The Friendship Dolls

Tokubei Yamada 10th, president of the Tokyo doll manufacturer and wholesaler Yoshitoku Dolls, played a leading role in organizing the crafting of those dolls. His son and the current president of Yoshitoku Dolls, Tokubei Yamada 11th, says, "My father told me all about those dolls. He says that at that time the country was in mourning for Emperor Taisho, who passed away on December 25, 1926, so the news that about 13,000 American dolls would participate in the Hina Matsuri was cheering news for everyone, not least for the doll manufacturing industry. The industry only survived, he says, because of the opportunities to provide new sets of dolls for this now special doll festival and to compete for the chance to craft one of the dolls to be sent to America.

"Almost 100 Tokyo craftsmen and their apprentices competed to make those 51 superior dolls--the order for the seven other dolls went to Kyoto. The dolls were to be of the Ichimatsu-type [said to resemble Sanogawa Ichimatsu, a popular 17th century Kabuki actor; the dolls have flexible hip, knee, and ankle joints] and to stand 81 centimeters tall. The dolls were made considerably larger than usual because, it was felt, the number to be sent was small, relative to the number received from America; it was their way of striking a balance."

The winning dolls were each valued at 350 yen. In those days, a university graduate could expect a first monthly salary of 50 yen, or 200,000 yen ($2,400) today, so they were a real extravagance.

They even wore underwear and tabi socks. "Japanese dolls did not ordinarily wear underwear or tabi." Yamada says, "but the 'Ambassador Dolls' did because, it was rationalized, they were making official visits."

In November 1927, the 58 dolls left for the US from the port of Yokohama. Each bore the prefix Miss before the name of her representative prefecture, city, or colony. Miss Japan also went by the name Hideko Yamato. The dolls bore a passport and a message of friendship handwritten by Japanese children.

Welcoming parties greeted the dolls at each US port of call. In all, more than 1,000 welcoming parties at 479 cities were held for the 58 Ambassador Dolls.

At the welcoming party in Washington, D.C., Japanese Ambassador to the US, Tsuneo Matsudaira, said, "I am particularly delighted to welcome them, because from now on I shall have no less than 58 fellow ambassadors to assist me. They can do what I cannot… These dolls are silent, they do not talk, but sometimes silence is more eloquent than speech. When one's heart is filled with emotion, one often loses the power to speak. These dolls silently but eloquently tell you of the friendly feelings which the children of Japan entertain for the children of America."

Mrs. Peabody, who presided over the party, said in reply, "A hundred years from now, when wars have ceased and nations live together as friends and brothers, our children and our great-grandchildren will look back to this day when the children of our two nations sealed a bond of friendship through the gifts which have come to us from your little children."

The dolls were then placed on exhibition in museums and galleries around the country. Miss Japan found a home at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

In December 1941, war separated Japan and the US in mutual enmity, and the dolls were among its victims. Large numbers of Friendship Dolls were deliberately destroyed in Japan, and most of the Ambassador Dolls were put in storage in the US, with some (23) still to be recovered.

Excitingly, though, Friendship Dolls are starting to turn up again. Eiko Takeda, a writer and president of the Association of Friendship Exchanges of Blue-eyed Dolls (established in 1988), is one of those who has been instrumental in searching them out.

Takeda became interested in the dolls when she saw a television news item in 1973 which related the resurfacing of one of the dolls. She has since written several books on the Friendship Dolls.

"The dolls reflect the history of the relationship between Japan and the US," says Takeda. "They symbolize in a way the countries' transitions between friendship and hatred. My research into the dolls has really been research into the history of the Showa Period (1926-1989).

"During the war, people were emotionally charged with hatred for the US and the UK, and the Friendship Dolls were a natural target for that hatred. It must have been very difficult to resist those feelings, yet many Japanese clearly found the sight of the dolls being smashed up or burned unbearable. The large number of dolls that survived is testimony to the great courage some people had in preserving them."

Sumie Kobayashi, the elder sister of Yamada and curator of Yoshitoku Dolls Data Center, says, "The Japanese have a special attachment to dolls: they empathize with and personify them.  Whereas in America the Japanese dolls were seen essentially as works of art, the American dolls in Japan became objects of hate because the Japanese personified their country's feelings of antagonism for America in them."

Little is known of what happened to the Ambassador Dolls during the war, although one story has come to light. In 1942, at the North Carolina State Museum of Natural History, there was a sign beside the Miss Kagawa doll, which had been turned to face the wall. Under the title "Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad," the sign read. "The Japanese made an insane attack upon American Territory of Hawaii on December 7, 1941. With a grim determination we now are committed to stop for all time Japanese aggression. Thais has no bloodthirsty implications to destroy peoples as such. We still believe in peace and goodwill to live and let live. Men, women, and children of Japan have this good-will but they have now been dominated by ruthless leaders. Proof of such latent goodwill are the Friendship Doll Exhibits exchanged between children of the United States and Japan during 1926 and 1927 and shown as here in museums in both countries."

New Doll Missions

The search for the Friendship and Ambassador Dolls has intensified since around 1973. Thanks to the efforts of Hironori Ohto and his group and Eiko Takeda and her association, 270 American dolls and 35 Japanese dolls in the US have been located. Over time, beginning with the Miss Hiroshima doll in 1974, a number of Japanese dolls have returned to Japan for repairs and exhibition, and a variety of events have been held.

The rehabilitation of returning dolls has mainly been carried out by the Yoshitoku company. President Yamada says, "the dolls 'cry' when you push their chests because whistles were inserted there. So when we first undress a doll on her return, she seems to cry, and freed at last from her tight-fitting kimono, she seems to relax and stretch."

In 1986, Gulick and his wife Frances attended the opening ceremony of the Yokohama Doll Museum. While in Japan they visited an elementary school in Kyoto, which has one of the Friendship Dolls sent in 1927, and presented it with a new pair of dolls, a boy and a girl.

Says Gulick, 3rd, "By the expressions of excitement and love on the faces of the children as they received and held the new dolls, we knew immediately that we should begin a new doll mission."

Since 1986 the couple has sent approximately 10 dolls each year to schools in Japan. Frances Gulick, who like her husband is a professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland, makes traveling clothes, a nightgown, and a handbag for each doll. Her husband prepares the passport and a letter of introduction. Together they make sure the dolls arrive in time for the Hina Matsuri.

"Now, a time when again there in tension between Japan and the US, we feel it is all the more important to promote international understanding," says Gulick. "We feel the same way that Ambassador Matsudaira felt nearly 70 years ago."

The Gulicks are not the only people using dolls to promote peace and understanding. Terry Hiener, research associate at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which is home to the Miss Kochi doll, is another. Hiener has recently founded an organization called Friendship Ambassadors, promoting mutual understanding through lectures and exhibits. Hiener travels to schools in and around Pittsburgh, discussing the doll missions and describing the culture of Japan through dolls.

Michiko Takaoka also became interested in sending Japanese dolls. She read that while Gulick receives many letters each year from Japanese schoolchildren requesting American dolls, there had been no proposal to send Japanese dolls to the US.

"I thought, 'Then I will do that,'" she says.

Takaoka, who is director of the Japanese Cultural Center at the Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute in Spokane, Washington, organizes the dispatch of some 50 sets of Japanese dolls each year, and through the Center distributes them to schools in the US.

On March 3, 1992, Takaoka organized a Doll Festival at Cheney Cowles Museum in Spokane, where the Miss Tokushima doll had been carefully preserved. She wanted to share the heartwarming history of the Ambassador Dolls with the students of the Institute, and to express her appreciation to the townspeople and the museum for having looked after Miss Tokushima.

Takaoka initiated the Friendship Doll Program in the fall of 1992, backed by the Institute's president, Akira Kusaka, and its mother educational institute, Mukogawa Gakuin in Hyogo. The program raises money to buy and send Japanese dolls to American children. Through its annual Doll Festival, the program has also collected over 200 sets of dolls and donated them to elementary schools, community centers, libraries, and children's museums in the US.

Up to now Takaoka has met 16 of the Japanese Ambassador Dolls that were sent to the US all those years ago. Whenever she meets one, she says, she feels that they have been waiting for her. Takaoka wants to meet as many as possible.

"Americans are very familiar with what Japan manufactures," says Takaoka, "but I want them to know about what the country feels. I started this movement to spread the word of friendship and good faith in the honest hearts of the children."

The Reverend Dr. Sidney L. Gulick had a great idea, and his dream lives on.