ジャパン・レスキュー・ミッションの婦人救済事業 : 慈愛館の活動と大阪婦人ホーム

抄録

This paper gives a brief outline of the Japan Rescue Mission by portraying its rescue work, and disbusses its role in the history of rescuing women in Japan. The Japan Rescue Mission, founded in 1920 by George Dempsie (year of birth and death unknown), an Evangelical missionary from Scotland, had the purpose of rescuing women from prostitution in Japan. In the 1920's the Mission founded a rescue home called Kyuaikan in Sendai, and another one called Jiaikan in Oaaka. These institutions achieved tremendous rescue work of many prostitutes. As the war situation turned worse, however, the Mission was forced to close these homes in 1931, only after twenty or so years of its rescue work. The rescue work of the Japan Rescue Mission is characterized by the following : (1) They conducted their rescue work as religious practices, that is, to save the souls of women. (2) Financially, they entirely depended on foreign funds. (3) The mission was an exclusive organization. (4) The cooperation with Osaka Fujin Home, an institution of Japan Women's Christian Temperance Union, was indispensable to the Mission's rescue work. The Japan Rescue Mission played an important role in the history of rescuing women in Japan, together with Japan Women's Temperance Union and the Salvation Army. Compared with the latter two institutions, the Mission's work was characteristically more religious, for the salvation of the souls.