Reflections on the Way to the Gallows

In this book, for the first time, we can hear the startling, moving voices of adventurous and rebellious Japanese women as they eloquently challenged the social repression of prewar Japan. The extraordinary women whose memoirs, recollections, and essays are presented here constitute a strong current in the history of modern Japanese life from the 1880s to the outbreak of the Pacific War.

Mikiso Hane (1922-2003) was Szold Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.

Acknowledgments

ONE Introduction

TWO People's Rights and National Rights
FUKUDA HIDEKO

THREE Reflections on the Way to the Gallows
KANNO SUGAKO

FOUR The Road to Nihilism
KANEKO FUMIKO

FIVE The Sekirankai
THE RED WAVE SOCIETY
SAKAI MAGARA
HASHIURA HARUKO
KUTSUMI FUSAKO
YAMAKAWA KIKUE

SIX From the Factories and Rice Paddies
TANNO SETSU
TENANT DISPUTES IN KISAKI VILLAGE
TAKIZAWA Mil, IKEDA SEKI, SATO TSUGI

SEVEN The World of the Stars
YAMASHIRO TOMOE

Notes
Index