 Lasting peace, built on justice and understanding among nations. This is the objective of the United Nations. This is another program in the United Nations series of the Pacific story. One of the five special series presented by the National Broadcasting Company in a affiliated station to further world unity and world peace through understanding. For hundreds of years, the Pacific and the lands it touches have been the scene of struggle, conflict for gain and power, people against people, and the millions caught in the political and economic cross-current. Today, with most of the world's population concentrated around and in the Pacific, the events of the Pacific are a vital world concern. The Pacific story dedicates this series to the objective of the United Nations. Lasting peace, built on justice and understanding among nations. A new voice in the East. Think of the far East as man's reserve. Here, for thousands of years, woman has been the chapel of her lorded master. But today, something is happening in that vast region which promises to fix for succeeding generations the shape of things to come. Today, a new voice is heard in China, in India, the Philippines, even in tradition written Japan. A woman suffered in Japan is not a gift handed to us on a silver tray. It was won by the efforts of the Japanese women. This is Shizuikato, the former Baroness Ishimoto speaking at a political mass meeting for women at Hibiya Auditorium in Tokyo, the first ever held in Japan. I am a candidate for the diet as a hotelist. Behind me on the platform here sits one of my political rivals. This is our Kimi Kubishiro, a candidate of the Nebar Poffee. But on one important thing, we are in perfect agreement. If the women of Japan had heard a voice in our country's affairs, there never would have been a voice. So, the militarists and the industrial monopolies of the Zibatul are being liquidated. Our political parties of the old order are still permitted to exist. To resist their policies, outvote them. Our voting ratio to the men is 53 to 47. We women hold an American superiority of three million dollars. Last April, for the first time in history, Japanese women went to the polls to vote. Students, professional women, young mothers with babies strapped to their backs. Shizuikato, mother has a right to be here. But I am afraid. Over here, as a woman with a baby, this way. You are Tuneko Akamatsu, aren't you? The woman, Arita. Please, we are helping you. I do not know how to vote. Look at the sample ballot. See? The names of all our candidates for the diet. 75 are women. It does not seem possible. A new day is here. Remember what Mrs. Kato said at the meeting? We are having more power than men because we outnumber them. But I cannot get used to thinking that way. They are so different from everything I was taught as a girl. I know. I was taught the same thing from the Una da Gao. The treaties are greater learning for women. A woman must look to her husband as her lord, and must serve him with all worship and reverence. I know my husband does not approve of my being here. But for once, you are doing our job, please. It is our fine feeling. Come. Let us through. We are going to vote. We are going to vote. At that election, 38 women were chosen for the Japanese diet. Women of all classes, from typists to university professors. The outside world was amazed. But the emancipation of Japanese women from feudalism was not as sudden as it seemed. The autonomous movement had its inception in the blue-sucking coterie organized in 1911. It was followed by the New Women's Association in 1920. And then, finally, the Women's Supply Federation. We came out under our true colors and waged a campaign for equal suffrage, just like our sisters of the Western nations. You, Tsuneko, recall the difficulties we had? One of the greatest was converting other women. They were afraid. We had to break down the traditions of honor back then. For that reason, the sudden opening of the ballot box to Japanese women was a tradition-suttering event. It was a personal triumph for me. I have devoted my life to the feminist movement. I was just a young girl in Nagano. We had organized for a demonstration. Tsuneko, are we going through with her? Of course. At noon, we start our march to the city. It is almost 12 o'clock now. We must show the officials that women demand some recognition. They get it and all that comes in. I wonder what will happen. It is our... Come, everybody! That ought to hold you for a while. What is your name? Tsuneko Akamatsu. I've heard of you, a troublemaker. The woman who thinks she's a man. I wouldn't be a man if I could. Then why should a young woman like you read this demonstration and get us up in jail? You fool. You can't even understand what this demonstration means to the women of Japan. I was arrested in 10 perspectives. The officials who arrested me called me woman public enemy number one. And during the war, the officials accused me of sabotage against Japan. But Tsuneko persevered and Japan's defeat has been a victory for Tsuneko. Today, Tsuneko is the leader of thousands of women and her name is known far beyond the shores of Japan as a champion of the right of women. The name of Tsuneko Akamatsu has become synonymous with women's rights throughout the East, respected by her sisters, even in the Philippines, where the Philippines is by all odds the most independent woman of the Orient. We Japanese women used to envy the Filipina. She actually engaged in business, not just small shops, but industries, iron mines, sugar centrals, constructions, even an inter-island airline. Naturally the Japanese conquest stopped all that. The Japanese army tried to reduce the women of the Philippines to the same status as the women at home. And we Japanese have been called the most used women in the world. The result was not what the army expected. Women and girls, many professional and business women, flocked to the resistance movement. They put on men's clothes, bought as gorillas in the Philippine army, or gave their time to the women's auxiliary service. They had something to fight for. Four years before the war began, in the plebiscite of 1937, women's suffrage was permanently established in the Philippines. In India, too, some women can vote. But the right is limited to those who hold property or can meet educational tests. That is Therogenine Naidu, leader of the feminist movement in India, a woman who defied the teachings of the past to marry a man of lower caste. India, like Japan, is beginning to see the rise of women toward the position of their sisters in the western hemisphere. In a few cases, we have succeeded in electing a woman to the legislative assembly. But she must appear veiled in her burqa and rarity speech. Our progress has been slow. India has farther to go than almost any other eastern nation. In the complexity of problems in this land, the value of an Indian woman's life was tied up with age-old traditions, with religion, and with many other factors. Up until a little more than a hundred years ago, if a woman's husband died... Who is that woman stepping up to the funeral pyre? That is the widow. Who is she climbing up on the pyre? It is the ancient rite of Sati. Certainly Sati isn't still absurd. Now that her husband is dead, she can no longer be the mother of his children. Rik Veda has decreed that she make a burning sacrifice of herself. Well, we just can't stand by and permit her to destroy herself. You Americans do not understand. She has served her purpose in this life and is no longer... Good heavens! She's lighting the flames. Yes. This is barbaric. This must be stopped. Control yourself. It is the way. The practice of Sati went on, widows following their husbands in death. Until enlightenment decreed that it must end, with passing time, more and more voices demanded a new place for the Indian woman. And in 1920, when a restless, impatient India rallied around Mahatma Gandhi, in the ranks were many Indian women. We women see in this movement the chance for the freedom which within ourselves we have always longed for. Under the leadership of Mrs. Naidu, the women enlisted in the cause. Mrs. Naidu astonished the world by being elected president of the All India Congress. The practice of Sati had been abolished. But another ancient custom kept millions of Indian women shackled to the past. Mother, I want to go outside with the other. No, she is not to go. Our daughter is almost a woman now. She must be kept in Purda. Purda? You mean I'm as dress as Mother does? Covered all over? With only eye holes to see at her? Yes. You must be kept from the sight of the world. You must stay in your home as much as possible. And when you have to go into the streets, you must cover yourself with a veil. But why, Father? Again, that persistent question echoing down through the centuries. The answer had always been the same. But there came a time when that answer was no longer valid. It was 1939, the world was engulfed in war. Every available source of production power was needed. The great majority of Indians, even those who had opposed British policy, wanted to see the allies win the war. But there were not enough men with necessary skills, even in this vast and thickly populated country. For the first time, another reservoir of power was tapped. The women of India flocked into the factories, just as their sisters did in Western lands. We organized an auxiliary corps of more than 5,000 women of every creed and cup. We learned to be switchboard operators, telephone ordinates, wireless operators, plotters in the observers corps. We drove staff cars, replaced men as collects in military headquarters. And women medical graduates were recruited in the military medical service to serve abroad, as well as on the home front. They were commissioned, and their pay was the same as their brother officers. The bars were down at plant. Indian womanhood came out from behind an age-old veil of mystery. Yet thousands of my countrymen still resent the Western idea of feminine equality. Long before Occidental culture was born, women's place had been assigned to her in India. Only gradually are those whose reverence the old ways, accepting the strange new revelations that a woman may aspire to more. Come in, my friend. Rest a while in my house before you travel on. Thank you. I should like you to meet my wife. I do. Your wife? One does not even speak of his wife in the presence of other men. Oh, I do, sir. I'm proud of her. She's a graduate of the university, you know. The university? Oh, she came out of Prada years ago. Sometimes I long for the old days, when a woman kept to her place, when a man's wife was content to be the keeper of his house, the mother of his children. I am content, sir, to be the keeper of his house, to bring up his children. I think I'm a better mother, a better helpmate for my husband, because my country has given me freedom. Women's struggle for freedom from the tyranny of the past, hard as it was in India and Japan, was dwarfed by its counterpart in China. Chinese women pioneered in the fight for women's rights. This great sprawling country, seat of ancient wisdom and wily masculine ways, became a huge battleground, where women's wit met masculine force and cunning at one. Last March 9th, at a rally of 7,000 women in Chongqing. The National Women's Day is a good time for us to look back upon our long struggle for equality of the sexes. In China, a woman has always been recognized for her value as a force in local and national affairs, but only as an advisor, operating anonymously behind the scenes. Today, she is man's equal. The speaker these women are applauding is Madam Chiang Kai-shek, considered by close observers of Chinese affairs, second only to her husband, the generalissimo as the most important personage in China. The women of China have won their presence high place in the nation, largely as a result of two wars. The first was the revolution which ended in 1911. It overthrew the monarchy and brought the dawn of a new China. The first Chinese parliament met in Canton. The people are happy today, celebrating the birth of the republic. Yes, quite happy. What's this? Ah, a petition signed by a committee from the Chinese Women's Society of the Revolution. What do they want? Ah, let me see. They say they fought beside the men and helped establish the republic. They want equal suffrage. Suffragettes. What foolishness. Why, women don't even vote in the old established democracies, such as the United States and Britain. We can ignore this. Before we do that on a colleague, pause to consider. Those silk is softer than the sword. It is also stronger. Let us apply that maxim. Tell them their petition is receiving our most careful attention and shelved it. No, I don't think that... Wait. What's that noise? The speed is fuller than they're marching on the building. Lock the doors. Don't let them in here. That was the beginning of the suffragette movement in China. It failed to win in the right to vote, but it won its leaders a large following. Later, two prominent women leaders in the Kuomintang, Tang Chongying and Chang Han Yin, devised a more guarded approach to the citadel of masculine supremacy. They succeeded in getting a bill introduced into parliament. This bill would make women equal under the law. Perhaps it isn't such a bad measure. Women deserve the protection of the law. No, no. This bill is just another trick of the suffragettes. They are like locusts. Give them a nibble and they will come back and eat your crop. I vote no. In China, the battle dragged on. Fourth, matching guile. A law giving women the vote found its way to the statute books, but in many provinces, the right was denied. Again, in 1921, the suffragettes tried direct action. A band of 700 stormed the provisional assembly in Canton. Scenes of violence were precipitated and there were a number of casualties. Yes, yes, you are hurt. Let me help you. The cut on the head is not so bad. It is a bitter taste in my mouth. I know, and we failed. We were not strong enough. We failed because we used the wrong tactics. Yes, I can see that now. Then what should we do? Wait, till the men need our help, till we can show what the women of China will do for their country. That is good advice. We should take advantage of every opportunity to prove our... Their first opportunity came after World War I, when the women joined the student movement in furious protest against that part of the Versailles Treaty which they believed betrayed China's cause. Here in Shandong, a great injustice is being perpetrated. It is necessary to act quickly. What is she mouthing about? Women's rights again? Come on, we shall hear what she's saying. We cannot give our consent to this cause of the treaty. It would turn over all the German-Lease Territories in this province to China's potential enemy, Japan. We beg all patriotic citizens to join us, men and women together, demonstrate against this injustice to our country. That woman is right. We cannot permit such an injustice. What you say is true. This time the women have chosen the right path. Largely as a result of these demonstrations, the loss of territory was averted. Meanwhile, the women of China strengthened their cause. Their scene of action varied. In Hangkou, where corruption had made justice a joke, the women's union actually took over the court. Next case. I want the ball. My husband awokes me like an ox. I work too. I need her help on the farm. When you plow, you'll feel who holds the plow. Why? I do, of course. I'm the man. And who draws it? Why, the ox? And I. I am honest. All right, beside ox. Before you separate, go home and try this. Tomorrow, you yoke your wife to the ox. Good. The next day, she drives you with the ox. What? A man driven by his wife? The neighbors would laugh me off my farm. That is the court's decision. Either that or you lose your wife. Well, as you will. I'll have to try it. I can't afford to get behind with my plowing. But it was not until the Great War engulfed the East that Chinese women had the opportunity to demonstrate their right to equal participation with men in the affairs of their country. They were not fighting now for women's rights, but for the preservation of China. Madam Chiang Kai-shek gathered the leaders of all classes and parties into one group. The Women's Advisory Council. And on the fighting front... We'll have to silence those mortars. But how can we? We have no artillery. We'll have to take them without artillery. Come on. Ow! We can't go any farther. They've got us pinned down. Machine guns, too. They'll wipe us out. We're on the reverse of the slope. If we only had enough men to send a party around that hill and take them on the flank. We haven't. Listen. What's that? An attack on the Japanese position. Look. Coming there on our flank. Another band of gargoyles. These are heavenly ones they've thanked. They've taken the hill. Come, let us join them. Here comes their leader. I'll greet him. Comrades, we wish to thank you. You saved our lives. You are very welcome. Someday, you and your men may do as much for us. Why? You are a woman. So? Sooner or later, I am not the first woman you ever saw. No, but a woman captain of a gorilla band. Look, she is not the only one. See, they are all women. Yes, comrades. We are all women. The women of New China. My grandmother used to say one woman is worth two men. Because a woman is the mother of the race. But if she could see this. Your grandmother have done what we did today? She? Why, she couldn't even walk. Her feet had been bound when she was a little girl to make her a dainty. The women of Santa have come a long way since the time of your grandmother, Comrade. A long, hard uphill journey. But a lot can be for us. Our feet are not bound. We can march on, side by side, with you on equal footing at last. We are with you. Every mile of your journey. We can never forget what the women did for our country in this war. You shall have full rights with us in peace. Under the leadership of Madame Zhong Kai-shek, this prophecy was fulfilled. The Chinese woman of today has exchanged her security and seclusion for insecurity and freedom. And the adaptability which in olden times was required of her as a wife is enabling her to fit into her new role with equal efficiency and grace. Woman has done her part. But still, after eight years of devastating war, a storm cloud hovers over China. Apparently the two factions which successfully fought Japan have been unable to get together on a basis of national unity. Yet, during the war, both factions were united in Women's Advisory Council. We worked together then. Even when there was no such common meeting ground between the men. Yes, Mena Stubborn. It may be that only the women can perform this great task. The bringing of domestic peace and unity to China. There is a still greater task. The greatest task of all. Perhaps it will be the women who eventually will bring peace and unity to the entire Orient. And may I say the word. In Japan, other women will never colourize a return for militarism. The women of India do not wish ever to see their sons and brothers die in another war. Nor do the women of the Philippines who fought and died beside their sons and brothers. Nor do the women of China who today are toiling to restore the devastation caused by misguided men. The likes of masculine supremacy have been breached throughout the Orient. More recently, sudden events have swept women into power in a national crisis. The new voice in the East, a voice that speaks in supple but penetrating tones will be heard throughout the world. So the Pacific Story, presented by the national broadcasting company in a affiliated independent station, to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the cross currents of life in the Pacific Basin. For a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send 10 cents in stamps or coins to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. May I repeat, for a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send 10 cents in stamps or coins to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. Written by Arnold Marquess and directed by Max Huddle. Original music was under the direction of Henry Russell. Your narrator, Gaine Whitman. Programs in this series of particular interests of service men and women are broadcast overseas through the worldwide facilities of the Armed Forces Radio Service. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is NBC, the national broadcasting company.