Tomi Kōra

Kōra was born Tomi Wada^[a] on July 1, 1896, in Toyama Prefecture.^[4][5][3] She graduated from the Japan Women's University in 1917.^[4][3] While a student, she attended the funeral of Tsuriko Haraguchi, held at the university. Haraguchi was a psychologist and the first Japanese woman to obtain a PhD; Kōra was reportedly inspired by Haraguchi to continue her advanced studies in psychology.^[3]

Like Haraguchi, she attended Columbia University, earning her master's degree in 1920 and her PhD in 1922.^[4] At Columbia, she collaborated with Curt Richter to conduct her experiments on the effects of hunger.^[5][3] Kōra's doctoral dissertation, completed under the supervision of Edward L. Thorndike, was titled An Experimental Study of Hunger in its Relation to Activity.^[5][3][6] She was the second Japanese woman to obtain a PhD in psychology, after Haraguchi.^[5]

After returning to Japan, Kōra worked as an assistant in a clinical psychiatry laboratory and taught at Kyushu Imperial University. She was promoted to associate professor, but was met with resistance because she was unmarried at the time.^[3] She resigned from the institution in 1927 and took a post at Japan Women's University, where she became a professor.^[3]

Kōra was a member of the Japanese Christian Women's Peace Movement, and travelled to China. There, in January 1932, she met the Chinese writers Lu Xun and Xu Guangping at a bookstore owned by the Japanese Kanzō Uchiyama; shortly after, Lu Xun wrote a poem for her.^[7]

Kōra was elected as a Councillor in the 1947 Japanese House of Councillors election, as a member of the Democratic Party. She switched to the Ryokufūkai party in 1949, and served in the House of Councillors for 12 years.^[6]

In April 1952, Kōra attended the International Economic Conference in Moscow.^[6][8] Per a request from the US embassy, the Japanese Foreign Ministry had refused to issue passports to those who wished to travel to the Soviet Union; Kōra got around this restriction by travelling to Moscow through Paris, Copenhagen, and Helsinki. They met with vice-minister of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade Lei Rei-min and were invited to Beijing. At the time, the Japanese government did not recognize the legitimacy of the PRC government.^[9] That May, she visited Beijing as a member of the House of Councillors Special Committee for the Repatriation of Overseas Japanese. The visit was a diplomatic breakthrough, resulting in the first PRC–Japan private-sector trade agreement (signed June 1, 1952^[9]) and the resumption of the repatriation of Japanese left in China following the end of World War II.^[10] Both praise and opposition greeted the trade agreement from Japanese legislators.^[9]

Kōra spent four days as a guest at the Women's International Zionist Organization in Israel in April 1960.^[11]

In 1929, Kōra married psychiatrist Takehisa Kōra.^[b][3][12] They had three daughters, including the poet Rumiko Kōra.^[c][12] Kōra was a practising Quaker.^[7]