Mears, Helen, November 9, 1979

Helen Mears (November 1, 1900 - 1989) was a writer born in New York City but grew up in Towanda, PA. She graduated from Goucher College in 1922, with a degree in social sciences. She first traveled to Japan for a brief time in 1925, during a trip to China. She went back to Japan in 1935, which inspired her to write two books and a series of essays which appeared in The New Yorker. In 1946, she returned to Japan for the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) as a member of the U.S. labor advisory committee, which resulted in her more political writing regarding the relationship between Asia and the West. She continued to write through the 1960s, publishing articles on Vietnam and publishing several books on Japan. In 1989, Helen Mears passed away in New York City.