Japanese emigration: From the Meiji Revolution to World War II (practical and emotional context)

Abstract

During the Tokugawa period, Japan’s population stabilized at 31–32 million. After the Meiji revolution, it began to grow rapidly. Some people were proud and saw in the multiplication of the Japanese a sign that things were going well in the country, but, for the more realistic-minded scholars, the rapid population growth caused not delight, but most serious alarm because of future food shortages and social explosions. Malthus’s alarmist ideas were used to validate such concerns. Japanese scientists agreed with him that uncontrolled reproduction was dangerous but objected to birth control because it “contradicted human feelings.” As a solution to the problem of overpopulation, they proposed emigration, which Malthus himself considered a palliative measure. The Japanese state encouraged emigration both to the Japanese colonies (Taiwan, Korea) and to other countries (primarily to the United States and Latin America). However, this emigration was not large-scale enough and was unable to alleviate the demographic pressure within Japan. The main reason was the emotional attachment of the Japanese to their small homeland, which had not received sufficient attention before. However, the advocates of emigration themselves singled out precisely this factor and considered it a shortcoming of the national character. Despite calls from the government and supporters of emigration to sacrifice this attachment for the good of the whole country and emigrate, this attachment was never overcome. The largest resettlement campaign to emigrate to Manchuria also ended in failure. The plans of the totalitarian state and the love of the Japanese for their home were in an antagonistic relationship.