Ms. Yukako Nagamura, researcher at JICA’s Ogata Research Institute, served as moderator.
On February 16, 2022, JICA Sadako Ogata Research Institute for Peace and Development (JICA Ogata Research Institute) co-hosted an online course on “Migration History and Multicultural Understanding: Understanding ‘Others’ from History” with JICA Yokohama Museum of Overseas Migration. The lecture was part of the JICA Ogata Research Institute’s research project, “Research on Migration and Networks of Nikkei between Japan and Latin America. This lecture, the third in a series of six lectures, was moderated by JICA Ogata Research Institute researcher Yukako Nagamura and featured a presentation by Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of Sociology/JSPS Research Fellow (DC) Tetsu Yamazaki on “Listening to the Voices of Second and Third Generations of Chinese Returnees: ‘Chinese Remaining Orphans and Women Now.
Japanese who went to China before World War II and could not return to Japan after Japan’s defeat in the war and stayed in China are called “Chinese Remnant Orphans and Women. The issue of “Chinese returnees,” including these people, is being forgotten in Japanese society today. Mr. Yamazaki’s lecture began with an episode in which even the third generation of Chinese returnees, whose grandparents were Chinese orphans and women, were being forgotten. He was surprised when he was asked, “What is ‘Child of the Earth’? Based on Toyoko Yamazaki’s novel about the tumultuous life of a Chinese orphan, “Daichi-no-ko” was a much-talked-about drama that was broadcast on NHK in 1996. Mr. Yamazaki said, “I felt that the times have changed so much that people do not know about that ‘Child of the Earth. In the media and literature, the phrase “Chinese orphans are now…” has often been used. However, from what point of view is this “now”? Yamazaki discussed the various situations faced by the second and third generations of Chinese returnees in society as their memories of World War II and returnees faded.
Tetsu Yamazaki speaks about the changing situation of Chinese returnees
First, Mr. Yamazaki reviewed the history of Chinese returnees, explaining that the first repatriation from China began in 1946, that in 1958 the repatriation was considered to have ended and the Japanese and Chinese could no longer travel to and from Japan, that in 1959, under the Law on Special Measures for Unreturned Persons, unreturned persons were declared war-time deaths, and that in the areas that sent the settler groups to Manchuria, the past related to Manchuria was taboo. In the areas that sent the settlers to Manchuria, the past was considered taboo and was gradually forgotten by Japanese society. In 1972, the year after the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China, a search began at the private level for those who remained in the former Manchuria, and in 1975, the then Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW) conducted a public survey. In 1981, the orphans themselves visited Japan to investigate their relatives. However, the tide turned during the 2002-2007 trial for state compensation for Chinese residual orphans. Ninety percent of the orphans who returned to China became plaintiffs in the lawsuit, claiming that their “right to live as human beings as Japanese people” had been violated because the government had failed to fulfill its obligation to support their early return to Japan and their self-reliance after their return to China. As a result, a political settlement was reached in 2008 with the enactment of the Revised Law for Supporting Japanese Remaining in China, which stipulates the full payment of basic old-age pensions and other benefits. Mr. Yamazaki showed, along with data, that media coverage of Chinese residual orphans and women has declined significantly since the 2010s.
Currently, according to statistics from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the number of returnees from China at public expense is approximately 20,000, but if privately financed call-ins and generations born in Japan are included, the number rises to 80,000 to 150,000. What do they mean by the roots of the residual orphans and women? Mr. Yamazaki introduced what he had learned from interviews with numerous second- and third-generation Chinese returnees. For example, many Nisei were born in China and crossed the border from China to Japan with their Issei parents. Even if they took Japanese names, they faced difficulties such as being bullied as “Chinese” and not being able to find stable jobs. On the other hand, many Japanese-born Sansei have integrated into Japanese society as “ordinary” Japanese and have become “invisible. This is because, when the third-generation Japanese-born generation came of age, the Issei population was aging and media coverage of the orphans and women who remained in Japan declined dramatically, making it difficult to pass on the memories of those who had returned to China. Mr. Yamazaki said, “One third-generation Japanese returnee knew that his grandmother was a residual orphan, but he was not aware that he was a third-generation Chinese returnee himself. Others learned that their grandmother was an orphan only after they became university students. The narratives of these third-generation people show that although they vaguely knew that their grandparents were Chinese residual orphans and women, they did not know the terms to categorize themselves or their families and had no need to recognize them as a family of Chinese returnees,” he said.
During the Q&A session, there were so many questions that there was not enough time to answer them, including the issue of caring for aging Chinese returnees, Japanese government support for the second and third generations, horizontal connections among second and third generations, and generational identity differences.
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