How Did Margaret Sanger's 1922 Tour of Japan Help Spread the Idea of Birth Control
and Inspire the Formation of a Japanese Birth Control Movement?

Chronology of Margaret Sanger's Tour of Japan, 1922

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February

05 New York City. Farewell dinner at Cosmopolitan Club; Juliet Rublee serves as toastmistress.
07 New York City. Leaves for Rochester, N.Y. by train. Meets with doctors that evening at the home of Thomas James and Georgina Swanton.
08 Rochester. Meets with women of Rochester at the Swanton home.
09 Rochester. Travels to Buffalo, N.Y. by train.
10 Buffalo. Travels to Detroit, Mich. by train. Meets with press and gives a luncheon lecture at the Hotel Stadler. Holds a mass meeting at the Auto Workers Hall in the evening. Leaves for Chicago, Ill. by train late that night.
11 Arrives in Chicago and stays at the Congress Hotel. Tea at the home of Edward and Anna Bemis.
12-13 Chicago. Grant Sanger joins Margaret Sanger.
14 Chicago. Leaves by train for California.
17 Arrives in Oakland, Calif., then goes on to San Francisco, Calif., staying at the Hotel St. Francis. Japanese consul refuses to grant visa.
18 San Francisco. Secures visa for China. Meets with American and Japanese press.
19 San Francisco. Mass meeting held at California hall, sponsored by American Women's Independence Committee. Police attend the meeting but do not intervene.
20 San Francisco. Japanese Foreign Office states Sanger will be allowed to enter Japan if she refrains from lectures and propaganda activities, but refuses to vise her passport.
21 Sails from San Francisco on S.S. Taiyo Maru with Grant Sanger and J. Noah Slee.
24 S.S. Taiyo Maru. Lectures for over two hours to more than 100 Japanese Foreign Office officials and military personnel that made up the Japanese delegation to the Washington Naval Conference.
27 S.S. Taiyo Maru. Ship arrives in Honolulu, Hawaii. Speaks on overpopulation.
28 S.S. Taiyo Maru


March

01-06 S.S. Taiyo Maru
07 SS Taiyo Maru. Lectures to second-class passengers.
08 S.S. Taiyo Maru. Addresses married women on board.
09 S.S. Taiyo Maru. Attends Captain's dinner.
10 S.S. Taiyo Maru anchors in Yokohama harbor. After several hours of detainment, Sanger permitted to land but not to give public lectures on birth control. Disembarks, but copies of Family Limitation are confiscated. Dines at Grand Hotel with shipmates. Travels to Tokyo, and she and Grant Sanger stay in the Ishimotos' western-style home in the Akasaka district.
11 Tokyo. Visits Tokyo Women's club in afternoon and dines at Horace and Elizabeth Coleman's home that evening.
12 Tokyo. Travels to Yokohama by electric train; dinner at Grand Hotel. Returns to Tokyo.
13 Tokyo. Police stake out the house, noting who came and went. Sanger meets with police officials and they clarify what is considered permissible speech.
14 Tokyo. Gives lecture on "War and Population" at YMCA, has tea with Elizabeth Coleman, and dines at Imperial Hotel with Kaizo group.
15 Tokyo. Travels to Yokohama for luncheon at Bluff Hotel. Returns to Tokyo for tea at American Embassy. Dines at Ishimotos' home with Japanese labor and economic leaders, as well as Professor Isoo Abe and Dr. Tokijiro Kaji.
16 Tokyo. Breakfast with Elizabeth Coleman and others; visits Peace Exhibition, then attends reception for over 100 foreigners given by Baroness Shidzue Ishimoto. Attends performance at Imperial Theater.
17 Tokyo. Entertains Chinese visitors and meets with Indian reporter. Visits Tokijiro Kaji's Tokyo People's Hospital and attends luncheon with Kaji. Speaks at Tokyo's Peers Club at invitation of Count Tetsutaro Kawamura, then dines with industrial group and answers questions about birth control.
18 Tokyo. Visits Kanegafuchi Spinning Co. Returns to Tokyo for lunch and meeting with New Woman's Group. Attends welcome reception at Imperial Hotel given by Kaizo Group and hosted by Baron Ishimoto, who announces formation of Japan Birth Control Study Society. Afterward, visits Ishiwara, Tokyo's red-light district.
19 Tokyo. Gives several interviews with reporters, then speaks to private meeting of Japanese physicians in the Hygiene Association Building. Dinner at Oriental Hotel, Yokohama. Returns to Tokyo.
20 Tokyo. Luncheon with Baroness Shidzue Ishimoto, her mother and sister. Afternoon lecture to nurses and doctors at the Tokyo Women's Medical School. Evening address to commercial organization and dinner at the Imperial Hotel.
21 Tokyo. Leaves for Nikko. Takes guided tour of Temple there then to the Kanaka Hotel where she nurses a cold.
22 Nikko. Visits other temples, then drives to Yokohama and takes to bed at Grand Hotel.
23 Yokohama. Stays in bed; fears she has pneumonia.
24 Yokohama. Continues to rest as her condition improves.
25 Yokohama. Another day in bed at Grand Hotel.
26 Yokohama. Gets up from sickbed and goes on rickshaw ride.
27 Yokohama. Gets her lungs x-rayed at General Hospital. Goes to Kamakura to see bronze Buddha. She retires early.
28 Yokohama. Leaves for Kyoto and checks in at Miyako Hotel.
29 Kyoto. Visits silk and other factories, and sees Golden Temple and gardens.
30 Kyoto. Takes trip to Japan's rapids then returns to Kyoto for lunch. Speaks before doctors at Medical Association of Kyoto.
31 Kyoto. More sightseeing.


April

01 Kyoto. Drives to Nara to see large Buddha temple.
02 Kyoto. Visits Imperial Palace and Palace gardens. Leaves for Kobe and then has tea at Kobe Cultural Society.
03 Kobe. Visits with various English and Japanese residents.
04 Kobe. Sails on SS America Maru through Inland Sea.
05 SS America Maru. Arrives in Shimonoseki meets with reporters and then disembarks and goes to hotel.
06 Shimonoseki. Takes boat at dawn to Fusan (Pusan), Korea. Then goes to Seoul, Korea


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