YMCA Archives

The Kautz Family YMCA Archives, located in Andersen Hall at the University of Minnesota, contains correspondence, reports and various other types of documents related to the American YMCA's domestic and international work. The YMCA Archives' Japan collection covers a vast period of modern Japanese history (1885-1991), and since the vast majority of these documents are in English, they can serve as excellent primary sources for researching Japan.

Students interested in using the YMCA Archives should first contact and meet with an archivist. It is a good idea to have a general time period or event that you want to research in mind. If you have not yet decided, the book The YMCA movement in Japan, 1880-2005, which is located within the YMCA Archives, is an excellent starting point. A brief overview of the history of the YMCA in Japan, as well as the Japan collection's contents, can also be found in the online finding aid below.

Finding Aids

While the Japan collection contains documents relevant to the YMCA's work in Japan, there are other collections that contain materials relevant to Japanese history. . Due to their overlapping histories, the China and Russia collections also contain documents relevant to Japanese history, especially during the 1930s and 1940s. Examples of documents from each of the collections listed below can be found on the Potential Projects page.

• Japan Collection

• China Collection

• Russia Collection

  • Armed Services Collection -- Box 66 contains documents on Japanese American internment

Additional Sources

Primary

The Far East in the summer of 1940: confidential notes on visits made on behalf of the International Committee YMCA in North China, Southwest China, East and South China, Japan, Korea, Manchuria and the Philippines, May 3 - September 6, 1940

Eugene Barnett (YMCA Secretary)

WorldCat

(Contains details on conditions within China and Japan during the Japan-China War, Japanese military atrocities in China, Japanese wartime politics and propaganda)

Secondary

Baptized in the Fire of Revolution: The American Social Gospel and the YMCA in China, 1919-1937

Chün Hsing

Bethlehem, Lehigh University Press; London & Cranbury, Associated University Presses 1996

Cultural diplomacy in U.S.-Japanese relations, 1919-1941

Jon Thares Davidann

New York, Palgrave Macmillan 2007

A World of Crisis and Progress: The American YMCA in Japan, 1890-1930

Jon Thares Davidann

Bethlehem, Lehigh University Press; London, Associated University Presses 1998