The 1974 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership

RESPONSE of Fusaye Ichikawa

Called upon so unexpectedly to this occasion commemorating the late President Ramon Magsaysay, I am filled with shame and deep regret as a Japanese, thinking how my people caused you and your country indescribable loss and pain in the past. To those of you who, over the last three decades, have had to live with incurable wounds of war, I offer my sincere apologies and beg to be forgiven.

Taking this opportunity, I also would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to you for your generosity in sending home without

censure a Japanese army officer who persisted in fighting "his war" for 30 long years on the Island of Lubang against the peace-loving people. And I thank the many Philippine individuals and families who took in Japanese children—who had been orphaned during the war—as their own, and brought them up with love and care through all these years.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award, I believe, manifests the late President Magsaysay's devotion to his people and to his ideal of the "Politics of the Tao"—or ordinary man. It is an undue honor conferred on me. Being a Japanese, I particularly would like to extend my deep respect and admiration to the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for its spirit of generosity and fairness exemplified in the fact that Japanese have been honored repeatedly by this Foundation.

As of last May, I reached the age of 81. Ever since my childhood the harsh discrimination against women was one thing I could not tolerate, and for 60 years, with friends and colleagues, I carried on my fight to abolish that discrimination. If you had been born in a society like ours, I am sure that you would have done just as I did.

After the prolonged war years during which we also suffered misery and disasters, we, at long last, attained almost complete legal equality of men and women.

Today, many Japanese think that this equality was the gift of the Allied Occupation Forces—an outcome of Japan's defeat in the war. But I would like you to know that we in Japan, too, have a history of struggle for the equality which was withheld so unreasonably from women, that many people fought against the discrimination since the turn of the century. It was extremely difficult to continue such a "radical" movement in face of the rising militarism. However, I must add for the credit of Japanese men, that we had a few friends among them who confidentially extended their benign support to our movement over the years.

Through our movement for equality between men and women, my conviction deepened that unless women won political rights on an equal footing with men, we could not hope for true equality. My creed, "Women's suffrage is the key," is now inscribed on the wall of the Women's Suffrage Hall which we built after the war, reminding those who pass there of the long, hard struggle for women's equality which we had to carry.

We envy the status of women in your country with the long established tradition of equality of men and women that preceded contact with the West. In our history, too, we had a period of matriarchy, and, contrary to the commonly accepted notion, the subordination of women to men was established only a few centuries ago.

In Japan today women outnumber men as voters and their voting rate is higher than men's at every election. Numerically, we can say, women dominate.

However, throughout the long years of my movement, I have come to realize how difficult and time-consuming a process it is to change firmly established and time-honored concepts and practices in a society. Winning the right to vote is one thing. To use it effectively is another. The right itself did not change Japanese women overnight. Even today, three decades after the realization of suffrage, no marked change is recognizable. Not that I have given up; I am hopeful. In the latest election to the House of Councilors many people, particularly youths, voluntarily and actively worked to achieve my successful return by practicing my formula of "ideal election." At long last, though gradually, a pattern of individual awakening, followed by positive action, is spreading among the grassroots. Watching such a development, I would very much like to solicit your help and cooperation for the younger generations of Japanese so that they may develop to be your reliable co-workers for the betterment of the Asian community.