The White Ribbon League of Nations Meets Japan: The Trans-Pacific Activism of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 1906 to 1930

Ogawa, Manako (January 2007). "The White Ribbon League of Nations Meets Japan: The Trans-Pacific Activism of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 1906 to 1930". Diplomatic History. 31 (1): 21–50. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7709.2007.00601.x. ISSN 0145-2096.

Abstract: On February 6, 1930, representatives of Great Britain, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy attending the London Naval Conference at St. James's Palace in London met a group of women from various women's organizations. These women lobbied the attendants to reach an agreement to curb the arms race and, ultimately, to avoid war. They were never officially invited to the conference. Indeed, diplomacy was exclusively conducted by male top politicians, diplomats, high-ranking military officers, advisers, and so on. Nevertheless, some women organized themselves and sought the potential to influence international politics. The presence of the uninvited female guests at the London Naval Conference signified their challenge to the domination of international political power by the elite men's club and their pressure to incorporate their voices into the agendas of international affairs. Interestingly, it was Japanese women who initiated this petition for disarmament. At St. James's Palace, unlike her Western sisters, Gauntlett (née Yamada) Tsune from Japan wore a kimono and handed two bamboo baskets with petitions signed by 750,000 Japanese women to the conference representatives. It was Gauntlett and her Japanese colleagues who initiated this campaign; later, the women of other nations joined her in her petition for disarmament at the palace.1

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OpenAlex: W2165503209