Mrs Pierson's Anti-Prostitution Campaign

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The early Christian missionaries in Nokkeushi, Mr and Mrs Pierson, often helped women and children through their deeds of charity, sometimes freeing women from lives of prostitution.

In those days it was not unusual for poverty-stricken farmers to sell their daughters to 'restaurants' where in reality they were forced to work as prostitutes. On hearing of such an instance, the Piersons would buy the woman back so that she could return to her family or they would shelter her in their own home. On that account, Mr Pierson was one night attacked from behind with a stick and Mrs Pierson was knocked to the ground while trying to leave one of the 'restaurants'. She apparently suffered pain for many years afterwards as a consequence.

In 1916 the village of Nokkeushi was raised in status to become a town. To mark the event the Governor of Hokkaido, Tawara Magoichi, made a tour of inspection of the Kitami region and visited Nokkeushi on 23 April. A group of prominent citizens took advantage of that opportunity to present an appeal for the establishment of a licensed pleasure facility (yukaku).

When the Piersons heard this they began a campaign of opposition. Their first step was to seek the support of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. That organization was conducting at the time in Japan an active campaign for the prohibition of alcohol and the banning of prostitution. A Nokkeushi branch of the Women's Christian Temperance Union was formed in June 1916.

The Temperance Union had originally begun in the United States as a Christian women's organization which campaigned for the prohibition of alcohol. In Japan a national association was established in 1893, with Yajima Kajiko as president. Kajiko, an aunt of prominent literary figures Tokutomi Soho and Tokutomi Roka, had been raised in privileged circumstances but after marrying suffered from the alcoholic excesses of her husband. They divorced and she became an educationalist and president of the Temperance Union. She submitted petitions to the government calling for the control of prostitution which extended overseas and for the enforcement of monogamy. She inaugurated a campaign against the re-establishment of Yoshiwara-type licensed pleasure quarters and was generally active in opposing prostitution.

This campaign flourished in the early years of the Taisho era. At that time in Japan there was widespread reaction against the principle prevalent in the Meiji era that individual freedom should be sacrificed for the sake of the country as a whole. More recognition came to be given to the value of individual lives and to popular opinion - a phenomenon that became known as Taisho democracy. There was more respect for personal rights and growing support for the banning of discrimination. Mrs Pierson's campaign was by no means an isolated occurence but accorded with the more democratic mood of those days.

The growing membership of the Nokkeushi Women's Temperance Union included the wife of the pastor and a daughter of the mayor, Maeda Komaji. Members visited houses throughout the town and collected three hundred and thirty five signatures on their petition against the establishment of the licensed pleasure facility.

The records of the Union state that Mrs Pierson went to Sapporo and presented the petition to the Governor of Hokkaido. It was also submitted to Home Minister Goto Shinpei.

The following three resolutions were passed at a meeting of the Nokkesuhi Temperance Union in March 1917:      - That a request be made to the Social Purification League (an organization associated with the Temperance Union), for support in ensuring that no licensed pleasure facility should ever be established in the town.      - That a copy of the Social Purification League magazine should be sent to all members of the town council in the name of the union.      - That funds should be collected in support of the Five Sen Collection Campaign for the abolition of licensed prostitution.

In September of that year, Yajima Kajiko visited Nokkeushi and gave lectures at Nokkeushi Elementary School�inow Nishi Elementary School�j, the church and elsewhere.

These actions effectively prevented the establishment of the licensed pleasure facility.

The Temperance Union went on to campaign against tobacco smoking by minors and for laws to prohibit the sale of alcohol and ban prostitution.

With the decline in moral standards in Japan identified with the recent phenomenon of 'dating' by young girls in return for money, in fact a form of prostitution, perhaps we should be reconsidering campaigns such as those of Mrs Pierson and the Women's Temperance Union.

(April, 1997)