Japan's Policy Of Emigration To Americas And Its Application Before WW?,1868-1941

Migration is an important social phenomenon in human history that has never ceased since ancient times.Japan,which embarked on the road of capitalist development through the Meiji Restoration(1868),also underwent large-scale overseas population movements with the continuous rapid increase of its domestic population and the implementation of its foreign aggression and expansion policy.The Americas,as the main receiving place for international immigrants,became the top choice for Japanese emigrants besides the colonized states in Asia.Since the modern times,there have been distinctive differences in the nature of emigration,the form of emigration,the scale of emigration as well as the impact of emigration between Japanese emigration to the Americas and the population expansion of Japanese to its Asian colonies and within the spheres of influence.Japan's emigration policy to Americas underwent the change from passive and conservative to positive and stimulating.In 1885,Japanese emigration to Hawaii marked Japan's lift of the ban on emigration,initiating the history of Japanese emigration to Americas.However,at that time,North America had already started to implement the “anti-Asian policy”.Accordingly,the process of the Japanese emigration to America was accompanied by an increasingly intense “anti-Japanese movement”.To protect emigrants and maintain relations with receiving countries,the Japanese government adopted a conservative emigration policy.The Emigrant Protection Act in 1896 enforced the discipline and supervision on Japan's emigration firms,while the Gentleman's Agreement signed between Japan and America and Canada respectively between 1907-1908 actively constrained her nationals from emigrating to these two countries as laborers.Owing to the “anti-Japanese movement” in America and Canada and Japan's conservative policy,the development of Japanese immigrants in North America was greatly hindered.In the 1920 s,both the international and domestic environments changed.With the continuous improvement of national strength and international status,Japanese migration-advocates started to consider emigration to South America as an important part of the country's overseas development.Therefore,the government commenced to adjust emigration policy,taking Brazil as the primary receiving country of Japanese immigrants while shifting its policy from conservatism to stimulation.This is mainly reflected in such measures as incorporating the emigration companies,offering subsidies for emigrants,issuing certain emigration-stimulating laws,and bettering emigration facilities,which rendered the emigration to Brazil the status of “National Policy Emigration”.With the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941,countries in Americas stopped the influx of Japanese immigrants,which virtually resulted in the complete halt of Japanese Immigrants' activities in Americas.This dissertation consists of two parts: one is to tease out and summarize the history and characteristics of Japanese emigration to the major American countries before WWII;the second is to analyze and interpret Japan's policy of emigration to the Americas.The introduction draws a whole picture of the relevant theories of Japanese overseas emigration and its policy,defines related concepts,and reviews antecedent researches.The first chapter analyzes the Japanese government's attitude towards the three waves of overseas emigration in the early years of the Meiji Era,and points out the reasons why Japan chose to prohibit national emigration overseas before 1885;chapter two to chapter four interpret the characteristics of Japanese emigration to the Americas by sorting out and analyzing the emigration course to the major receiving regions and countries,such as Hawaii,the United States,Canada,and Brazil;chapter five to chapter seven interpret the inherent causes of the formation of Japan's policy of emigration to Americas from three aspects: Japan's emigration thoughts,emigration legislation,and changes in emigration administrative agencies.The conclusion evaluates the transition of Japan's emigration policy from passive and conservative to positive and stimulating by exploring the relationship between the change of Japan's emigration policy and the “anti-Japanese movement” in American countries,especially the difference between Japanese immigrants in the United States and Canada and Japanese immigrants in Brazil,thus revealing the relationship between Japan's stimulative emigration policy and her strategic intention in South America.