Section 7 | History, Politics and International Relations| Session 9B, Panel
Chair: Hans Martin Krämer (Ruhr- University Bochum)
Looking at individuals or groups at the local or bottom level is a helpful undertaking in many areas of history. In social history, the effect of overall trends on individuals, the micro-dimension of societal change, can be gauged; in political history the implementation of decisions reached at a higher level can be seen to take unexpected shapes; and in the history of everyday life, individual actors may be perceived as agents who create their own life, sometimes independent from, sometimes in opposition to, demands from above. Despite the profit to be gained from looking at the local or micro- level, historical scholarship that makes use of this perspective still is rather rare, not in the least because of the problem of sources, which are hard to come by.
In three case studies from the fields of higher education, Korean communities, and migration in 20th century Japan, this panel will take a look at the grassroots level and attempt to find out how frameworks imposed from above have been appropriated by 'the people from below' (themselves to be viewed as multiple and varied) and accordingly, how these grassroots level actors have shaped their own history. We hope to be able to contribute not just to our respective fields of specialized research, but to the general direction historical research on Japan could take in the future.
Education reforms during the allied occupation of Japan (1945-52) have traditionally been perceived as having been strongly shaped by top-level actors. Authorship for the important reforms has mainly been attributed to the US American occupation bureaucracy, the US Education Mission to Japan, the Ministry of Education, and the Education Reform Council. The influence of these actors, however, hardly reached beyond the point of passing laws. Implementation, in contrast, was effected by the schools themselves. This is particularly true for higher education, where universities had a relatively strong standing and influenced the outcome of reform to no small degree.
The weight of the universities and their members was especially visible in the failed attempt to institute a reform of university administration. Opposition by manifold actors on the Japanese side prevented this reform, which had been initiated by members of the Civil Information and Education Section of the Occupation. An analysis of the negotiation processes at work in the discussion about administration reform will show how influence on the outcome of reforms was balanced between the US occupation authorities and the various Japanese actors.
David Rands (University of Southern California)
This paper addresses Japan's resident Korean population and attempts to add another important facet to the study of Japan's ethnic and urban landscapes. While most research to date has treated the Korean minority as either divided along ideological lines in regard to the peninsula, or a monolithic entity, this paper breaks down the history of the Korean migration to show the distinct nature of its varying geographical communities. The reasons behind their migration to Japan and the conditions under which they were received have left a great impact on the resident Korean minority and tell a compelling story of Japanese society from the lowest levels.
Largely residing in Japan's large cities, the Korean population has both influenced, and been influenced by the urban environments to which they moved. By focusing on the Korean populations of Ôsaka and Tôkyô, the paper is able to show how these unique communities developed. It endeavors to show how Korean communities in the archipelago developed, and why Koreans became the largest foreign-resident minority in Japan. It is hoped that increased comprehension of the development of the various communities of resident Koreans will benefit the study of minority groups in many urban environments.Anke Scherer (Ruhr-University Bochum)
Between 1932 and the end of World War II nearly 300,000 rural people emigrated from Japan to settle in Manzhouguo or Manshûkoku, the Japanese puppet-state in Northeast China. The resettlement of such a large number of Japanese peasants was the outcome of plans approved by the Japanese government in August 1936. According to those plans, one million households were to emigrate to Manchuria over the course of twenty years. A lot has been written about the political process which led to the decision of the Japanese government to send millions of its citizens to settle on the Asian continent. This paper will focus instead on how the state sponsored and orchestrated mass migration plans were implemented at the grassroot level.
An important organisational feature in the implementation of the migration plans was the so-called Village Division Campaign (bunson undô) that started in 1937. The concept behind this campaign was the relocation of a substantial percentage (approximately 30%) of the population of participating villages to a new settlement in Manchuria. Communities decided whether to take part in this scheme. Then they had to draw up their specific plans for the division of the village and implement them. In this process, local politicians, teachers, political activists and other locally influential persons played a pivotal role. An analysis of the role of these local activists in the implementation of migration plans at the village level will show how bottom-level actors influenced the shape and the outcome of the abstract top-level "Millions to Manchuria Plan".