Alice Mabel Bacon American writer, women's educator and a foreign advisor to the Japanese government

O-yatoi gaikokujin

The Foreign government advisors in Meiji Japan, known in Japanese as oyatoi gaikokujin , were those foreign advisors hired by the Japanese government for their specialized knowledge to assist in the modernization of Japan at the end of the Bakufu and during the Meiji era. The term is sometimes...

 in Meiji period

Meiji period

The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

 Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

Early life

Alice Mabel Bacon was the youngest of two sons and three daughters of Leonard Bacon

Leonard Bacon

Leonard Bacon was an American Congregational preacher and writer.-Biography:Leonard Bacon was born in Detroit, Michigan...

, pastor of the Center Church in New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...

 and professor in the Yale Divinity School

Yale Divinity School

Yale Divinity School is a professional school at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. preparing students for ordained or lay ministry, or for the academy...

, and his second wife, Catherine Elizabeth Terry Bacon. In 1872, when Alice was fourteen, Japanese envoy Mori Arinori

Mori Arinori

Viscount was a Meiji period Japanese statesman, diplomat and founder of Japan's modern educational system.-Early life:Mori was born in the Satsuma domain from a samurai family, and educated in the Kaisenjo School for Western Learning run by the Satsuma domain...

 selected her father's home as a residence for Japanese women being sent overseas for education by the Meiji government, as part of the Iwakura Mission

Iwakura mission

The Iwakura Mission or Iwakura Embassy was a Japanese diplomatic journey around the world, initiated in 1871 by the oligarchs of the Meiji period. Although it was not the only such "mission", it is the most well-known and possibly most important for the modernization of Japan after a long period...

. Alice received twelve year old Yamakawa Sutematsu

Oyama Sutematsu

was a Japanese woman of the Meiji era, who was a prominent social figure. She was born in Aizu to a family of senior retainers serving Matsudaira Katamori. In December 1871 she was sent to the United States for study, as part of the Iwakura Mission. She was placed in the household of Leonard Bacon...

 as her house-guest. The two grls were of similar age, and soon formed a close bond. For ten years the two girls were like sisters and enhanced each others interests in their different cultures..

Education and career

Alice subsequently graduated from high school, but was forced to give up hopes of attending university due to economic circumstances. Nevertheless, she was able to pass examinations for a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1881, and received a post in 1883 as a teacher at the Hampton Institute.

In 1888, Alice received an invitation to come to Japan from Yamakawa Sutematsu and Tsuda Umeko

Tsuda Umeko

was an Japanese educator, feminist and pioneer in education for women in Meiji period Japan. Originally named , with mume or ume referring to the Japanese plum, she went by the name Ume Tsuda while studying in the United States before changing her name to Umeko in 1902.- Early life :Tsuda Umeko...

 to serve as a teacher of the English language

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 at the Gakushuin

Gakushuin

The or Peers School is an educational institution founded in Tokyo in 1877, during the Meiji period, for the education of the children of the Japanese aristocracy, though it eventually also opened its doors to the offspring of extremely wealthy commoners...

 Women's School for Japanese girls from aristocratic families. She returned to Hampton Normal School after a year. Hearing that one of her students wanted to become a nurse but was refused entrance into training schools because of her race Ms. Bacon sought to established a hospital at the Institute. With the help of General Samuel C. Armstrong

Samuel C. Armstrong

Samuel Chapman Armstrong was an American educator and a commissioned officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War...

, Hampton's principal, enough funds were raised to construct the Dixie Hospital. The hospital which opened in May 1891 provided nursing education as well as medical care for the surrounding community.

However, in April 1900 she was invited back to Japan to help establish the Tokyo Women's Educational School (the forerunner of Ochanomizu University

Ochanomizu University

is one of only two national women's universities in Japan. The other one is the Nara Women's University.-History:Ochanomizu University was founded in 1875 as a teacher training institute for women located in Tokyo's Ochanomizu neighborhood. On September 1, 1923, the campus was destroyed in the...

), staying until april 1902. During most of this period, she assisted Tsuda Umeko on a voluntary basis, refusing monetary compensation except for her housing

Alice remained single all of her life, although she did adopt two Japanese girls as her daughters. One of these girls, Hitotsuyanagi Makiko subsequently married William Merrell Vories

William Merrell Vories

William Merrell Vories or Hitotsuyanagi Mereru was an educator, architect, missionary and entrepreneur born in the United States who worked mainly in Shiga prefecture in Japan.-Biography:...

.

Based on her experiences in Japan, Bacon published three books and many essays, and eventually came to be known as a specialist of Japanese culture and women.

Works

• The Work of the Tuskegee Normal School 1887
• Japanese Girls and Women (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1891) download on Project Gutenberg
• A Japanese Interior (Boston, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1893)
• The Negro and the Atlantic exposition. 1896
• In the Land of the Gods Some Stories of Japan (Boston, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1905)

Footnote

1.Originally there were five girls sent but two became ill and returned to Japan the other three Yamakawa Sutematsu, Umeko Tsuda, and Shige Nagai. Ms. Tsuda was placed with the Charles Lanman

Charles Lanman

Charles Lanman was an author, government official, artist, librarian, and explorer.-Early life and education:Charles Lanman was born at Monroe, Michigan, on June 14, 1819, the son of Charles James Lanman, and the grandson of United States Senator James Lanman...

 family and Ms. Nagai was placed in the John S. C. Abbott household. "Three Japanese Girls." The Heathen Woman's Friend. pp. 286-87.