... of this wartime interest in women’s self-defense were far less permanent and much more nuanced. © 2025 by the Pacific Coast Branch, American Historical Association 2025 women self-defense martial arts judo jiu-jitsu World War II In 1943, in the midst of World War II, newspaper writer Genevia...

...Wendy Rouse The emergence of Japan as a major world power in the early twentieth century generated anxiety over America’s place in the world. Fears of race suicide combined with a fear of the feminizing effects of over-civilization further exacerbated these tensions. Japanese jiu-jitsu came...