Happy Women's Map 長崎県 日本初の女性大臣 中山 マサ 女史
「ゆりかごから墓場までの仕事に尽力したい」
"I will commit to cradle-to-grave work."
中山 マサ 女史
Ms. Masa Nakayama1891 - 1976
長崎県長崎市 生誕
Born in Nagasaki-city, Nagasaki-ken
中山マサ女史は日本人女性初の大臣です（厚生大臣）。シベリア引揚げ問題の進展、高齢者施設の建設、角膜移植法の成立、ポリオワクチンの大量確保、ひとり親家庭への児童扶養手当法などに尽力しました。
Ms. Masa Nakayama is the first woman appointed to the Cabinet of Japan when she became Minister of Health and Welfare. She contributed to the progress of Japanese prisoners of war in the Soviet Union, the construction of facilities for the elderly, the enactment of the corneal transplantation law, the securing of a large amount of polio vaccines, and the child allowance law for single-parent families.
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「祈りの子」
マサは裕福な長崎貴婦人カイとアメリカ貿易商人である父・ロドニー・H・パワーズとの間に生まれます。母・カイは産後まもなく死去、母の姉の飯田ナカによって育てられます。幼少期は病弱で何度も医師に見放されながらも、義母ナカの献身な看護と祈りで次第に丈夫に頑固に育ちます。父のいない母ひとり娘ひとりの家庭、マサは通訳になって義母を支えようと全寮制の活水女学校に入学。熱心にキリスト教を学びながら英語とラテン語を身に付けます。後の女性運動家・神近市子はじめ学友達と夜更けまで語りあいます。「自分自身の井戸を掘りなさい」創始者ラッセル女史ならびにヤング校長の薫陶を受けながら、マサは米国の名門大学オハイオ・ウエスレヤン大学に留学。アルバイトをしながら英文学・弁論学を専攻して学位を取得します。帰国後は、母校の英語教師となって喜怒哀楽むき出しで生徒と向き合います。やがて、「あなたと一緒に国の為に尽くしたい」とプロポーズを受け、東京帝大出の弁護士・中山福蔵と結婚。大阪の教会に通いながら、代議士を目指す福蔵とともに、選挙のたびに大きなお腹を抱え、乳児を背負って、支持を訴えて歩きます。数度の落選を経験するも、終戦前まで３回の当選を果たします。マサの応援演説は注目を浴びますが、アメリカのスパイと疑われて憲兵がつきまとい、子供たちは「非国民」と言われ孤立します。
「博愛の政治家」
終戦を迎えた翌年、戦後最初の衆議院選挙が行われ、初めて女性の参政権が認められます。マサは婦人自由党を自ら結成、小型宣伝車で『アイルランドの花売り娘』を鳴らしてまわって子供たちを集めては童話を読み聞かせ、さらに集まる婦人たちに選挙演説を始めます。戦後の第一回総選挙で福蔵は落選、第二回総選挙ではマサが自ら出馬し当選します。それ以来連続４期当選して政治家の道を歩みます。『異国の丘』のメロディに心痛めるマサは議員2年で衆院特別委員長を務め、シベリア抑留者30万の引揚げ交渉の重責を負います。アメリカ進駐軍ならびにニューヨークの国連総会に出向いて協力を求め、ソ連とも直接交渉しながら、国連内に捕虜調査委員会を設置させ抑留者の早期帰国を大きく前進させます。さらに厚生政務次官となり、社会福祉に力を注ぎ、高齢者施設の建設や、角膜移植法の成立などに尽力します。そして１９６０年池田内閣で日本最初の女性・厚生大臣に抜擢されます。「ゆりかごから墓場までの仕事に尽力したい」。まもなく、ポリオが全国５０００人超の大流行、母親を中心としたワクチン獲得運動が広がります。マサは陣頭指揮を執って、アメリカ・ソ連からワクチンを確保、ワクチン輸入業者また国内製造企業と価格交渉（輸入ワクチン70円に対する卸値また国内製造ワクチンを450円から350円）、ワクチンの国内生産準備、無料検診・接種組織を準備。また賃金・診療報酬の値上げを求める病院ストライキが全国で広がると、マサは医療費値上げを断固拒否。さらに貧困母子家庭への児童扶助手当支給を日本ではじめて実現します。在任期間5ヶ月で内閣は解散します。マサは女性政治家で初めて勲一等瑞宝章を、母校オハイオ・ウエスレヤン大学からは名誉法学博士の称号を授与されます。マサの後には20年以上女性大臣は現れていません。
"Prayer Child"
Masa was born to Kai, a wealthy Nagasaki noblewoman, and her father, Rodney H. Powers, an American trader. Her mother, Kai, died shortly after giving birth, and she was raised by her mother's older sister, Naka Iida. During his childhood, he was sickly and was abandoned by doctors many times, but thanks to the devoted care and prayers of his mother-in-law, he gradually grew strong and stubborn. Masa enters the boarding school Kassui Girls' School in order to support her mother-in-law by becoming her interpreter. She acquires English and Latin while studying Christianity with great enthusiasm. She talked with her schoolmates, including later female activist Ichiko Kamichika, until late into the night. Masa studied abroad at Ohio Wesleyan University, a prestigious university in the United States, while being mentored by Ms. Russell, the founder of her "Dig Her Own Well," and Principal Young. She earned her degree majoring in English Literature and Rhetoric while she worked part-time. After her return to Japan, she becomes an English teacher at her alma mater, and she faces her students with all her joy, anger, and sorrow. Eventually, she received a marriage proposal that said, ``I want to work with you to serve the country,'' and she married Fukuzo Nakayama, a lawyer who graduated from Tokyo Imperial University. While attending church in Osaka, she and Fukuzo, who aspires to become a representative, walk to every election campaigning for her support, clutching a large belly and carrying an infant on their backs. Although she was defeated several times, she was elected three times before the end of the war. Masa's speech of support for her attracts attention, but she is suspected of being an American spy and is followed by military police, and her children are isolated and labeled as "non-citizens."
"The Benevolent Politician"
The year after the war ended, the first postwar House of Representatives election was held, and women were granted the right to vote for the first time. Masa formed the Women's Liberal Party herself, and she drove around in a small advertising van blaring ``The Irish Flower Girl'' to gather children, read fairy tales to them, and then began giving campaign speeches to the assembled women. Fukuzo was defeated in the first general election after the war, but Masa ran on his own and was elected in the second general election. Since then, she has been elected to four consecutive terms and is pursuing a career in politics. Masa, who is saddened by the melody of ``Ikoku no Oka'' (Ikoku no Oka), is a two-year member of the Diet and serves as the chairman of a special committee in the House of Representatives, where he takes on the heavy responsibility of negotiating the repatriation of 300,000 Siberian detainees. She goes to the American Occupation Forces and the United Nations General Assembly in New York to ask for their cooperation, and while negotiating directly with the Soviet Union, she establishes a POW investigation committee within the United Nations and makes great progress in the early return of the detainees. Furthermore, she became Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Health and Welfare and focused on social welfare, working to build elderly care facilities and pass the Corneal Transplant Law. In 1960, she was selected by the Ikeda Cabinet to become Japan's first female Minister of Health and Welfare. She wants to "commit to cradle-to-grave work." Soon, her polio outbreak spread to over 5,000 people across the country, and a movement to obtain a vaccine, led by her mother, spread. Masa took the lead in securing vaccines from the United States and the Soviet Union, negotiating prices with vaccine importers and domestic manufacturing companies (wholesale price for imported vaccines at 70 yen, and domestically manufactured vaccines at 450 to 350 yen), and preparing for domestic production of vaccines. , prepared a free medical examination and vaccination organization. When a hospital strike to demand a raise in her wages and medical fees spreads across the country, Masa firmly refuses to raise her medical fees. She also became the first person in Japan to provide child support allowances to poor single-parent families. Her cabinet will be dissolved after five months in office. Masa is the first female politician to receive the Order of the Sacred Treasure, First Class, and her alma mater, Ohio Wesleyan University, has awarded her an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. After her in Masa, there has been no female minister for over 20 years.
-活水学院 Kwassui Gakuin
-首相官邸 Prime Minister's Office
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