Friendly Connections

Friendly Connections: Philadelphia Quakers and Japan since the Late Nineteenth Century discloses the history of relations among members of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, of Philadelphia and Japanese intellectuals, educators, and activists. In this book, Japanese and North American experts demonstrate that education, womens rights, interracial equality, politics, disaster relief, reform, and peace efforts have all benefited. Seventeen chapters detail this underappreciated history. Throughout the modern era, these ties, often between women, have transformed efforts for peace, equality, and womens rights in Japan and the United States. With a focus on womens work for women, and revelations about supportive British Quakers, this book uncovers networks that sustained Japan-America ties for a century and a half.