Mothers Against War
Gender, Motherhood, and Peace Activism in Cold War Japan
University of Hawaii Press
Mothers Against War explores topic that has not yet received a sustained treatment in the English-language scholarship, that of the construction of a link between motherhood and pacifism in postwar Japan. Based on extensive archival research, Takenaka explores the formulation of bosei and boshi to tease out the complex transition from war-supporting maternalism to postwar pacifist maternalism. The book offers critical insight into Japan’s awkward transition from a military power to an uncertain and unequal postwar peace and is a major contribution to global comparative studies on the power and pitfalls of ‘motherhood’ as a social movement strategy.
Akiko Takenaka is professor of Japanese history at the University of Kentucky.
