Barriers to Repatriation: Guarantor/Receiver Requirement

Abstract

The orphans examined in chapter 7 returned to Japan owing to devoted volunteers and kin, who had begun the search for the orphans prior to the official search missions. The road to repatriation was also difficult for those who joined the official search missions. In addition to the increasing difficulty of finding their kin, the orphans were faced with the Japanese monolithic bureaucratic red tape. Instead of rescinding the wrongful “Wartime Death Decree” and restoring Japanese domiciles universally for all the orphans, the Japanese government required them to reestablish their domiciles on their own, as well as to find a Japanese guarantor or “receiver,” as conditions for their permanent repatriation. The Japanese government repatriation policy toward the orphans has essentially remained unchanged to this day.