Documenting Mobility in the Japanese Empire and Beyond (New Directions in East Asian History)

This book tackles the question of border control in and around imperial Japan in the first half of the twentieth century, with a specific focus on its documentation regime. It explores the institutional development, media and literary discourses, and on[1]the-ground practices of documentary identification in the Japanese empire and the places visited by its subjects. The contributing authors, covering such regions as Korea, Manchuria, Taiwan, Siberia, Australia, and the United States, place the question of individual identity in the eyes of the respective governments in dialogue with the global developments of the identification and mobility control practices. The chapters suggest the importance of focusing more than previously on the narrative of individual identification, not as a tool for creating nation states but as a tool for generating, strengthening, and maintaining asymmetrical relationships between people of different socioeconomic backgrounds who moved in and out of empires. This book joins the effort in the recent scholarship in migration history to highlight experiences of migrants beyond the transatlantic world, and that in East Asian history to investigate the space and connections beyond the boundaries of the nation states. By bringing together the analyses on the trans-Pacific mobility and Japans imperial expansion and its aftermath in East Asia, it shows a complex interplay between state power and moving individuals, two forces whose relationships went far beyond simple competition. Takahiro Yamamoto is Assistant Professor of Cultural Economic History at Ruprecht-Karls-Universitat Heidelberg, Germany. His focus is on the history of modern Japan, especially with regard to its borders, cross-border connections, and human mobility. Prior to coming to Heidelberg, Germany, he was a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Research Fellow (2016-2017), affiliated with the Graduate Schools of Law and Politics at the University of Tokyo. He has also served as a Global Perspectives on Society Teaching Fellow at New York University Shanghai. Acknowledgements Contents Notes on Contributors List of Figures Introduction: The Imperial Paperchase Identifying Japanese on the Move Outline of the Book References Laws and Transgressions Legislating Global Mobility in Japan: Opening the Pacific, Treaty Ports, and Asian Exclusion Looking Backward from 1874: Legislating Access and Restriction The First Round of Treaties in Global Context, 1853–1856 The Second Round of Treaties in Global Context, 1858–1871 The Colima’s Arrival at Yokohama in 1874: Regulating Access The Mobility of Western Treaty Nationals in Japan The Mobility of Chinese Subjects in Japan Looking Forward from 1874: New Laws on Access and Exclusion Navigating Increased Mobility Revised Legislation—Opening Japan and Excluding Asians, 1894–1899 Conclusion References Start of Japanese Rule in Taiwan and the Construction of Travel Certificates Introduction From Temporary Travel Certificates to Passports A Stricter Passport System—From Personal Descriptions to Photographs Introducing Photographs on the Work Permits for Tea Factory Workers from Qing Conclusion References Imperial Japan and the Passport Conference in the 1920s Contextualizing the Passport Conferences The Second Passport Conference A View from the Japanese Diplomat Conclusion References Ideas and Resistance “... polished and cultured, speaking English fluently” The First Japanese Doctor of Broome ‘A White Australia’ ‘A Good Friendly Feeling’ ‘A Burning Question’ ‘A Newcomer Galen’ Conclusion References Cross-Imperial Critique of Border Control: Japanese Socialists’ Responses to the US Immigration Act of 1924 Paternalistic Criticisms of Japanese Protests in Central Review Cross-Imperial Critique of Immigration Control in The New Man and Beyond The Ship in Cross-Imperial Critique (Im)Possibilities of Shipboard Resistance and Solidarity Gender and Japanese Migration Conclusion References The Paper and the Body Biometric Technologies and Mobilities: Controlling Workers and Citizens in Manchukuo Criminality, Mobility, and Fingerprinting Introduction of Fingerprinting in Japan Fingerprint Registration by the South Manchuria Railway Company The Plan for a Comprehensive Identification System in Manchukuo (1932–1936) The Start of Worker Fingerprint Registration (1937–1939) From Controlling Workers to Registering National Citizens (1940–1945) Continuities of Imperial Control in Postwar Japan Conclusion References The Collapse of the Japanese Empire and the Institutionalization of Personal ID Cards How States Control Residents The Imperial Legal System and Family Registration Korean Groups as Collaborators Policing Koreans After the War Institutionalization of Identification Cards Conclusion References Documenting the Siberian Odyssey of Japanese Former Servicemen and Civilians, 1945–1956 Introduction The Siberian Internment as a Transnational, Trans-Border Event Documenting the Siberian Internment Conclusion References Index