帝国後の「混血」のゆくえ

――日本出自のパラオ人の越境経験――

抄録

  This study examines the ways that Micronesians of Japanese ancestry, born during the Japanese administration era, have confronted their ancestry during the post-Pacific War era, when the US administration overturned the social system and values induced by the Empire of Japan. Previous studies have investigated the topic through biographies of prominent Micronesian figures, such as Tosiwo Nakayama and Kuniwo Nakamura, and found that these figures were actively involved in the politics of emergent nation states in the pan-Pacific world, including the US and Japan. This study sheds light on the ordinary Palauans of Japanese ancestry, whose daily lives are as Palauans, but who occasionally remember their peculiar ancestry. Historical documents written under the Japanese administration and reports from the postwar era by Japanese spirit-consoling tour groups were scrutinized to investigate how the Japanese represented Palauans of Japanese ancestry. In addition, fieldwork in the Palau Islands was conducted to interview Palauans of Japanese ancestry and investigate the activities of their association, the Palau Sakura Kai (Palau Cherry Blossom Association). Through the investigation of the examples in Micronesia, this study will contribute to the recent anthropological and historical studies of the ambiguous positionality of “mixed blood” in the post imperial era.

  During the pre-Pacific War era, Palauans of Japanese ancestry were recognized by Japan as “mixed blood” people who were incomplete, but assimilable into Japan. In post-war Japan, they were incorporated into the Japanophile discourse and referred to as “ethnic Japanese.” The imperial attitude toward Micronesians has been reproduced in post-imperial Japan. Palauans of Japanese ancestry, however, have constructed a dual self-consciousness through spatial and social border crossings, such as their “evacuation” to Japan, which they had never seen, and their eventual return to Micronesia. Such awareness also was developed through their difficult adjustment to changing social conditions during the post-war era, in which other Palauans sometimes discriminated against them. They realized their Japanese ancestry through these experiences. However, some of these people occasionally remember their Japanese ancestry positively to distinguish themselves from other Palauans. This has led to the creation of the Palau Sakura Kai (Palau Cherry Blossom Association), which has accepted memorial tour groups from Japan. There also are some unique burial cases of Palauns of Japanese ancestry at Nihonjinbochi (Japanese Graveyard) in Koror, where Japanese monuments and war memorials have been built. A few Palauans of Japanese ancestry insisted that they were Japanese instead of Palauan when they greeted Japanese visitors to Palau for memorial services for the war dead.

  The spatial and social border crossings and the ambivalent self-identification of Palauans of Japanese ancestry resulted from the complex politico-economic processes of the arrival and departure of two suzerain states (Japan and the US). Post-imperial studies on “mixed blood” groups should attend to the ways that Palauans of Japanese ancestry were forced to reflect on their ancestry under particular postwar situations. In addition, researchers of the former suzerain states should reflect on their personal perspectives and attitudes when they study “mixed blood” or “ethnic Japanese” in Micronesia. Because Palauans of Japanese ancestry are inevitably aware of their ancestry when they meet with people from Japan, an imperial perspective might persist in research.