Swarthmore College Special Collections
Friends Historical Library
"Established in 1871, Friends Historical Library collects materials pertaining to Quaker history, from the mid-17th century beginnings of the Religious Society of Friends in England to the present. FHL is one of the outstanding research facilities for the study of Quaker history and houses the archives of Swarthmore College."
The collection can be searched through Tripod, Online Finding Aids, or Card Files in the Reading Room. Note that there is no search function for the Finding Aids, so you must open each file individually to see what it contains. For this reason, its recommended you at least start with the list given below, and work from there (it is fairly accurate--it covers all the major collections--but its not completely comphrehensive).
Peace Collection
"The Peace Collection holds the papers of many individuals and the records of numerous organizations, reflecting the spread of the peace movement, in the United States and around the world. The Peace Collection also holds material on subjects such as pacifism, women and peace, conscientious objection, and other reform movements."
Many FINDING AIDS can be found online here, but not all are available.
As you can see, Swarthmore actually has not one but two Special Collections Libraries. Both of these libraries are rich with information. The Peace Collection especially contains much information on Vietnam and the Vietnam War. The collections listed below give an example of the materials available in the Swarthmore libraries:
Friends Historical Library
Organizational Records. Go
Inviduals' Papers. Go
Suggestions from Chris Densmore, Head Librarian. Go
Collections that include references to East Asia, but are not primarily concerned with that region. Go
Excerpts from Quaker Journals. Go
Peace Collection
CHINA
Stuart Innerst Papers (The China Spectator Papers), DG 103
"He and his wife, Marion Reachard (whom he had married after graduating from college), became missionaries in Canton in Jan. 1920 through the China Mission of United Brethren in Christ. They lived and worked in the small, rural town of Siulam, but their discomfort with the way the Chinese people were dominated by foreigners -- personally and also systemically through unfair treaties imposed by other governments -- led the Innersts to leave that country in protest in the Spring of 1927. Stuart Innerst did not return to China until May 1972, when he was allowed to enter the country as a guest of the Chinese Peoples Association for Friends with Foreign Countries. He was the first American missionary to be granted a visa to return, and he took full advantage of the privilege by visiting many sites over a five week period, focusing on the social changes achieved since he had lived there five decades earlier. Before that, in 1968, Innerst traveled to the Far East, including Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, to meet with Quaker groups concerning the situation in China. In fact, China was of life-long interest and concern for Innerst, and was the subject of much of his writing and lobbying over the years."
Papers of Anna Melissa Graves, 1919-1953, DG 015
"The papers of Graves consist mostly of correspondence from friends around the world. The letters, approximately half of which are from women, touch on family life in Syria, work and family conditions in China from the 1920s through the 1950s, and educational life in South America."
JAPAN
Japanese Lantern Slides | Go
Papers of E. Raymond Wilson, 1914-1987, DG 070
"Born on a farm in Iowa, Wilson graduated from Iowa State College in 1921 and received an MS degree religious education from Columbia University in 1925. After helping to found the Committee on Militarism in Education, he studied and toured for a year (1926-1927) in Japan under a Japanese Brotherhood Scholarship. From 1931 to 1943, he was Field and Education Secretary for the Peace Section of the American Friends Service Committee. Wilson also served as co-chair of the Disarmament Working Group of the Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy."
John Nevin Sayre, DG 117
"...When he and his wife were on their world tour, they learned that Japanese soldiers who had been accused of war crimes in the Philippines were still in prison there, some to be executed. With the support of the International FOR and a committee of the Tokyo YMCA, Sayre went directly to Philippine President Quirino. Before leaving office in1953, he commuted the sentences of all the Japanese prisoners, thus freeing them to return to their country and families...In October 1949 when Nevin and Kathleen Sayre were on their world tour, they had two visits in Japan which were social occasions. They were luncheon guests of General Douglas MacArthur and his wife at the American Embassy, and they were received by the Emperor and Empress of Japan at the royal palace. In both cases they conversed about the favorable circumstances which characterized the post-war period in Japan."
Helen Mears, DG 210
"Helen Mears was a writer and journalist, especially interested in Japan and Asia...Mears first traveled to China in 1925, spending a year in Beijing. Ten years later Mears spent nine months in Japan. Out of the trip to Japan she published two books and a series of essays that appeared in The New Yorker. Mears traveled throughout Asia, the Soviet Union, Europe, and parts of South America. After World War II Mears traveled again to Japan served in an official capacity as a member of the U.S. labor advisory committee...Helen Mears published several books on Japan. These include: Mirror for Americans, Japan, Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co., 1948; Year of the Wild Boar: an American Woman in Japan / by Helen Mears Publisher, Philadelphia, New York, J. B. Lippincott company [1942]; The first book of Japan /Publication: E. Ward, 1964 Description: 69 p. : p., ill. ;, 22 cm. Note: For children. Originally published, Watts, 1953. with drawings by Kathleen Elgin. Mirror for Americans and Year of the Wild Boar were later translated into Japanese. Mears also published articles in many newspapers and national magazines including The Nation, the Wall Street Journal, The Witness, the Christian Science Monitor, Liberation, and The Progressive."
Fellowship of Reconcilliation, DG 13
Jane Addams Collection, DG 001
Papers of E. Raymond Wilson, 1914-1987, DG 070
"After helping to found the Committee on Militarism in Education, he studied and toured for a year (1926-1927) in Japan under a Japanese Brotherhood Scholarship. From 1931 to 1943, he was Field and Education Secretary for the Peace Section of the American Friends Service Committee."
Hannah Clothier Hull, DG 016
Hull's interest in women's rights is represented by items on woman suffrage, correspondence on WILPF relations with the National Council of Women of the United States, and material on women's movements in China and India.
American Committee for Non-Participation in Japanese Aggression, 1938-1941
This collection does not appear in a Tripod search.
“The committee worked for war materiel embargo on Japan prior to U.S. entrance into WWII.”
Anna Louise Strong Collection, 1910-1970
This collection also does not appear in a Tripod search.
“During World War II she defended the policies of Stalin, and afterward remained faithful to her belief that her most important role was to popularize the thought of Lenin, Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung.
VIETNAM
A list of suggested collections relating to Vietnam and the Vietnam War
A Quaker Action Group, 1965-1973. Collection: DG 074
"A Quaker Action Group, founded in Philadelphia during the summer of 1966 to “apply nonviolent direct action as a witness against the war in Vietnam,” was an informally organized group which sponsored numerous projects of national and international scope."
Papers of Murray Polner, DG 113
He worked for the evacuation of Japanese Americans during WWII, and also worked during the Vietnam War
Papers of Robert Levering, DG 54 and/or 80
Finding Aid in Repository | Tripod Result
Levering was a Pacifist and Quaker. "Includes material relating to Levering's meetings with representatives of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, and other Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian groups, on behalf of the People's Coalition for Peace and Justice in Paris, 1972...
Records of A Quaker Action Group, 1965-1973, RG 074
"A Quaker Action Group, founded in Philadelphia during the summer of 1966 to “apply nonviolent direct action as a witness against the war in Vietnam,” was an informally organized group which sponsored numerous projects of national and international scope."
Materials include correspondence with Japan committees, and on the China ProjectWomen Strike for Peace, DG 115
The records include photos from North Vietnam as well as records from the "Vietnam Women's Union", etc.
Contact
Friends Historical Library
Christopher Densmore. 610-328-8499. densmo1@swarthmore.edu
Peace Collection
Wendy Chmielewski. 610-328-8557. wchmiel1@swarthmore.edu