Jan 18

WIT Life #70: Japan/America friendship dolls

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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03).  She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.

My travels currently bring me to Rochester, NY, and this morning at the local museum and science center I encountered an unexpected aspect of grassroots exchange between Japan and America.  My Japanese guests and I met with Mr. George McIntosh, Director of Collections, and headed down into the vault to get a closer look at the Japanese Ambassador Doll housed there.  Her name is Tamako and she hails from Nagasaki Prefecture, and she was part of a gift from Japan in return for nearly 13,000 friendship dolls sent over in early 1927 by the Committee on World Friendship Among Children. 

This committee was formed by Dr. Sidney Gulick in 1926 as a reaction to restrictive American immigration policies and the desire for more friendship between America and Japan.  Even though not all of the American dolls had blue eyes, they received the name “blue-eyed dolls” (青い目の人形 or aoime no ningyou) based on a song from 1921.  I had never heard this story before, but one of my participants knew it well.  She regaled Mr. McIntosh with this tune, which spoke of the American dolls asking Japanese children for kindness upon arrival on their shore.

These children then took it upon themselves to raise money to send 58 Ambassador Dolls back to America, one for each of the 48 states and 10 major cities.  They arrived in November of 1927 and toured the country before finding their permanent homes in places such as Rochester, which received Tamako.

Another interesting part of this collection is a kamishibai or paper theater which was created by Japanese schoolchildren when Tamako paid a visit to her home country.  It is entitled “One Doll’s Story.”  This second image on the left shows the Ambassador Dolls making their way over to America (land of Christmas trees?).  The third on the right below shows them welcoming Tamako when she returns home.  The final two (on the left below) are of Tamako and her fellow Ambassador Dolls on the way to their respective destinations (Rochester, New York, and Washington DC) and a gathering of several of the new blue-eyed dolls (Monica, Anna, Naomi, Kendra, Maria and Jessica).

I found this whole story fascinating, as previously the only Japan/America exchange that I knew of on this level was the DC sakura trees.  I wonder where the rest of the Ambassador Dolls are making their homes these days, and when their next reunion in Japan will be (They are sent back periodically to be put on display).  By the way, for those who are interested in learning more about kamishibai, check out Eric Nash’s Manga Kamishibai for an in-depth look at this amazing Japanese art (full disclosure: I served as his translator/interpreter).  Happy hunting!