The South Manchuria Railway Company, which assumed responsibility for education in the land appurtenant to South Manchuria Railways, enforced the Childrenʼs Playground Regulation in 1909 for Japanese children living in Manchuria, and revised it as the Kindergarten Regulation in 1922. It is important that the company initially named their institution for early childhood education as Childrenʼs Playgrounds rather than Kindergartens, because it reflected the Companyʼs unique policy. In fact, their focus on sanitary and physical education, as shown in these regulations, was based on “physical-culture-oriented education” in what educators of the day called “the policy of adapting to a local situations.” Also it is noteworthy that the Company founded the Childrenʼs Playgrounds earlier than they did secondary education institutions, indicating the importance of early childhood education in the Manchurian educational system. To develop early childhood education under the Companyʼs policy, women teachers with high educational background were hired. It was a higher-paying job for women with better working conditions than were available in Japan proper. Because of the financial difficulties and the increase of migrants from Japan, not all of their ideals relating to kindergartens were materialized. However, each kindergarten tried to live up to the ideal by setting a limit to childrenʼs age for entrance and making class compositions flexible. The management of kindergartens was crucial for promoting migration from Japan proper to Manchuria because the development of early childhood education was considered to be an indicator of Manchurian living standards. In this sense, kindergartens were connected to imperialism.

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In the study of prewar Japanese political history, the issue of colonial rule has been taken up only as an “external issue,” so to speak. In recent years, excellent research results have been published from the field of colonial history studies, and there has indeed been progress in understanding Japanese political history from an empireorientated perspective. However, in order to truly cross-link the studies of colonial history and Japanese political history, it is essential to clarify how the expansion of imperialism in prewar Japan affected the political structure of Japan as a whole. The author believes that this is the key to building an understanding of “Imperial Japanese Political History,” and is diligently researching the Takumushō（Ministry of Colonial Affairs）, which was newly established in 1929 as the government agency with jurisdiction over colonial affairs. As a part of this analysis, this paper presents the validity of this perspective by analyzing how the Takumushōʼs movement affected the retreat of the “responsible cabinet system” in modern Japan, taking up the issue of the South Manchurian Railway Company（SMR）reorganization that became a problem between 1932 and 1934 as a case study.

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Almost analysts consider that Manchurian incident was SINRYAKU (侵略=cruel aggression) of Japan which was caused by Kwantung Army's runaway. There have been few legal studies about Manchurian incident. Japan was blamed because he broke the Nine-Power Treaty, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, and the Convenant of the League. But Japan's act is not injustice in international law. Before Manchurian incident, the Republic of China could not rule Manchuria. The act of Kwantung army is naturally illicit. But eventually, it was evasion. We must analyze Manchurian incident not only by perspective of politics but also by perspective of international and domestic law.

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Both Japanese and Russian studies of Koreans in Karafuto have focussed on those who were left behind after World War II. For this reason, Japanese scholars have not thought of possible connections with Koreans resident in Japan. This paper is a reconsideration of the inter-war history of Karafuto's Korean community which focusses on the fact that Karafuto provided a passage between mainland Asia and Hokkaido. It shows that Koreans in Japan were connected to Koreans in the maritime provinces of Siberia via those in Karafuto. Because the original reason for the increase in the Korean population of Karafuto was recruitment by the Mitsui Mining Co. [the Kawakami Mining Station] in the 1910s, at first it was concentrated in the south. The 1920s saw an influx of refugees from the maritime provinces of Siberia who had escaped via northern Sakhalin from the eastern advance of the Russian Revolution. This coincided with an increase in the demand for workers caused by the boom in pulp factory construction in Estoru, Shiritoru and other parts of northern Karafuto. As a result, the Korean population of Karafuto increased by about 250 times in the period 1910〜1930.

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Refugees, immigrants and exiles are international human movements arising from religious, political and economic reasons and are contemporary issues. Japan was faced with serious refugee problems for the first time about 100 years ago, when, in the turmoil of the Russian revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Civil War, about one million displaced people from Russia were scattered all over the world and a part of them flowed into Japan located at the edge of the Far East.
This paper is an attempt to clarify the change of the Japanese government’s policy on the issue of the Russian refugees over the 1917–1925 period based on the communication exchanged between overseas diplomatic missions and the Foreign Ministry of Japan. The roles of overseas foreign missions as well as the situations in the country producing refugees and the countries or regions where the displaced people were temporarily staying are also examined.

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The aim of this paper is to clarify the relationship between reclamation work in Karafuto (present-day Sakhalin) and the construction of its capital city, Toyohara (present-day Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk) after the Russo-Japanese war. There are four main points of consideration. As a study of colonization, this paper examines the relationship between suzerain policy and urban design as well as the transfer of systems and techniques from domestic to overseas territories. In addition, since Karafuto resembled Hokkaido in regional character during Japanese colonial times, as a study of urban design this paper compares Karafuto with Hokkaido, especially in terms of the intentional construction and nodal function of cities. Based on these four points, the contents of this paper can be summarized as follows:
1. Similar to Hokkaido in its population density and ethnic composition, Karafuto has been considered the Japanese overseas territory most similar to its domestic territory in terms of colonial government policies. It has not always been considered so similar in regard to climate and agriculture, however, leading the author to surmize a feeling of incongruity among its settlers. As the ratio of non-settling fishermen to permanent settlers was high in the early colonial times, the encouragement of permanent residence was the most important task of the reclamation work.
2. The construction of the new capital city was begun shortly after the Japanese occupation of Karafuto. From among several choices, the village of Urajimirofuka was selected as the site for the new city due to its location in the Suzuya Plain, an important agricultural area, yet also near a military base and along the main road. The new capital city was named Toyohara.
3. Greatly influenced by the division of farmland, the streets of the new city were laid out in a grid pattern, modeled after the one used in Sapporo. The center line of the new town was its railway, later dividing the governmental area from the civil area. If the design of Sapporo was greatly influenced by the design of cities in domestic territories, then the planning technology of Toyohara can be considered to have been introduced into Karafuto from Japanese domestic territories by way of Hokkaido.
4. The construction of Toyohara was closely related to the division work of farmland. The plans for Toyohara were drafted mainly by persons associated with Sapporo Agricultural College. That is to say, Karafuto received a transfer of experience and technology from the reclamation work carried out in settling Hokkaido as a domestic colony.
5. In the early days of Japanese colonization, the nodal function of cities on Karafuto was of the Reverse Y type, concentrating every function in the city of Otomari. After Toyohara was constructed, the function changed to a Sideways T type, with everything concentrated there. The change was almost complete by 1911.
6. The inland settlement of Karafuto was more difficult than had been expected. As Toyohara was not enthusiastically received by settlers, the Japanese colonial government in Karafuto had to politically promote the invitation of settlers and encourage their permanent residence. Although a few cities and fishing villages developed along coastal areas, few permanent settlements developed further inland.

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