満蒙開拓団と食糧問題・異民族支配

抄録

Japanese settlement in Manchuria (Japanese immigration to Manchuria) was a national emigration policy implemented by the Empire of Japan from 1932 until Japan’ s defeat in 1945. The history of Japanese immigration to Manchuria has previously been analyzed from various perspectives, though analysis has focused mainly on agricultural history and colonies. Over the past few years, considerable focus has been placed on increased food production as dictated by the expansion of Japan’ s total war effort and the role of immigrants as a means of food production. Immigrants were responsible for increasing food production. This paper examines the circumstances faced by farmers both in their home villages in Japan and in the villages they were sent to establish in Manchuria. Specifically, this paper has ascertained food shortages those immigrants faced and their domination overo ther ethnic groups in Manchuria as the Asian‒Pacific War intensified.

Japanese immigration to Manchuria markedly intensified during the Asian‒Pacific War as the shortage of the rural labor force became more evident. Two policy issues, military requirements and increased food production in Manchuria, were crucial to increased immigration. Imperial agencies and village communities pressured farmers to immigrate to Manchuria. This induced bad behavior among immigrants in Manchuria and the return of some farmers to Japan, and it led to greater friction with local residents such as Chinese.

In addition to wartime shortages in material and food, Manchuria lacked an adequate system for settlement of immigrants. Immigrants were forced to lead hard lives under appalling conditions. The original aim of immigration was to increase food production, but anticipated results were not achieved. Instead, immigrants were dissatisfied since they had to toil to farm and live, and they became violent toward other ethnic groups. This violence was in addition to Japanese expropriating land when they settled, and local ethnic groups increasingly pushed back. In some instances, Chinese assaulted Japanese immigrants. Living in Manchuria meant enduring a cycle of unabashed violence and retaliation. Japanese immigrants oppressed other ethnic groups in Manchuria, but they were also in a precarious position themselves even though immigration to Manchuria was supposedly backed by Japanese Imperial authority. This may be why food shortages were acutely evident in the Empire of Japan at the time.