F Comparative Study of History of Emigration

• KIMURA Kenji(Shimonoseki City University)
• YANAGISAWA Asobu(Keio University)
• MURAKAWA Yoko(Keiai University)
• YAMASHITA Yasuko(Tsuda College)
• TAKENO Manabu (Hokkaido University)
• YASUDA Tsuneo
• HARAYAMA Kosuke

The purpose of this research is to reveal regional formations and transformations from the aspect of the "people to people links" of the East–Asia region in Eurasia by comparatively analyzing the immigrants who came to and went out of, or who settled in Japan with a focus on the period of the Second World War. Former research on immigrants from and to Japan did not cover the following issues, the links between immigration policies and immigration phenomena, how communities which dispatched and accepted immigrants were formed and transformed and the relationships between such formations and transformations, and how the comings and goings of the objects, money, information, technologies, cultures, and philosophies that move together with the immigrants influence the formation and transformation of communities. No research has been undertaken on the regional formation and transformation of East–Asia from the point of view of these "people to people links". General research on Japanese immigrants focused on the Second World War II has surely been undertaken but it neither discovered a synchronic link between immigration policies and immigration phenomena, nor examined the question from the point of view of the regional formation and transformation of East–Asia. On the basis of the results from past research, we established our research objectives in connection with the immigrants from and to Japan as follows –– analyzing the political, economic, social and cultural aspects of lives led by immigrants dispatched from or settled in Japan, and how the immigrants affected the formation and transformation of their community’s system, rank and class of each group they belonged to (such as nation, race, countryman, athletics, gender, family, vocation, children or school). In this study, we decided to include Korean Japanese and Ainu, who used to be excluded from the category of immigrants. Furthermore, we wanted to characterize the transformation of East–Asia and wanted to investigate in diachronic order how the immigrants occupied, withdrew or settled areas, or how they were dispatched or accepted by the regional communities during the Japanese colonization of East–Asia in the Second World War, when East–Asia became independent from Japan due to its defeat, and when Japan finally rejoined the international society.

We discussed the research on "withdrawal" and exchanged information about historical materials. Our team has decided to focus on withdrawal from foreign areas after war. To achieve this objective, each research member was assigned to collect materials and analyze the withdrawal which occurred in his or her assigned area. Moreover, we exchanged information concerning the disposition of historical materials and determined the process of our research from that point on.

July 23

During the morning, we studied and copied the documentation concerning former colonies (a collection of the former agricultural department) at the Central Library on the Hakozaki Campus.

In the afternoon, we held a symposium which was composed of the following sections (1) testimony by three members of the association on "Thinking Together on the Withdrawal Port, Hakata"; (2) explanations given by local officials of Fukuoka City when making a list of withdrawers who arrived at Hakata port; and (3) a report on the research trends in the repartition of North Korean defectors presented by a graduate student of Hitotsubashi University. At the end of symposium a lively discussion concerning these matters was held.

July 24

Having visited the Withdrawal Monument in Hakata Port during the morning, we studied and copied the listed documents from withdrawers possessed by Fukuoka Citizen’s Welfare Plaza.

We exchanged research with archivists and studied the documentation concerning Japanese immigrants in Seattle. We also studied the documentation in Washington D.C.

In cooperation with Gallery 6 of the National Museum of Japanese History, we were able to study the documentation concerning Japanese immigrants in Seattle. We exchanged research with the researchers at the Resource Center for Japanese Immigrants (DENDSHO) at the Bainbridge Museum in Seattle, and the University of Washington Tacoma in order to discuss how Japanese immigrants reacted during wartime and withdrew to Japan. We also conducted a documentation study at the National Archives in Washington D.C.

Each research member made a presentation on progress of his or her research. We also made a list of the materials along with information concerning their whereabouts.

We made a comparative analysis of immigration methods by comparing Chinese and Japanese, taking into consideration the differences according to the generation of the Chinese immigrants who immigrated to North America, Japan and East Asia, and the immigration methods of Japanese immigrants to China. We discussed where immigration and immigration movements stand in East–Asia by conducting further comparative analysis with the following cases (cases of non–Han immigrants residing near the borders of China and cases of Japanese immigrants to areas other than China) and by studying how communities, including nations, are connected to immigration and what conditions are necessary in a community when viewed by immigrants. An interdisciplinary discussion got to the core of immigration problem thanks to the different approach techniques of each research member.

Presenters:Lara, Chen Tien–shi (The National Museum of Ethnology)

Commentator:

• KIMURA Mizuka (Osaka University)
• YANADISAWA Asobu (Keio University)

Commentator: Shisai So (Hosei University)

We screened the video program "Acer (‘call’ or ‘shout’ in the Okinawan dialect) from Osaka" produced by the National Museum of Ethnology. After this program, we discussed the roles played by musical forms of entertainment in immigrant communities and the possible utilization of visual media to record musical and other forms of entertainment.

Reporter: MIYAMOTO Masaki

In preparation for the research exchange workshop with the Institute of Japanese Studies of Kookmin University to be held in 2008, we exchanged opinions with the researchers of that institute and also with those of the Institute of Korean Studies on collecting information concerning Korean immigrants’ return from Japan due to its defeat and Japanese immigrants’ withdrawal from Korea.