During 1928 the Historical Society of Delaware received one of fifty-eight large and elegant display dolls made by Japanese master craftsmen for a Japanese-American doll exchange, initiated by the Committee of World Friendship among Children, an arm of the Churches of Christ in America.  American children had previously donated enough money to send 12,739 smaller dolls to Japan.  2,610,000 Japanese children contributed one sen coins [worth about half a cent at the time] to finance their project.  Named for Japanese cities and prefectures, the dolls -- made to resemble six-year-old-girls -- traveled in groups throughout the United States before reaching their individual assigned homes.  Many lost their identifications along the way.  No two dolls wore the same kimono, however, and ours, formerly thought to be Miss Karafuto, has been conclusively identified as Miss Nagano, based on her kimono design.  She is one of forty-four of the Japanese-made dolls whose locations are currently known.  Relations between the United States and Japan deteriorated in the years following the doll exchange, culminating in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.  Few of the American dolls in Japan survived the second World War.

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The black and white photograph shows the original display of Japanese friendships dolls in Delaware during 1928.  

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    Miss Nagano was continuously displayed at the Historical Society of Delaware for many years; as a result parts of her kimono are somewhat faded.  She is now shown only on special occasions, the most recent being our Toys and Dolls of the Past exhibition, which is on display from November 2001 through June 2002.  For more information on Friendship dolls please visit wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/dolls or www.jadejapandolls.com.  The foremost authority in the U.S. on Japanese-American friendship dolls is Michiko Takaoka, Director of the Japanese Cultural Center at Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute in Spokane, Washington.  She can be reached at mtakaoka@mfwi.org or through the Japanese Cultural Center at jcc@mfwi.org .

For a look at more of the Society's collections, please visit our Collections Highlight which features a different item from our library or museum every month! (On our main index page, just click on the Collections Highlight of the Month button).