E-Books →Reflections on Tsuda Umeko– Pioneer of Women's Education in Japan

Umeko had been sent to America as a young child to learn English and the ways of Western civilization. She returned to Japan at eighteen, completely Americanized and a stranger in her own country. The "attic letters" are a fascinating chronicle of her repatriation to late-19th century Japan, and of her encounters with iconic figures such as Japan's first prime minister Itō Hirobumi.
This book shows how the passionate young girl metamorphosed into one of Japan's foremost educators, by following the thoughts of Umeko herself as she recorded them in her letters. The story is told by Ōba Minako, a writer who graduated from Tsuda College and was herself a returnee to Japan after a decade in the United States.
"Tsuda Umeko" was awarded the 42nd Yomiuri Prize for Literature (1990).
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