Global Feminism and Postwar Reconstruction: The World YWCA Visitation to Occupied Japan, 1947

This analysis of the World Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) as a leader among international women's organizations that sought to expand political roles for women in post-World War II reconstruction projects focuses on a delegation ofWestern women who visited Japan when it was occupied by the Allied Powers under the Supreme Command of the Allied Powers (SCAP) of General Douglas MacArthur in 1947. It examines the World YWCA organization and its long-running goals to promote the linked values of"Christian internationalism, civilization, and women's liberation" through women's participation in international politics and governance, as well as its shorter-term objectives to reconcile Chinese and Japanese YWCA women in the wake of World War II animosities, and contrasts their efforts with the postwar agenda for Japanese women's "liberation" as defined by SCAP occupation forces.