Facing Poverty & Disaster
Works of Kagawa Toyohiko
Takezumi BAN Chairman of Association for World Peace Japan
On Dec.24th, 1909, 21- year- old Toyohiko Kagawa plunged into the area where people were forced to live in an inferior (deprived) environment. Toyohiko was then suffering from tuberculosis which was feared as a mortal illness at those days and he was told that he had very little time left. But he lived with these people who had much difficulty to live in the midst of poverty and discrimination and he worked thoroughly for them. His activities which continued for 14 years from 1909 till 1927 began from preaching Christianity and evolved into labor movement, cooperative movement (life, agriculture, fishery, forestry, medical care, mutual aid), peace movement, and onto proletarian political activity. The activities were not only limited in Kobe but spread all over Japan after the Great Kanto Earthquake disaster relief. He devoted his life to build the bases to support human life ― welfare, education, medical care, production, labor, cooperatives, peace, human rights and co-living. These activities became the beginning of several works and were subdivided by each specialist and have been still supporting our society. But there are many serious and complicated problems in a modern society. They are too difficult to approach from individual experts. It is necessary for the experts to work together to understand whole image and to make it possible to solve the problems completely. Toyohiko Kagawa’s activities 100 years ago were unfolded against the imminent difficulties by unifying various works such as welfare, education, medical care, production, labor, cooperatives, peace, human rights and living together. The cooperation of these works effected most.
Days in Slum
Robbers
Drunken
Gangster
Whores(Prostitute)
Disease
Handicapped
No home
No work
No schooling
No medical care
No discipline
No religion
No justice, human rights
A Man of Dignity
Days in the Slum in Kobe
Religion—-Small Church
Education—-Nursery School
Feed—-Poor man’s Restaurant
Medical care—-Free Clinic
Work—-Tooth Brush Factory
Preventing Poverty
Motto was to share Poverty & Pain
Brotherhood
Gain Self Dependency & Mutual Dependency
Need of Mutual Aid
Movement
Labor Union
Cooperative Shops
Peasant’s Farmers Union
World Federalist Movement
Story Teller Wrote 300 Books
Across the Death line 1920
Brotherhood Economy 1936
1923 Great Kantō earthquake
Kobe to Tokyo
Tent House & Soup Kitchen
Spirits of Brotherhood
Method of Cooperative
Kagawa’s Idea on Cooperative
European Steel & Coal Insititute
Dr. Kagawa lived together with the people who were at the bottom of a society. And he never stopped thinking one after another what was needed for them. He opened “Tengokuya”, a simple canteen, then created a medical assistance and more as far as concerning in mental problems. The idea to protect human rights and the future of those people has evolved into labor unions or co-operative movement or a credit bank or schools, etc. I have heard some people criticize that Dr. Kagawa began his works by his ideas but soon he gave them away to others, and that he hardly ever brought them up to the end. Rather I think that he made a certain person take responsibility and so his works spread one after another. In the 20th century, we considerably succeeded to have our desires contented. We became economically rich enough to own houses, to eat good food and so on. But we may not say that every person has become happy whereas one’s desires might have been contented. That is what we should reconsider about our way of living in the 20th century. Then, how is it about today? Globalization has been expanding. Humanity is disregarded. Everything is dehumanized. The economy, which people have taken a good use of to become rich, nowadays rules people in reverse. When the economy grows in such a high speed so as to break the earth, it is very important I think for us to raise a question how we can protect a person’s “life” in the 21st century. And isn’t it the very thing that Dr. Kagawa had taught us? The reason why Dr. Kagawa had worked so hard was “human beings”. As we know there are many scholars who have given their time for studying and published their achievements but we don’t see many people who have reorganized people and have raised a question on what a human being was and what the happiness was. We want to keep learning the foresight.