Abstract
The Ogasawara Islands of Japan are a site of multiple layers of migration and displacement. The islands were first settled by Europeans and Pacific Islanders in 1830 and then colonized by Japan in 1875. In 1944, at the height of WWII, the islands’ inhabitants were forced to evacuate to mainland Japan. The US navy then occupied the islands until their return to Japanese sovereignty in 1964. This chapter discusses the identifications of the Ogasawara Islanders. It situates the Ogasawara Islands in their historical context of migration but focuses on the period from the evacuation to the reversion to Japanese sovereignty as an extraordinary period of mobilization. The chapter shows that the displacement of the entire civilian population led to experiences that varied greatly among the diverse islanders. Explaining the numerous and multifaceted dimensions and their intersections of the Ogasawara Islander experiences shows that, like other Islanders, Ogasawara identity is characterized by the tension between on the one hand, isolation and insularity and on the other, mobility and migration. Interviews of Islanders indicate that the processes of identification within the changing cultural, political, and social contexts of the islands have played a significant role in affecting notions of self.
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Notes
- 1.
Hahajima is located 50 km to the south of Chichijima.
- 2.
According to Baldacchino, “the identification with, and assertion of, a specifically island identity” is a common feature of island life and what he calls “islandness” (2004, 273).
- 3.
At this point in time nationality in the Western sense did not exist in Japanese law. From 1872 when the Household Registration Law was introduced the Japanese population were identified as subjects of the empire. Many of the original settlers were from various islands in the Pacific and held no official nationality.
- 4.
Second generation descendants of the first settlers were not Japanese speakers (Long 2007).
- 5.
It is also interesting to note here that Miriam Savory makes the distinction between the “Japanese” and the first settler community. This may have been a response to the type of questioning being used by the anthropologists at the time. However, there are numerous instances of this distinction in other sources and it is a distinction that some descendants still make even today.
- 6.
Abel Savory discusses being punished by teachers for comments against the Emperor (Long 2003). This is likely to have been the same treatment for other Japanese children as well but, according to Jeffrey Gilley, some teachers were especially suspicious of the children who were descendants of original settlers (Shepardson 1998).
- 7.
Katakana is a phonetic script used to write foreign words or words originating from foreign lexicon in Japanese.
- 8.
In 1987 a law was passed that allowed non-Japanese names to be registered on the koseki.
- 9.
The first colonisers were from Hachijō Island. Like many other peripheral islands in the Japanese archipelago, this island was first inhabited by expelled criminals and political exiles mostly excluded from participation in traditional life on the mainland. Such a label would thus socially stigmatise this group and clearly differentiate them from mainlanders (nai’chijin).
- 10.
Also known as kitōmin or returnees.
- 11.
Also referred to as zairai tōmin and ōbeikei or ōbeijin.
- 12.
In some cases older locals still use the term kikajin when discussing the descendants of the earlier settlers.
- 13.
- 14.
Nai’chi is the term used by Ogasawara Islanders when speaking about mainland Japan. “Japan” is also used on some occasions.
- 15.
Charlie Washington also highlighted “the hardest was getting something to eat. The farmers wouldn’t sell us food” (Hammond and Shepardson 1973). Emily Gilley also recalled stealing food at night (ibid). The supply of sufficient food was also a major concern for many Japanese during the War. For the first settler descendants the problem was exacerbated by their appearance.
- 16.
The original koseki was introduced from China in the seventh century and used as a form of social control and a vehicle for regulated tax collection for the Yamato Court. It has remained in Japanese society in one form or another since.
- 17.
Chester Hearn (2003) has written a book that vividly recounts the atrocities of Japanese commanders on Chichijima, including ordering the cooking and eating of human flesh taken from American pilots who had been captured around the Ogasawara Islands.
- 18.
Signed 8 September 1951 and entered into force 28 April 1952.
- 19.
All certificates were dated 25 June 1968.
- 20.
Ōsato (1982) was a government official who worked on the restoration of koseki records on the Ogasawara Islands after reversion.
- 21.
Japanese officials also went to Guam in 1968 to distribute Japanese passports to students from Chichijima. There were no direct flights or boats from Guam to Chichijima at this stage and passports were probably created for the main purpose of return to Chichijima through Tokyo (informant on Chichijma, 25 November 2009).
- 22.
The reversion is celebrated each year on Chichijima with a festival (henkansai).
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Acknowledgements
This project was made possible through a research fellowship from the Japan Foundation, that provided financial assistance to conduct fieldwork on the Ogasawara Islands in November 2009. I would also like to thank Dr. Daniel Long again for his assistance in all things relating to the Ogasawara Islands and the staff at Tokyo Metropolitan University for accepting me as a visiting scholar. Professor Kawakami Ikuo and the staff at Waseda University Tokyo also provided assistance and supervision as part of the Japan Foundation grant during November and December 2009. Dr. Ishihara Shun is always generous in providing information about excellent sources relating to the Ogasawaras. I am also indebted to Satō Yuki for her enthusiasm in sharing her contacts and knowledge so generously. Thanks also to Dr. Gracia Liu-Farrer for valuable and insightful comments as a reviewer in an earlier version of this paper. I am also indebted to the staff at the Ogasawara Board of Education (Kyōikuiinkai) for allowing me free access to all their resources. Mostly however, I would like to thank the people of the islands that are the focus of this paper. The Ogasawara (Bonin) Islanders have been the most generous and friendly hosts to me during my visits and have become not just acquaintances but friends.
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Chapman, D. (2012). Identifying the Periphery: Challenging Citizenship, Nationality, and Identity on the Ogasawara Islands. In: Plüss, C., Chan, Kb. (eds) Living Intersections: Transnational Migrant Identifications in Asia. International Perspectives on Migration, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2966-7_10
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