A Friend in Need: Esther B. Rhoads, Quakers, and Humanitarian Relief in Allied Occupied Japan, 1946–52

Abstract

Following World War II, voluntary private charities and relief organizations played an important role in reaching out to the desperate and needy in Europe. Asia, however, was largely an afterthought until the creation in early 1946 of the Licensed Agencies for Relief in Asia (LARA). It was organized as a single regional or umbrella agency to represent and coordinate the private relief activities of eleven-ultimately thirteen-North American charitable and religious organizations for operation in Japan and Korea. The core members were the Church World Service (Protestant), American Friends Service Committee (Quaker, also known as the Religious Society of Friends), and War Relief Services (Catholic). In addition, a Quaker held the top administrative position of chairman in LARA's New York headquarters. 1 Central to the narrative is Esther B. Rhoads (1895Rhoads ( -1979, a prewar Quaker missionary teacher in Japan who returned in June 1946 as one of only two authorized representatives of LARA. In addition, she worked for one of the constituent bodies, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). 2 Her contribution to voluntary relief in post-defeat Japan, although crucial, well-known, and deeply appreciated at the time, has

Editor's Introduction: "Celebrating 60+ Issues of U.S.–Japan Women's Journal"

“…As Mayo writes, Rhoads served as an "agent of reconciliation" between the United States and Japan and a "friend in need" for people suffering from hardships caused by the war. 3 Vassil, Mehl, and Mayo show how Okei, Akiko, and Rhoads worked within the systems they found themselves in to create better conditions for people of all genders. Amanda Seaman analyzes how authors Yamauchi Reinan (1959-2011) and Ogino Anna (b.…”