Mary McMillan papers, 1936-1997 and undated, bulk 1952-1991, bulk 1952-1991

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Summary

Creator:
McMillan, Mary, 1912-
Extent:
8.1 Linear Feet (13 manuscript boxes; 2 oversize boxes; 2 oversize folders)
2277 Items
Language:
English.
Collection ID:
RL.00881

Background

Scope and content:

The Mary McMillan Papers, 1936-1997 and undated (bulk 1952-1991), consist chiefly of journals and printed material, but also include correspondence, writings and speeches, photographic material, scrapbooks, clippings, videocassettes, audio cassettes, and memorabilia. Arranged in nine series based primarily on the format of the material, the papers illuminate the personal life and professional work of McMillan, a United Methodist missionary and teacher at the Hiroshima Jo Gakuin College in Hiroshima, Japan. In addition to her work as a teacher, the collection documents McMillan's service to the Kyodan, a unifying organization for Christian missionaries in Japan, and to the hibakusha, the survivors of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as her peace activism. Also included are materials related to the Topaz Relocation Center, a Japanese-American internment camp in Utah where McMillan worked in 1943. The papers are mostly in English, but include some Japanese language materials.

The bulk of the collection consists of the Journals Series, whose 43 journals contain almost daily accounts of McMillan's work at Hiroshima Jo Gakuin College, her involvement with the Ushita Christian Church, and her encounters with friends and other people. Also included are her personal thoughts about world events, particularly those related to peace and nuclear disarmament. Beginning on Aug. 11, 1939 with the final preparations for her initial departure, McMillan records her activities through her first year and a half in Japan. The 1939 and 1940 journals document in depth McMillan's adaptation to life in Japan, including her training in the Japanese language and customs, her first visits to various cities throughout the country, and the difficulties she faced as an American woman in pre-World War II Japan. After she and other American workers in Hiroshima were forcibly evacuated on Feb. 29, 1941, journal entries are scarce; however, the almost-daily entries resume in 1952 and continue until the day of McMillan's death on July 19, 1991.

In addition to the journals, McMillan's professional work as a United Methodist missionary and teacher at Hiroshima Jo Gakuin College is well documented through the Correspondence Series, Writings and Speeches Series, and Printed Material Series. The Biographical Material Series includes McMillan's handwritten autobiographical notes, as well as newspaper and magazine clippings and booklets documenting McMillan's work at Hiroshima Jo Gakuin College, and with the Ushita Christian Church, which McMillan helped found in 1948. McMillan's correspondence also sheds light on her work through "mission letters," mass mailings which she wrote periodically as a way of updating her supporters in the United States on her work in Hiroshima.

McMillan also was a staunch advocate of world peace and nuclear disarmament, and after her retirement from the United Methodist Church in 1980, she spent much of her time writing letters and speaking in churches throughout the United States promoting her cause. McMillan's role as a pacifist is well well documented throughout the entire collection by her correspondence, photographs of demonstrations and marches, printed materials, and items in the Clippings Series. Much of the material in the Writings and Speeches Series and the Printed Material Series is related to peace activism, and covers topics such as the lingering effects of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima and that city's fight for peace, the first-hand accounts of bomb survivors, and the United Methodist Church's pacifist stance.

Also contributing to an understanding of McMillan's life, the Photographic Material Series and the Memorabilia Series offer visual and three-dimensional documentation of her activities as a missionary, teacher, and friend to the Japanese.

Biographical / historical:
Chronology
Date Event
1912 Nov. 26
Born, Pensacola, Fla.
1934
Graduated from Florida State College for Women with a degree in literature and history
1934-1937
Taught in Northwest Florida high schools
1939
Graduated from Scarritt College in Nashville with a Masters degree in Christian Education
1939 Aug. 31
Arrived in Japan
1941 Feb. 29
Forced to return to the United States
1942
Took courses in Japanese language at the University of California, Berkeley, and lived in the International House
1943
Taught at the Topaz Relocation Center in Topaz, Utah
1944
Graduated from the Nashville School of Social Work with a Masters in Social Science
1945
Served as a child welfare worker in Escambia County, Fla.
1947 Jan. 7
Became the first Protestant missionary to return to Hiroshima after World War II
1948 Jan. 19
Held the first service of the Ushita Christian Church in her home
1952 Dec.
Mother died
1980
Named the sixth Special Honorary Citizen of Hiroshima
Named Professor Emerita at Hiroshima Jo Gakuin College
1980 May 26
Left Hiroshima for a six-month furlough prior to her official retirement
1980 Dec. 1
Officially retired from service
1984 Aug.
Returned to Hiroshima as a special guest of the city and took part in the memorial ceremony at Peace Park
1991 July 19
Died in Lake Chautauqua, N.Y., at a missionary's conference
Acquisition information:
The Mary McMillan Papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift in 1997.
Processing information:

Processed by Erin Lawrimore

Completed July 25, 2002

Encoded by Erin Lawrimore, Paula Jeannet

Accessions 1996-0163 and 1997-0193 were merged into one collection, described in this finding aid.

Physical location:
For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

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Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Mary McMillan Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.