From DiscoverNikkei.org
Demographics - Japanese Immigration to the Americas, Southeast Asia and Oceania, and Asian Continent: Prewar (1868-1941), Wartime (1941-1945), and Postwar (1945-1989)
Prewar (1868-1941) |
Wartime (1941-1945) |
Postwar (1945-1989) |
Total (1868-1989) |
|||
Latin America | ||||||
Brazil | 188,985 | - | 71,372 | 260,357 | ||
Peru | 33,070 | - | 2,615 | 35,685 | ||
Mexico | 14,667 | - | 671 | 15,338 | ||
Argentina | 5,398 | - | 1,206 | 6,604 | ||
Paraguay | 709 | - | 9,612 | 10,321 | ||
Bolivia | 222 | - | 6,357 | 6,579 | ||
Dominican Republic | - | - | 1,390 | 1,390 | ||
Cuba | 616 | - | - | 616 | ||
Chile | 538 | - | 14 | 552 | ||
Panama | 456 | - | - | 456 | ||
Others | 1,305 | - | 168 | 1,473 | ||
Total | 245,966 | - | 93,405 | 339,371 | ||
North America | ||||||
United States | 338,459 | - | 134,842 | 473,301 | ||
Canada | 35,777 | - | 11,226 | 47,003 | ||
Total | 374,236 | - | 146,068 | 520,304 | ||
Southeast Asia & Oceania | ||||||
Philippines/Guam | 53,115 | - | - | 53,115 | ||
Malay/Singapore | 11,809 | - | - | 11,809 | ||
Dutch East Indies | 7,095 | - | - | 7,095 | ||
New Caledonia | 5,074 | - | - | 5,074 | ||
Hong Kong/Macao | 3,815 | - | - | 3,815 | ||
Australia | 3,773 | - | 1,525 | 5,298 | ||
New Zealand | 1,046 | - | - | 1,046 | ||
Northern Borneo | 2,829 | - | - | 2,829 | ||
Others | 1,880 | - | - | 1,880 | ||
Total | 90,436 | - | 1,525 | 91,961 | ||
Asian Continent | ||||||
China | 95,508 | * (1938) | - | - | 95,508 | |
China | 497,000 | (1945)1 | - | 497,000 | ||
Siberia/USSR | 56,821 | - | - | 56,821 | ||
India | 1,885 | - | - | 1,885 | ||
Europe | 2,807 | * (1938) | - | - | 2,807 | |
Africa | 213 | * (1938) | - | - | 213 | |
Japanese Colonies | ||||||
Korea | 753,000 | * (1942) | ||||
South Sakhalin | 398,838 | * (1942) | ||||
Taiwan | 385,000 | * (1942) | ||||
Kangtung | 222,652 | * (1942) | ||||
Total | 1,759,490 | |||||
Areas under Japanese Rule | ||||||
Manchuria | 874,348 | * (1942) | ||||
Emigrants to "Manchukuo" | 270,007 | (1932--1945)2 | ||||
Micronesia | 96,000 | * (1942) | ||||
Total | 970,348 |
Sources: Mark R. Peattie, Nan'yo: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese in Micronesia, 1885-1945 (Honolulu: University of Hawai`i Press, 1988), 334, n.6. Wakatsuki Yasuo, Sengo hikiage no kiroku (Tokyo: Jiji Tsoshinsha, 1995), 16-17, 85. JICA, Kaigai ijo tokei (Tokyo, 1994), 122, 126-27.
Notes: Prewar emigration figures were compiled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Colonial Ministry, based on the numbers of passports issued to legally sanctioned "emigrants." It should be emphasized that there were many people who went to the Americas, as well as other destinations, with other types of passports, or even without one. These people were not accounted for in the statistics reported here. Therefore, the actual number of emigrants is much higher than the figures shown here.
Postwar emigration figures to Latin America are based on statistics collected by the Japan International Cooperation Agency - the semi-governmental agency that took charge of sending emigrants under the bilateral treaties with the host countries. North American figures were derived from the Foreign Ministry data based on the issuance of emigrant passports. It is more than likely that large numbers of Japanese were unaccounted for due to their passport status. For example, spouses of American, Canadian, or Australian citizens are not part of the statistics. Nor are students, holders of labor visas, and so on, many of whom remained in host societies.
Asterisk (*) indicates the number of Japanese living in a given locale, in the year designated in parenthesis. Because the Japanese government did not record the statistics of Japanese departing to its colonial possessions and controlled areas, the population of Japanese residents in these areas is given as a reference for rough comparison to actual emigration figures.
1. With Japan's invasion of China after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of July 1937, tens of thousands of Japanese moved to newly occupied areas in the northern and coastal regions of China. The big jump in the number of Japanese residents in China from 1938 to 1945 underlined the rapid expansion of Japanese military personnel, followed by the influx of civilian emigrants - a pattern also common in other places of Japanese military deployment throughout Asia and the Pacific.
2. Manchuria had attracted a number of Japanese entrepreneurs and farmers since the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, which resulted in Japan's acquisition of the Southern Manchurian Railway and parts of Kangtung Province. "Manchukuo," established in 1932, was the destination of state-sponsored emigrants between 1932 and 1945. The figure, 270,007, refers to these colonists - the number included in the total of 874,348.