In this book, Chizuko Ueno, professor emeritus of University of Tōkyō, clearly states the following:

To realize a society in which both men and women are actively involved has been wrongly recognized as women having to have a goal to become like men. Women actually have chosen to become soldiers and to take part in state violence as men do. Society has fallen into the pitfall of gender equality. Is feminism a theory that insists women have power and are able to participate in war? If feminism argues that women can be as strong as men, I am not interested in it. I consider feminism a theory that enables you to survive, while being respected as the weak of society.

In contrast to the idea of dying gracefully for the nation, assuming that not to live miserably deserves a medal, while desperately hanging onto “masculinity” by choosing to sacrifice his life for the sake of power and honor. The book shows survival theories for women, the elderly, and the physically challenged: the weak should neither be the strong nor oppressors but should be respected as they are.

In the epilogue whose title is “in lieu of ‘prayer,’” Ueno writes that she chose feminism so that she would not have to pray helplessly. The author is a theorist who considered “praying” but decided not to. Human beings should be able to concretely solve all the problems they caused.

I like to believe that we could weave something that replaces ‘prayer.’

A book review by Kimiko Hori

Original Article Jun 30
Translated by Atsuko Ishikawa