Passages to Modernity: Motherhood, Childhood, and Social Reform in Early Twentieth-Century Japan

Chapter 4: Day-Care and Economic Improvement: The Kobe Wartime Service Memorial Day-Care Association

4 Day-Care and Economic Improvement: The Kobe Wartime Service Memorial Day-Care Association Japan’s second set of permanent day-care facilities, founded in the western port city of Kobe by the Kòbe Seneki Kinen Hoikukai (Kobe Wartime Service Memorial Day-Care Association, hereafter KSKH), also contributed much to the development of institutional care for young children in the prewar era.1 Like Futaba Yòchien, the Kobe centers also instructed and protected lower-class preschool children, but the principal aim of the KSKH program differed from that of Futaba. The KSKH facilities, directed by the male relief expert Namae Takayuki, regarded the financial improvement of poor families as the primary objective of institutional child care. That is, Namae and KSKH emphasized daytime institutional care of children as a means of increasing the earnings of households with two working parents. In addition, the Kobe centers, which had originally assisted needy veterans’ wives and children during the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War, linked daycare centers to patriotism and national service. The network of day-care facilities established by the Kobe Women’s Service Association (Kòbe Fujin Hòkòkai) had proven the utility of day-care centers during wartime mobilization . Operated by KSKH after the war, the Kobe centers established assistance for veterans and their families and the boosting of national productivity through diligent labor of the poor as peacetime rationales for institutional child care. The link that the KSKH facilities forged between day-care and national progress became a key factor in maintaining state and public support for daycare in Japan during the strongly nationalistic prewar era. While the founding of the KSKH centers did not immediately stimulate the construction of facilities in other regions, except possibly the Aizenen Hoikujo in Osaka in 1908, they were commended as model centers in the 1908 and 1909 Home Ministry relief project yearbooks, as was Futaba Yòchien. Following publication of the yearbooks, the number of day-care centers in Japan began to increase, a trend I discuss in chapter 5. 76 Day-Care and Economic Improvement Infants, toddlers, and teachers with indoor play equipment at a Kobe War Memorial Day-Care Association (Kobe Seneki Kinen Hoikukai or KSKH) child-care center, circa 1920. Courtesy of Ohara Institute for Social Research, Hosei University. Japan’s Second Day-Care Model In 1906 KSKH established Japan’s second major late Meiji day-care facility by reopeningthreeday-carecentersthatalocalwomen’spatrioticassociationhadoperated during the Russo-Japanese War.2 The wartime centers, called hokanjo,3 had providedday-careandemploymentassistancetoimpoverishedfamiliesofsoldiers on duty overseas. KSKH’s postwar vision of the mission of institutional child care continued to emphasize above all stabilization of families’ economic situation, while demonstrating increased concern for the children’s health and education. The leading figure at both the wartime and postwar Kobe centers was Namae Takayuki, a Christian who had spent three years in the United States studying relief and philanthropic works. Namae directed the day-care centers until 1909, when he left Kobe to assist in development of relief projects in the Home Ministry.4 By the 1910s Namae had become a nationally recognized authority on the practical aspects of relief work, especially child welfare programs. In later years, long after he had stepped down from the KSKH directorship, Namae continued to commend KSKH facilities as model Japanese day-care centers.5 Day-Care and Economic Improvement 77 The first article of KSKH’s organizational bylaws set forth its aims: The purpose of this organization is to care for the children of well, disabled, or deceased veterans, and other children, in order to assist the livelihood (seigyò) of the head or family and to carry out both employment introductions and encouragement of savings.6 The aims of the postwar centers, called hoikujo, were nearly identical to those of wartime hokanjo, which had sought to gather and care for the young children of soldiers at the front during the day, in order to help the families gain a livelihood .7 The efforts of both the earlier wartime day-care centers and the later war memorial centers were directed primarily at improving the economic wellbeing of the children’s households. Although both the KSKH centers and their predecessors aimed to assist veterans ’ families and to improve household finances, one significant difference between the old and new centers was the range of intended clients. The wartime facilities had given first priority to veterans’ families, but the...