Setsuko Hani Explained

Setsuko Hani
Native Name:	羽仁説子
Birth Date:	April 2, 1903
Birth Place:	Tokyo, Japan
Death Date:	July 10, 1987
Native Name Lang:	ja
Occupation:	Writer, social critic, educator
Children:	2, including Susumu Hani
Mother:	Hani Motoko
Relatives:	Sachiko Hidari (daughter-in-law) Yoko Matsuoka (cousin)

Setsuko Hani (April 2, 1903 – July 10, 1987; in Japanese: 羽仁説子) was a Japanese writer, educator, and social critic, known for her 1948 essay "The Japanese Family System".

Early life and education

Hani Setsuko was born in Tokyo, the daughter of journalists and Hani Motoko. She was educated at the school her parents founded, Jiyu Gakuen.^{[1] [2]}

Career

Hani was a reporter and teacher as a young woman. In the 1930s she ran a school for Japanese children in Beijing. She was one of the founders of the Women's Democratic Club (Fujin minshū kurabu) in March 1946,^[3] and joined Shidzue Kato, Yoko Matsuoka (who was also Hani's cousin), and other feminists in presenting a statement to General Douglas Macarthur on women's rights in post-war Japan.^[4] As a "child welfare expert", she expressed concern for the children born to Western fathers and Japanese women during the post-war occupation.^[5] In 1955 she was one of Japan's five representatives at the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) meeting in Geneva.^[6]

Publications

• "The Japanese Family System" (1948, published by the Japan Institute of Pacific Studies)^{[7] [8]}
• Bonza and the Little Novice (1956)
• Shiiburuto no Musumetachi (Siebold's Daughters)^[9]
• Tsuma no kokoro (1979, A Wife's Heart)

Personal life

Hani married historian ; their son was film director Susumu Hani (born 1928), and their daughter was music educator and translator (1929–2015). Her husband died in 1983, and she died in 1987, at the age of 84.

Notes and References

1. Kahn . B. Winston . 1996-12-01 . Hani Motoko and the Education of Japanese Women . The Historian . en . 59 . 2 . 391–401 . 10.1111/j.1540-6563.1997.tb00998.x . 0018-2370.
2. Book: Jesty, Justin . Art and Engagement in Early Postwar Japan . 2018-09-15 . Cornell University Press . 978-1-5017-1505-1 . en.
3. Book: Takemae, Eiji . Allied Occupation of Japan . 2003-01-01 . A&C Black . 978-0-8264-1521-9 . 265 . en.
4. Book: Hopper, Helen M. . A New Woman of Japan: A Political Biography of Kato Shidzue . 2019-03-13 . Routledge . 978-0-429-71106-0 . en.
5. News: May 14, 1952 . Occupation Births Problem for Japan . The Evening Advocate . 4 . Newspapers.com.
6. Book: Bullock, Julia C. . Rethinking Japanese Feminisms . Kano . Ayako . Welker . James . 2018-03-31 . University of Hawaii Press . 978-0-8248-7838-2 . 36 . en.
7. Hani, Setsuko. The Japanese Family System: As Seen from the Standpoint of Japanese Women. Nihon Taiheiyo Mondai Chosakai (Japan Institute of Pacific Studies), 1948.
8. Book: Holland, William Lancelot . Remembering the Institute of Pacific Relations: The Memoirs of William L. Holland . 1995 . RYUUKEISYOSYA . 978-4-8447-6381-9 . 562 . en.
9. Book: Plutschow, Herbert . Philipp Franz von Siebold and the Opening of Japan: A Re-evaluation . 2007-03-22 . Global Oriental . 978-90-04-21349-4 . viii . en.