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Mieko Kamiya
Mieko Kamiya (神谷 美恵子, Kamiya Mieko; January 12, 1914 – October 22, 1979) was a Japanese psychiatrist who treated leprosy patients at Nagashima Aiseien Sanatorium. She was known for translating books on philosophy. She worked as a medical doctor in the Department of Psychiatry at Tokyo University following World War II. She was said to have greatly helped the Ministry of Education and the General Headquarters, where the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers stayed, in her role as an English-speaking secretary, and served as an adviser to Empress Michiko. She wrote many books as a highly educated, multi-lingual person; one of her books, titled On the Meaning of Life (ikigai ni tsuite in Japanese), based on her experiences with leprosy patients, attracted many readers.
Mieko Kamiya was born as the second child and the first daughter of five children of Tamon Maeda and Fusako Maeda. Tamon, a son of an Osaka merchant, was the prewar Japanese ambassador to the International Labour Organization and postwar Minister of Education. He became a Christian under the influence of Kanzo Uchimura.
Fusako, a daughter of a raw silk trader in Gunma, received a scholarship for the five years at the girls' high school of Friends School (Japan) in Tokyo that had been established by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Fusako had an English and Christian education there. Fusako was introduced to Tamon by Inazo Nitobe and was married to him in 1910.
The family moved to Nagasaki and in 1920, Tamon became a deputy mayor of Tokyo. In 1921 he was appointed the Japanese representative to the International Labour Organization (ILO) at Geneva, Switzerland, where Inazo Nitobe worked as one of the Under-Secretaries General of the League of Nations. Kamiya had started to study English in the second grade at Sacred Heart School in Tokyo from 1921. The family could speak English when they arrived in Geneva.
Kamiya was educated at the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Institute (in French: Académie De Genève or Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau), when Jean Piaget, a developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children, was the principal. From 1924, she studied at the junior high school of the International School of Geneva (in French: Ecole Internationale de Genève). She later wrote that in reading and writing, French was most easy.
In 1926, the family returned to Tokyo. Kamiya entered the Juyu Gakuen, but changed her school within a few months to the Girls' High School of Seijo Gakuen (it now has a higher education department; Seijo University).
In 1932, Kamiya entered the Tsuda College. In 1934, she happened to visit Tama Zenshoen Sanatorium as an organist accompanying a missionary. She was deeply impressed with leprosy patients there and felt that she should someday work for them. At that time, leprosy was an incurable disease, and all the people around her were against her becoming a physician. In 1935, she entered the College of the same school. She contracted tuberculosis, and while she was under treatment for the disease, she studied by herself classical literature in many languages, including Italian, French, German, and Greek. Her favorite was Marcus Aurelius's book which she translated into Japanese later. Her tuberculosis cleared with pneumothorax therapy.
In 1938, in view of the worsening US-Japan relations, Japan set up a Japan Culture Center in New York, and her father, who was one of the editorial writers of the Newspaper Asahi Shimbun, was appointed as its head and the family moved to New York, except her elder brother, Yoichi Maeda, who lived in Paris. Kamiya began to study Greek literature at the Graduate School of Columbia University and lived with her family in Scarsdale, New York. After her health condition improved, Kamiya studied at Bryn Mawr College from February to the end of June 1939. She met Masa Uraguchi, who was a graduate student of botany at Philadelphia University and who became her lifetime best friend. She also met Wilhelm Sollmann, who was a German journalist, politician, and Interior Minister of the Weimar Republic. Kamiya had a close relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Sollmann until June 16, 1939. Kamiya also had a close relationship with Caroline C. Graveson, an English psychologist. When Graveson was leaving the United States, she said to Kamiya, "I predict your future. You'll be an author after you graduate from three M (Medicine, Marriage and Motherhood)."
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Mieko Kamiya
Mieko Kamiya (神谷 美恵子, Kamiya Mieko; January 12, 1914 – October 22, 1979) was a Japanese psychiatrist who treated leprosy patients at Nagashima Aiseien Sanatorium. She was known for translating books on philosophy. She worked as a medical doctor in the Department of Psychiatry at Tokyo University following World War II. She was said to have greatly helped the Ministry of Education and the General Headquarters, where the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers stayed, in her role as an English-speaking secretary, and served as an adviser to Empress Michiko. She wrote many books as a highly educated, multi-lingual person; one of her books, titled On the Meaning of Life (ikigai ni tsuite in Japanese), based on her experiences with leprosy patients, attracted many readers.
Mieko Kamiya was born as the second child and the first daughter of five children of Tamon Maeda and Fusako Maeda. Tamon, a son of an Osaka merchant, was the prewar Japanese ambassador to the International Labour Organization and postwar Minister of Education. He became a Christian under the influence of Kanzo Uchimura.
Fusako, a daughter of a raw silk trader in Gunma, received a scholarship for the five years at the girls' high school of Friends School (Japan) in Tokyo that had been established by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Fusako had an English and Christian education there. Fusako was introduced to Tamon by Inazo Nitobe and was married to him in 1910.
The family moved to Nagasaki and in 1920, Tamon became a deputy mayor of Tokyo. In 1921 he was appointed the Japanese representative to the International Labour Organization (ILO) at Geneva, Switzerland, where Inazo Nitobe worked as one of the Under-Secretaries General of the League of Nations. Kamiya had started to study English in the second grade at Sacred Heart School in Tokyo from 1921. The family could speak English when they arrived in Geneva.
Kamiya was educated at the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Institute (in French: Académie De Genève or Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau), when Jean Piaget, a developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children, was the principal. From 1924, she studied at the junior high school of the International School of Geneva (in French: Ecole Internationale de Genève). She later wrote that in reading and writing, French was most easy.
In 1926, the family returned to Tokyo. Kamiya entered the Juyu Gakuen, but changed her school within a few months to the Girls' High School of Seijo Gakuen (it now has a higher education department; Seijo University).
In 1932, Kamiya entered the Tsuda College. In 1934, she happened to visit Tama Zenshoen Sanatorium as an organist accompanying a missionary. She was deeply impressed with leprosy patients there and felt that she should someday work for them. At that time, leprosy was an incurable disease, and all the people around her were against her becoming a physician. In 1935, she entered the College of the same school. She contracted tuberculosis, and while she was under treatment for the disease, she studied by herself classical literature in many languages, including Italian, French, German, and Greek. Her favorite was Marcus Aurelius's book which she translated into Japanese later. Her tuberculosis cleared with pneumothorax therapy.
In 1938, in view of the worsening US-Japan relations, Japan set up a Japan Culture Center in New York, and her father, who was one of the editorial writers of the Newspaper Asahi Shimbun, was appointed as its head and the family moved to New York, except her elder brother, Yoichi Maeda, who lived in Paris. Kamiya began to study Greek literature at the Graduate School of Columbia University and lived with her family in Scarsdale, New York. After her health condition improved, Kamiya studied at Bryn Mawr College from February to the end of June 1939. She met Masa Uraguchi, who was a graduate student of botany at Philadelphia University and who became her lifetime best friend. She also met Wilhelm Sollmann, who was a German journalist, politician, and Interior Minister of the Weimar Republic. Kamiya had a close relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Sollmann until June 16, 1939. Kamiya also had a close relationship with Caroline C. Graveson, an English psychologist. When Graveson was leaving the United States, she said to Kamiya, "I predict your future. You'll be an author after you graduate from three M (Medicine, Marriage and Motherhood)."