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Niijima Yae

Niijima Yae
新島八重
Born
Yamamoto Yae (山本八重)

(1845-12-01)1 December 1845
Died14 June 1932(1932-06-14) (aged 86)
Resting placeDoshisha Cemetery, Kyoto, Japan
NationalityJapanese
Other namesYamamoto Yaeko (山本八重子)
Occupation(s)Nurse, former soldier
Spouses
(m. 1865; div. 1871)
(m. 1876; died 1890)
Childrennone
Parents
RelativesYamamoto Kakuma (brother)
Military career
AllegianceAizu Domain
Years of service1868
Battles / warsBattle of Aizu

Niijima Yae (新島八重, née Yamamoto (山本); 1 December 1845 – 14 June 1932), also known as Yamamoto Yaeko (山本 八重子), was a Japanese educator, nurse, and scholar during the Bakumatsu and Meiji era.[1] Her samurai family belonged to the Hoshina clan, loyal to the Tokugawa Shogunate.[1] Skilled in gunnery, she helped defend the Aizu Domain during the Boshin War, earning her the nicknames “Nightingale of Japan” and “Bakumatsu Joan of Arc”.[1]

Yaeko served as a nurse during the Russo-Japanese War and Sino-Japanese War,[1] and became the first woman outside of Imperial House of Japan after the Meiji Restoration (originated in 1870s) to be decorated for her service to the country.[2] She was famously known as the wife of Joseph Hardy Neesima, the founder of Doshisha English School in 1875, and with a help of American missionary Alice J. Starkweather, they co-founded the Doshisha Girls’ School a year later.

  1. ^ a b c d Schneider, Michael (2020). "NIIJIMA (geborene YAMAMOTO), Yae (1845–1932)". In Kolling, Hubert (ed.). Biographisches Lexikon zur Pflegegeschichte: Who was who in nursing history (in German). Hungen: Hpsmedia Verlag. pp. 136–138. ISBN 978-3-947665-03-7.
  2. ^ "歴史秘話ヒストリア「明治悪妻伝説 初代"ハンサムウーマン"新島八重の生涯". NHK. April 22, 2009.

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