Missionary Research Library collection of Dai Kokumin (Great Nation) issues, 1916 -- 1917

Creator:

Missionary Research Library (New York, N.Y.)

Abstract:

This collection compiled by the Missionary Research Library contains 4 issues from 1916 of Dai Kokumin, an anti-Christian, Japanese nationalist publication, as well as a bibliographic card and clipping.

Extent:

0.25 linear feet (0.25 linear feet; 1 box)

Language:

English , Japanese .

Scope and content:

This collection contains 4 issues from 1916 of Dai Kokumin, an anti-Christian, Japanese nationalist publication, as well as a bibliographic card and clipping. The issues are numbered 7:82 - 7:85, implying that the periodical had been published for 65 years before its initial appearance, yet it was first registered with the post office on June 15, 1916. Contributors include the minister of education, presidents of universities and university professors, high-ranking military officers, commercial leaders, nobility, and legal officials. Each issue has a typewritten translation into English of the table of contents pasted in to the front of the issue.

Biographical / historical:

Dai Kokumin (Great Nation) was published anonymously between August and November, 1916. Its platform was the extermination of Christianity in Japan. The caricatures on the covers had been sent to American newspapers but had been rejected. It was published by the press of the Kokumin shimbun 國民新聞, an influential newspaper published by Tokutomi Sohō 徳富蘇峰, 1863 -1957. Tokutomi was a close confidant of state officials, and his publications were viewed as government mouthpieces.

The Missionary Research Library was created by John R. Mott in 1914 after the World Missionary Conference, held in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1910. It was created to be a resource for missionaries and to document the missionary movement, and was initially funded by John D. Rockefeller. It was located at the Madison Avenue headquarters of the Foreign Missionary Conference of North America. By the 1920s, funding was becoming scarcer; therefore it was moved to the Brown Tower of the Union Theological Seminary, New York City in 1929. The Library was an important center of information and research. Active missionaries would consult the material of the Missionary Research Library while on furlough. Much of the Library's success was due to the director and librarian, Charles H. Fahs. Upon his retirement in 1948, the MRL's financial difficulties continued until it was finally integrated as one with the Burke Library's collections in 1967. In 2004, the Burke Library was fully integrated with the Columbia University Library System.

Acquisition information:: Formerly part of the independent Missionary Research Library (MRL), these records were accessioned by the Burke Library at the time of the MRL's closure in 1976.
Processing information:: Materials were placed in new acid-free folders and boxes. The finding aid was created by Gregory Adam Scott in 2009, reviewed and updated by Sarah Davis in 2014 and by Rebecca Nieto in 2016 with the support of the Henry Luce Foundation, and edited by Leah Edelman in 2024.
Arrangement:: This collection is arranged in one series organized by format.
Other information:: Missionary Research Library Archives: MRL7, Japan

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research.

Onsite storage.

Terms of access:

Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Information concerning copyright, fair use, and reproduction requests can be consulted at Columbia's Copyright Advisory Office.

Preferred citation:: Item description, MRL 7: Missionary Research Library collection of Dai Kokumin (Great Nation) issues, box #, folder #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.

Location of this collection:: Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary

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Collection