrocities in Manchuria as well as during the occupation. After 1927, Japan
became a military oligarchy, poised to establish its position on the continent. The country was
threatened by the Soviet Union, and their establishment on the mainland served as a means to
strengthen Japan in the likely event of a Soviet incursion137, not even favouring open hostilities
with China until the Marco Polo Bridge incident in 1937. Japan supported anti-Communism at
home138 and abroad in China139, and like China considered feminism to be a proponent of
suppressed, even violently on occasions, to usher greater patriarchal support. Into the
Sino-Japanese war however the Japanese government was very reluctant to recruit the
services of women to aid in the war effort. Up until 1943, women were still largely encouraged to
occupy traditional roles, and the Japanese government never issued an official economic
mobilization of women during the war140. Prime Minister Hideki Tojo announced the woman’s
“That warm fountainhead which protects the household, assumes responsibility for
rearing children, and causes women, children, brothers, and sisters to act as support for
the front lines is based on the family system. This is the natural mission of the women in
Japan had not anticipated a total war by 1937, and no mobilization plans were made with
women taking more active roles in mind142. The lack of a women’s mobilization plan is unusual
for the state of the war, as nearly every other belligerent nation had incorporated women in
137
“Lieutenant General Araki Sadao had become army minister with the cabinet change of December
1931. Although Araki also believed in pushing forward with a total mobilization plan, he was certain that
the Soviet Union was actively preparing for war with Japan” (Barnhard 34)
138
“On the second May Day march staged in Japan (in 1921), the Sekirankai, [a women’s organization
that plans to build a socialist society], marched with its banner. The police charged on them, and many of
them were arrested” (Hane 127)
139
“Under Japanese pressure, seven members of this worker’s committee were arrested by the
government, charged with ‘endangering the safety of the Republic,’ for which the maximum penalty was
death” (Li Yu-ning, Chinese Women through Chinese Eyes)
140
Havens, “Women and War in Japan, 1937-45”, 916.
141
Havens, “Women and War in Japan, 1937-45”, 920.
142
Specifically with active women’s roles in mind. Japan did take on a herculean effort preparing for total
war mobilization in other regards during the interwar period.
49
some way to the total war process. Female labour in Japan during the war only rose by ten
percent between 1940 and 1955 compared to figures in the United States and Soviet Union in
the fiftieth percentile143, and industrial labour declined when even in Germany women’s
Controversy came from the Imperial court. By 1940 Japan was in a full state of total war,
and the mobilization of women became a considered issue for the war cabinet and imperial
the Imperial Rule Assistance Association to use more women as agricultural technicians due to
“We have adhered unconsciously for too long to the ancient Japanese female virtue
which says that men lead and women follow. Their natural spirit of autonomy and self
management has been suppressed, and their creative powers have been regarded as
mere desperation. Times have changed, and today, when conditions are stringent, the
most urgent business for women’s education is to encourage activity by women and to
heighten their self-respect. It is not very simple to heighten self-respect, but the first thing
to be done is to give young women the ability to believe in themselves. There is no way to
acquire this ability except to give young women sufficient amounts of systematic practical
education in school.”144
Sakaguchi’s stance was rather unusual for the ethos of the Imperial Japanese government.
Even minister of welfare Koizumi Chikahiko, recognizing the enemy’s use of a female labour
force, advised against the drafting of women in Japan out of “consideration for the family
system.”118. Nakamura Shinroku, another leader expressed his agreement at the same
conference on a more conservative stance, believing that educated women could bolster
patriotic fervor at home145. No official reforms were made, and women’s involvement in the war
still remained volunteer based rather than full mobilization, and still limited to home or soft tasks.
143
Havens, “Women and War in Japan, 1937-45”, 918.
144
Havens, “Women and War in Japan, 1937-45”, 920
145
Havens, “Women and War in Japan, 1937-45”, 921
50
In spite of the suppression of feminist movements during the war, maternal feminism
(bosei shugisha) saw a small rise in prominence in gendered politics. As discussed in the first
chapter, maternal feminism was the belief in distinct social roles between men and women, and
valued equality in respect rather than equality in rights. These feminists supported conservative
social roles, and did not challenge the authority of the military state, which served as an asset
for the government to guide feminist proponents towards a more politically correct path. Rights
that would further mothers’ contribution to the state became preferred discussion topics, not only
by the state but also by feminist organizations as well, especially the previously discussed
feminist writer Hiratsuka Raichō and Ichikawa Fusae, the writer who argued with Hiratsuka
Raichō over maternal feminism. Maternal feminism flirted with eugenics studies in the 1930’s.
The movement had already been working towards the improvement of women’s lives in their
medical lives, such as advocating health checks for husbands, the legalization of abortion,
however these points were guided towards the state’s needs for a bolstered population growth,
and a fit one at that. Several years earlier the Eugenic Marriage Popularization Society (a
male-run women’s organization) was founded privately to promote its namesake marriage
stance146, which on November 11th, 1935, became an affiliate of the Association of Race
Hygiene lead by Tokyo University physiologist and prominent eugenicist Nagai Hisomu147. In
March of 1936 psychiatrist Yasui Hiroshi wrote in Society’s monthly journal Yusei:
descendants.
- To achieve the well-being of family and the prosperity of descendants, one has to
be selective about the quality of his or her spouse. Women, whose fate is often
- Marriage customs based on the superstitions and traditions will be things of the
past.
- Rational selection based on eugenics is desirable for modern people and should
146
Otsubo, “Feminist Maternal Eugenics in Wartime Japan”, 43
147
Otsubo, “Feminist Maternal Eugenics in Wartime Japan”, 44
51
- Choosing a spouse of good quality, avoiding one of poor quality, and ensuring
context.
The feminist investment into eugenics had incidents of being taken to the extreme, albeit not
frequently. One incident occurred in 1935, when Tokuda Eiko murdered her elder brother, her
“The Mendelian Law would not allow the birth of good human beings from parents who
were alcoholic and sexually dissolute. Eugenically speaking, it cannot be denied that
even if there were no effect on their children, the curse of the parents' genes would
ours should not produce any descendants. Doing so means poisoning the society.
Because of this, I have never been interested in repeated offers of marriage, nor have I
been romantically involved with anyone. When my mother consulted me about killing the
ill behaved brother (furyõ no ani), I did not hesitate to support her plan since getting rid of
an inferior human would serve the society and help my poor mother. . . . My father was
vicious when he was drunk. He was also a philanderer. He had a shallow, cruel
personality. My maternal grandfather was also violent when he was drunk and did not
care about the family. Thus my grandmother divorced him when my mother was three.
There is no way that we, offspring of these parents, will have desirable descendants.”149
150
Another less extreme initiative was reported about a woman named Fujioka Ruriko who
introduced the tenets of eugenics by rejecting a traditionally luxurious marriage ceremony with a
148
Otsubo, “Feminist Maternal Eugenics in Wartime Japan”, 46-47
149
Otsubo, “Feminist Maternal Eugenics in Wartime Japan”, 48
150
The police had identified the crime as fratricide for insurance fraud (Otsubo, “Feminist Maternal
Eugenics in Wartime Japan”, 48)
52
more modest ceremony, and an exchange of medical documents with her fiancé151. This caught
the eye of local prefecture governments who officially encouraged this new practice. When the
EMPS was merged into the government in 1937, the society became one of the only
organizations where which its women officers could engage in state management. For example,
psychologist and maternalist Kōra Tomiko developed training programs to educate high school
students in eugenics and mold female students into “ideal brides” in association with the Satō
Institute for New Home Life152. By 1940, Kōra became “the only woman representative on the
December 1940.”127 Here she established a bureau for women, where she helped unite many of
the existing women’s associations into the “Greater Japan Women’s Association,” which in 1942
started a health campaign that promoted marriage and disease prevention. Similar stories
include Takeuchi Shigeyo, who also led eugenics tutorials to encourage maternalist values, this
time to male audiences in universities153. Despite the quite questionable morality of these
developments in the 1930’s and 1940’s, they did make successes in elevating women past the
perception of what they called “borrowed wombs” into a non-identical yet equally worthy one to
The success of maternalism during the Showa Period155 of Japan can in some ways be
considered an antithesis to the failure of the joken shugisha, the proponents of total
egalitarianism between the sexes who were captured by state agencies for alleged communist
sympathies, due to its flirtation with fascism. Though there were fascist sympathies even among
the maternalists156, there was also a pragmatic element to this development. Outside policies
151
Otsubo, “Feminist Maternal Eugenics in Wartime Japan”, 50
152
Otsubo, “Feminist Maternal Eugenics in Wartime Japan”, 55
153
(Otsubo, “Feminist Maternal Eugenics in Wartime Japan”, 56)
154
“Nagai himself contended that it was not productive to debate which sex is superior to the other and
criticized the adherents of the "predominance of men over women" ( danson johi ) view. Biologically
speaking, their bodies differ to accomplish equally worthy but different task... While men are more
dynamic and egoistic, women are more static and altruistic. The two sexes are meant to supplement each
other in order to fulfill their lives” (Otsubo, “Feminist Maternal Eugenics in Wartime Japan”, 52)
155
1926-1989, 1926-1945 for the militarist pre-war and war-time government.
156
“Japanese women who sought maternal eugenic programs accepted unthinkingly the more
reprehensible racial and class biases of eugenics, thereby reflecting their own privileged status as
members of the middle class.” (Otsubo, “Feminist Maternal Eugenics in Wartime Japan”, 62)
53
that furthered pro-military and eugenics agendas, the government made no other concessions
for furthering women’s rights. The maternalists were a tolerable advocacy group because the
issues they pressed were convenient to the militarist atmosphere of the 1930’s and 1940’s.
Figures like Takeuchi Shigeyo and Kōra Tomiko used their eugenics tutorials to also further the
political participation of women in general, as they themselves had reached positions in the
state that very few women had ever reached before. Maternalism became a means by which
feminists could push for women’s rights within a fascist regime. Yamakawa Kikue, a prominent
socialist activist who fit the joken shugisha category who would also play a more prominent role
in post-war feminism in Japan popularizing joken shugisha ideals over bosei shugisha ideals,
was threatened arrest during the war, limiting her writing to politically correct historical
documentation until the American occupation157. Political repression ensured very little women’s
* * * *
* * * *
The war came to an India under a social revolution that had already been brewing by the
Satyagraha movement. The Raj was at its tail end of its existence, now as even many British
politicians began to support India’s independence. India had already participated in the First
World War with quashed enthusiasm to the prospect of winning independence as compensation
for military loyalty, and that similar enthusiasm remained at the start of the Second World War.
For some, independence was not even a forefront matter, instead recognizing the opportunities
the war provided. The horrors of war barely reached Indian soil, as the Japanese were repelled
back towards Burma in Imphal and Kohima in 1944, and India suffered limited aerial
bombardment. This created a strange situation where the nation was divided on allegiances,
with many vehemently loyal to the British cause, some like Gandhi recognizing the threat of Axis
aggression, and others turning to the Axis to fight the British in the Indian National Army lead by
157
Klemperer-Markham and Goldstein-Gidoni 7
54
officer Mohan Singh and later independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose. Just as the men did,
women took sides that supported their needs and personal convictions.
The British Raj enlisted the services of thousands of Indian women to hard labour,
construction, and auxiliary duties. These women worked in mines, and also worked near the
North Eastern boarder and in Burma to build military infrastructure like airfields and roads.
Around 11,500 women were recruited into the Indian Auxiliary Corps, which involved
predominantly clerical duties like paper keeping and telephony158, and among whom around
1,160 were appointed officers and participated in strategic command159160. Unlike the men’s
combat units, women’s auxiliaries were not racially segregated, working alongside British
auxiliaries. Indian nurses treated Indian, British, Australian, and American casualties alike. Much
of this recruitment was in continuation of the same processes exercised during the First World
War, and mirrored greatly the protocols of women’s work in Britain. Unlike in Britain however,
Indian women were not conscripted into the workforce, and there was still racial discrimination in
regards who whom was recruited into the auxiliaries compared to hard labour. Most Indian
auxiliaries were either Christians, and/or mixed race161. While thousands of Allied troops were
stationed in India, the Raj police maintained strict control over movement as to restrict
interaction between native Indians and white foreign troops, fearing the spread of sexually
transmitted diseases under the continued presumption of the sexual eastern female162. White
soldiers who engaged in sexual relations with native “coolie” women were described as having
done so as a “last resort”125. Though there were more work opportunities for women in India,
racism and the already existing sexism still largely either restricted women to subservient roles,
or risked earning a woman indignity. Entertainment and sexual labour was also recruited by the
158
Khan, “Sex in an Imperial War Zon: Transnational Encounters in Second World War India”, 242
159
“Women's Auxiliary Corps (India) World War II photograph album” University of Pennsylvania Finding
Aids
160
Khan, “Sex in an Imperial War Zon: Transnational Encounters in Second World War India”, 242
161
“Women's Auxiliary Corps (India) World War II photograph album” University of Pennsylvania Finding
Aids
162
(Khan, “Sex in an Imperial War Zon: Transnational Encounters in Second World War India”, 246)
55
British Indian Army, favouring Anglo-Indians, and even white British women were subject to
In 1942, after the fall of Singapore to the Japanese, former Indian officers organized the
Indian National Army in alliance with the Japanese to try and liberate India. The INA followed
Japan through its campaign in Burma, typically in a more expedient and subservient position.
Compared to Japanese forces, the INA was very small, and limited in power, and Bose had
banked more on the morale the presence of the INA would provide for possible Indian
revolutionaries who could topple the Raj from the inside164. Bose’s political ideology is a matter
up for debate, as he is accused of fascist sympathies for his treason against the British Raj,
while at the same described with socialist sympathies165, more closely aligned with Stalin than
prominent Fascist leaders. His left-wing leanings and right-wing allegiances left him an awkward
position when he recruited women into his Rani of Jhansi regiment, staffed by Indian nurses
also trained for combatant roles, and lead by physician Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan166, a
prominent women’s nationalist and communist sympathizer. While status quo gender
relationships were maintained in the Satyagraha movement, the INA recruited more women,
albeit from limited available numbers, to serve more active duties, following along lines similar to
that of the Soviet Union. This occured to the ire of Japanese liaisons, who saw the regiment as
an affront to Japanese nationalism and traditions167, harking back previously to the supreme
163
“the way that women’s labour was harnessed to war subordinated them to the war effort, locking them
into a patriarchal web of militarization and military intervention. Importantly, this transcended race and
meant that many women, from diverse places and backgrounds, had their welfare relegated to a
secondary position; in every encounter the needs of the (male) military were privileged” (Khan, “Sex in an
Imperial War Zon: Transnational Encounters in Second World War India”, 242)
164
Lebra, The Indian National Army and Japan, 120
165
“You cannot have a so-called democratic system, if that system has to put through economic reforms on a
socialistic basis. Therefore we must have a political system – a State – of an authoritarian character. We have
had some experience of democratic institutions in India and we have also studied the working of democratic
institutions in countries like France, England and United States of America. And we have come to the
conclusion that with a democratic system we cannot solve the problems of Free India. Therefore, modern
progressive thought in India is in favour of a State of an authoritarian character"(Bose and Bose, The
Essential Writings of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose 319-20)
166
Lebra, The Indian National Army and Japan, 121
167
“Women had no place in Japanese military tradition, and Japanese authorities at first refused Bose a
site for a camp for women. Moreover, the Japanese did not want to expend precious resources on women
soldiers. Bose persisted until he won his point” (Lebra, The Indian National Army and Japan, 121)
56
reluctance to recruit women for military services greater than very basic household and
manufacturing work.
After the fall of Singapore, India became the main base of operations for Allied forces in
the China-Burma-India theatre of the war. Recruitment, high command, rest and recuperation,
all occurred in India while nationalist agitations were at their peak. In 1939 43 thousand British
troops were stationed in India, up to 240 thousand in 1945, and around 120 thousand American
soldiers were stationed in India by 1943 alongside 2.5 million Indian soldiers168. Prostitution,
which had previously been banned, was legally reinstated by 1940. Prostitution in India was not
a grand state-sponsored slaving institution like Japanese sex slavery was, relying more on
“volunteers” than kidnapping. There however was a degree of coercion of women when mass
prostitution was legalized for the sake of the soldiers stationed in India, due largely to corruption.
One example includes American smuggling of US Army inventory with the help of Indian
prostitutes, while the US Army goods were sold off to the black market169. Indian soldiers very
commonly engaged in corrupt activities between the Indian population and Allied soldiers,
coercing women keen on escaping oppression at home into oppression abroad, creating a
women. Women were treated as a commodity, a trade that could be brokered between local
villages and Allied soldiers looking for prostitutes. The Raj government and Indian nationalists
blamed each other for forced prostitution and subsequent rapes that occurred.
Rapes were another product of corruption and political turbulence during the war. The
Indian National Congress protested against widespread rape and molestation by Allied troops
stationed in India171, which they accused the viceroyalty of committing very little resources to
168
Khan, “Sex in an Imperial War Zon: Transnational Encounters in Second World War India”, 243
169
Khan, “Sex in an Imperial War Zon: Transnational Encounters in Second World War India”, 249
170
“British and American civilian and military leaders were deeply troubled by the sanitary and political
implications of the increase in prostitution” (Khan, “Sex in an Imperial War Zon: Transnational Encounters
in Second World War India”, 249)
171
Kumar, The History of Doing, an Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism
in India, 1800-1990, 206
57
stopping. Rape sometimes also occurred during confrontations between police and women.
During the Bengal Famine, in 1943 revolutionary Sushil Kumar Dhara had begun arming women
followers with daggers in response to mass rapes in Bengal. One of them, Kumudini Dakua,
described an event in Sutahata where a couple of sepoys had broken into her mother-in-law’s
house, attempting to grab young women in the house to be repelled by Dakua and her dagger172
. An incident on January 9th of 1943 in Masuria saw the rape of forty-six women in one day by
sepoy raids173. Viceroy Lord Lithlingow had sacked the local governor in response to the
incident. These rapes were apolitical, random, and not sanctioned by the government, but reflect
the lack of discipline of the mostly Indian police and soldiers resulting from the already crumbling
state of the British Raj. Conditions of the Bengal Famine, caused by food shortages resulting
from corruption and Japanese supply raiding put women into a state of desperation, pushing
many towards prostitution, and leading many others to become victims of sexual violence. What
matters the most here is the surprisingly little acknowledgement of Indian participation by the
independence movement, who did address women’s rights abuses committed by the British
172
Mukerjee, Churchill’s Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II,
98
173
Mukerjee, Churchill’s Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II, 99
58
Conclusion
While the main goal of the United Nations in response to World War II was to secure
liberal internationalism and peace, it also promoted women's rights in its championing of human
rights. As the United Nations were drafting the Declaration of Human Rights, when they debated
on the marriage equality article the Mexican delegate Campos Ortiz proposed a repetition of the
non-discrimination clause present in Article 2 to secure a woman’s right to marry without racial,
ethnic, or religious restrictions. Polish delegate Fryderyka Kalinowska supported the addition by
claiming that the “war had shown the equality of the sexes,”174 both agreeing that repeated
mentions towards non-discrimination were necessary to maintain the clause’s importance. While
great effort was put towards addressing ethnic discrimination as a direct response to the tragedy
of the Holocaust, the Women’s Lobby had also recognized the role the war played towards
enforcing the idea that women were equal to men, and that future law should reflect that.
While equality between the sex were not won immediately after the war, the rights of
women became a major component of domestic politics for countries around the world, either to
further them, protect them, or restrict them. The status of women stopped being a “for granted”
fact after the war, and the war also indirectly sparked the rise of the next wave of feminism that
174
Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Origins, Drafting, and Intent, 124
59
challenged gender roles and abuses after having largely won suffrage rights. Yamakawa Kikue
joined the Japanese Socialist Party after the American occupation, distrusting the occupational
political rights and instead maintain the gendered status quo, to push towards greater women’s
freedom and participation in government. She insisted that women be educated in political
independence, to take elections most seriously and with most responsibility175, and in 1947 she
was selected to head the Women and Minor’s Bureau of the Ministry of Labour176, using the
position to encourage greater women’s participation in the job market and workforce, and
advocate affirmative action to properly educate women to the same standard as men. Though
Yamakawa Kikue’s success was limited, the Bureau’s work with socialist elements in the
governments pushed for greater active women’s roles in defiance to the previous maternalist
After India won its independence in 1947 the Indian National Congress codified equality
between the sexes, however in practice the constitution changed very little in regards to the
treatment of women. Some of the first major bills favouring the advancement of women’s rights,
including the woman’s right to divorce inheritance, were delayed by almost a decade until 1955
due to conservative lobbying from men like Rajendra Prasad and Sardar Patel177. Many of the
feminists who did not splinter off into various Communist and Anarchist organizations (of whom
were provincial and rarely cooperated with one another) joined the Congress and did not press
matters. Around the country left-wing insurgency groups started forming, albeit for economic
grievances and unsatisfactory concern to the women’s rights they championed, incurring
government crackdowns. Some women joined these insurgency groups. With the rise of the
women’s increasing membership in this and other similar far-left movements brought gender
175
Klemperer-Markham and Golstein-Gidoni, “Socialist Egalitarianism Feminism in Early Postwar Japan:
Yamakawa Kikue and the “Democratization of Japan”, 9
176
Klemperer-Markham and Golstein-Gidoni, “Socialist Egalitarianism Feminism in Early Postwar Japan:
Yamakawa Kikue and the “Democratization of Japan”, 13
177
Kumar, The History of Doing, an Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism
in India, 1800-1990, 212
60
issues back into the forefront178, starting with a temperance movement in reaction to prevalent
drunk-induced spousal abuse. Other developments such as the foundation of India’s first
women’s trade union in Gujarat in 1972 by Ela Bhatt, the Self-Employed Women’s Association,
began to address the plights of working women in India, and the association itself became
In China, feminists feared the rotting of their newly recognized status of equality with
men, as vice president of the Women’s Federation in the Chinese Communist Party Deng
Yingzhao declared that the liberation of women was “first and foremost the business of women”,
declaring that the state alone or any other entity could not simply bestow rights to women
without women exercising those rights.180 The state sponsored women’s organizations around
the country guided by the ACDWF, who funded education and labour campaigns for women.
Women’s organizations pressed forward the idea of a “new age” for women, as one magazine
proclaimed:
“[Women] won the right to dignity and equality only recently, after long years of
tremendous struggle. Now they are energetically transforming these rights into deeper
reality. In every walk of life, in cities and villages all over the country, they are asking:
how shall we act to use our freedom well for our children, for our country and ourselves?
With steady purpose, they are expunging the effects of their age-long feudal oppression
from their lives and learning how to take their new position in society.
Such knowledge does not come of itself. Discussion, analysis and exchange of
experience show the way forward. Serious questions which affect great numbers of
women are debated in the national press and in women’s magazines, in forums and in
meetings large and small. Should housewives go out to work? Should educated women
stay at home and care for their children after they become mothers? Is a weekly nursery
better than a day nursery for the children of busy parents? Should women try to do men’s
jobs? What should be the grounds for seeking and granting a divorce? What is the best
178
Kumar, The History of Doing, an Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism
in India, 1800-1990, 218
179
Kumar, The History of Doing, an Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism
in India, 1800-1990, 224
180
Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China, 235
61
way to bring up children to be good citizens of the new socialist country that is coming
into being? Even very simple everyday problems like “What shall we wear?” have come
up for wide discussion, and men as well as women have joined in. This is a new age, and
the old standards of womens duties and women’s rights no longer prevail. The liberation
has opened all roads. The new standards have to be thought out and established by
women themselves.”181
In each of these three countries, the rights and roles of women had long paths of
progress set before them, however for the first time “women’s rights” became a permanent
political and cultural issue. The rise of socialist feminism against maternalist feminism in Japan,
the turn of focus from foreign to domestic abuses against women in India, and the experiences
of women in Shanxi to keep even the women of most rural regions of China aware of their rights,
were all shaped by the war. Returning to pre war tradition was no longer an option, with the
realities of the war and tyranny combined with long campaigns of education in the pre war
period firmly cementing in the consciences of rights activists the necessity of their struggles.
Rights advocacy also became a threat to traditionalists, and no longer an easily quashed one at
that. Today we can learn that none of these developments needed a war to happen, yet the war
provided a catalyst to keep human rights in the vernacular, as after the First World War
injustices to the human spirit, from patriarchy, from imperialism, from racism, were taken much
more for granted compared to after the Second World War. Remembering the tragedies of the
war that lead up to the drafting of women’s rights, and the rights of all humankind, is necessary
181
Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China, 241
62
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