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Summary:

"When American occupiers broke up the Japanese empire in the wake of World War II, approximately 1.7 million people departed Japan for various parts of Northeast Asia. The mass exodus was spearheaded by Koreans, many of whom chartered small fishing vessels to ship them back quickly to their liberated homeland, while wartime devastation hampered the return of Okinawans to their archipelago. By the time the officially endorsed repatriation program was inaugurated, however, increasing numbers of people began escaping US military rule in southern Korea and the Ryukyu Islands by smuggling themselves into occupied Japan. How and why did these migrants move across borderlines newly drawn by American occupiers in the region? Their personal stories reveal what liberation and defeat meant to displaced peoples, and how the compounding challenges of their resettlement led to the expansion of smuggling networks. The consequent surge of unauthorized border-crossings spurred occupation authorities into forging exclusionary migration regulations. Through a comparative study of Korean and Okinawan experiences during the postwar occupation era, Matthew Augustine explores how their migrations shaped, and were in turn shaped by, American policies throughout the region. This is the first comprehensive study of the dynamic and often contentious relationship between migrations and border controls in US-occupied Japan, Korea, and the Ryukyus, examining the American interlude in Northeast Asia as a closely integrated, regional history. The extent of cooperation and coordination among American occupiers, as well as their competing jurisdictions and interests, determined the mixed outcome of using repatriation and deportation as expedient tools for dismantling the Japanese empire. The heightening Cold War and deepening collaboration between the occupiers and local authorities coproduced stringent migration laws, generating new problems of how to distinguish South Koreans from North Koreans and "Ryukyuans" from Japanese. In occupied Japan, fears of communist infiltration and subversion merged with deep-seated discrimination, transforming erstwhile colonial subjects into "aliens" and "illegal aliens." This transregional history explains the process by which Northeast Asia and its respective populations were remade between the fall of the Japanese empire and the rise of American hegemony"-- [Provided by publisher]

Table of Contents:

• Liberation and Segregation in Occupied Japan
• Repatriation as a "Privilege" for Non-Japanese
• Resettlement without Reintegration
• Smuggling as Resistance to US Military Rule
• "Blockade Runners" and the Making of "Aliens."

Author/Creator:

Augustine, Matthew R. , author

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

From Japanese Empire to American hegemony: Koreans and Okinawans in the resettlement of Northeast Asia [by Augustine, M.R.]

Other Related Resources:

Print version: From Japanese Empire to American hegemony [by Augustine, M.R.] (Honolulu : University of Hawaiʻi Press, [2023] — ISBN 9780824892098; LCCN 2022043589)

Related Series:

Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University

Subjects:

Koreans — Japan — History — 20th century

Ryukyuans — History — 20th century

Border crossing — Japan — History — 20th century

Japan — History — Allied occupation, 1945-1952

Korea — History — Allied occupation, 1945-1948

Japan — Emigration and immigration — History — 20th century

Allied Occupation of Japan (Japan : 1945-1952)

Allied Occupation of Korea (Korea : 1945-1948)

1900-1999

Koreans

Ryukyuans

Emigration and immigration

Border crossing

Korea

Japan

Genres:

History

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description based on: Print version record.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Digital Characteristics:

text file

Call Numbers:

DS889.16 .A948 2023eb

ISBNs:

9780824894641 (kindle edition)
0824894642
9780824892173 (pdf)
0824892178
9780824892180 (epub)
0824892186
9780824892098 (hardback) [Invalid]

Library of Congress Control Numbers:

2022043590

OCLC Numbers:

1346126177