Loretta Leonard Shaw

Shaw taught school in the Boston area for a few years after earning her teaching credentials.^[3] In 1904, she was accepted as a missionary by Church Missionary Society of the Church of England in Canada,^[4] and became a teacher at the Bishop Poole Girls' School in Osaka, Japan,^[5][6][7] where she taught from 1905 to 1919, and from 1923 to 1932. She wrote about her work for Canadian church publications, and in a book, Japan in Transition (1922).^[8] She was a delegate to the World's Sunday School Convention in Oslo in 1936.^[9] She toured in Canada during furlough leaves, speaking on Japan.^[10]

Shaw donated hundreds of Japanese objects, including clothing, coins, dolls, toys, and photographs, for display in Canada, and many are now in the collection of the New Brunswick Museum.^[11][12] In 1932, she left teaching to work at the Christian Literature Society of Japan, overseeing the publication of books for women and children.^[2] In that work, she is credited with bringing Anne of Green Gables to the attention of translator Hanako Muraoka, whose translation Akage no An (1952) became a favorite of Japanese readers for generations.^[1][13][14]

Shaw returned to Canada in 1939, and she died from cancer in 1940, at her sister's home in Saint John, ten days after her 68th birthday.^[9][11][15] "She was always keen to strengthen what was weak, right what was wrong," recalled a colleague in 1941. "She was an ideal friend, faithful, true, and understanding, with strong and deep affection."^[16]