[Sadako Ogata at the World Economic Forum on Africa 2008]
As the first woman to be appointed U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata (née Nakamura) was a pioneer who worked tirelessly to help refugees during major conflicts. This “five-foot giant,” as she was described by her colleagues, had formidable negotiating skills and ability to confront hostile factions (BBC News). Though she was born in Tokyo in 1927, she spent part of her childhood in the U.S. and China due to her father’s profession. She was the eldest daughter of Toyoichi Nakamura, a diplomat in the foreign ministry, and Tsuneko Yoshizawa, a granddaughter of Tsuyoshi Inukai, a Japanese prime minister who was assassinated in 1932 (Rich).
Additionally, she was an accomplished tennis player later in life, and occasionally played matches with Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emeritus Michiko. She studied at the University of the Sacred Heart, continued her studies at Georgetown University, and eventually got her PhD in political science at the University of California, Berkeley.
[Sadako Ogata in Bosnia, March 1994]
Ogata’s appointment in 1968 as a Japanese delegate to the United Nations General Assembly was a turning point in her career. By 1991, she was the first Japanese national elected as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and was subsequently reelected three times until her term ended in 2000. In her book “The Turbulent Decade - Confronting the Refugee Crises of the 1990s,” she described her time at the United Nations as a period of constant humanitarian crisis, writing, “[The] UNHCR worked like a fire brigades through all continents of the world" (BBC News). As high commissioner, she oversaw refugee operations during a time of ravaging conflict in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, East Timor, and other regions, as well as the return of refugees to their homes after wars in Cambodia and Ethiopia (Rich).
One of her accomplishments as High Commissioner was during the Persian Gulf War. In 1991, in response to the displacement of more than a million Iraqi Kurds, she pushed the commission to change its rules to provide aid not only to refugees escaping from their countries, but also to those fleeing conflict within their countries (Rich). She was also involved in the conflict in Bosnia and clashed publicly with Boutros Boutros-Ghali, secretary general of the United Nations, after she made the decision to suspend all relief to Bosnia when both the Bosnian government and Serbian nationalists were obstructing deliveries of food and blankets to victims of the Serbian siege of Srebrenica (Rich). This angered Boutros-Ghali and he countermanded it, but within 5 days the Bosnian government allowed the refugee commission to resume sending relief.
In 1995, Ogata gave a speech accepting the Prize for Freedom given by Liberal International, a global coalition of liberal political parties. She expressed her concerns about racism and xenophobia against refugees and asylum seekers in Europe stating, “If we do not show courage and political leadership in resisting these dangerous trends, the victims will not just be the refugees but also the democratic values of our society. The answer lies not in building barriers to stop people moving — but in reducing, removing or resolving the factors which force people to move” (Rich). She was a force to be reckoned with when it came to helping those in need in times of conflict. “She was not afraid to tell the world as to what needs to be done and how she proposed to do it,” said Yasushi Akashi, a diplomat who was once the secretary general’s special representative in the former Yugoslavia (Rich). After stepping down as High Commissioner at the age of 73, she became president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency which aided developing countries.
Ogata was a pioneer for women looking to join the workforce. Footage of Ogata in a bulletproof jacket visiting war-torn regions during her tenure helped drive home the message that the organization offered opportunities not readily available to women in Japan (Jibiki). The number of Japanese women in the U.N. has been on the rise. Japanese women on career-track positions at U.N. agencies totaled 542, with 41 holding senior management positions, as of January this year, an increase of 150% and 210% respectively from 2001 (Jibiki). Female career professionals accounted for 61.5% of Japanese staff at the U.N. and 47.1% of Japanese holding senior U.N. positions. Her legacy lives on not only through the work she did helping refugees, but also in the influence she had on other Japanese women looking to join the work force. She died in October 2019 at the age of 92.
Authored by Sadako Ogata
Normalization with China: A Comparative Study of U.S. and Japanese Processes (1988)
Refugees: a multilateral response to humanitarian crises (1992)
The Turbulent Decade: Confronting the Refugee Crises of the 1990s (2005)
Related Media
Words of Sadako Ogata on YouTube
Conversations with History: Sadako Ogata on YouTube
Works Cited
BBC News. “Sadako Ogata: First Female UN Refugee Chief Dies at 92.” BBC News, 29 Oct. 2019, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50217124. Accessed 9 Aug. 2024.
Jibiki, Koya. “Japanese Women Shatter Glass Ceiling at UN, Sadako Ogata Style.” Nikkei Asia, Nikkei Asia, 21 Nov. 2019, asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Japanese-women-shatter-glass-ceiling-at-UN-Sadako-Ogata-style. Accessed 9 Aug. 2024.
Rich, Motoko. “Sadako Ogata, First Woman to Lead U.N. Refugee Agency, Dies at 92.” The New York Times, 29 Oct. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/world/asia/sadako-ogata-dead.html. Accessed 9 Aug. 2024.
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