Borderline Japan
Foreigners and Frontier Controls in the Postwar Era

This book shows how the Cold War played a decisive role in shaping Japan's migration controls, examining the origins of migration policy.

Tessa Morris-Suzuki (Author)

9780521864602, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 April 2010

286 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2 cm, 0.6 kg

“Unlike much academic writing, Tessa Morris-Suzuki’s work is almost always clearly written and jargon-free, impeccably researched and, above all, original… Morris-Suzuki’s writing is consistently innovative and thought-provoking. Her new work, Borderline Japan, is no exception…Morris-Suzuki’s book should not only be considered required reading for Japanese Studies scholars and students, but for all Japanese who are unaware of the circumstances and sufferings of non-Japanese, the vast majority of whom wanted and continue to want nothing more than to peacefully work and live in—and travel in and out of—a country they have come to call home.” -Chris Burgess, Tsuda College, Pacific Affairs

This book offers a radical reinterpretation of postwar Japan's policies towards immigrants and foreign residents. Drawing on a wealth of historical material, Tessa Morris-Suzuki shows how the Cold War played a decisive role in shaping Japan's migration controls. She explores the little-known world of the thousands of Korean 'boat people' who entered Japan in the immediate postwar period, focuses attention on the US military service people and their families and employees, and also takes readers behind the walls of Japan's notorious Omura migrant detention centre, and into the lives of Koreans who opted to leave Japan in search of a better future in communist North Korea. This book offers a fascinating contrast to traditional images of postwar Japan and sheds light on the origins and the dilemmas of migration policy in twenty-first century Japan.

Introduction
1. Border politics: rethinking Japan's migration controls
2. Drawing the line: from empire to Cold War
3. Crossing the line: 'unauthorized arrivals' in occupied Japan
4. Guarding the line: the Cold War and the immigration bureau
5. A place apart I: the armed archipelago
6. A place apart II: the liminal world of ?mura
7. Special permission to stay: 'hidden lives' in postwar Japan
8. A point of no return: repatriation to China and North Korea
9. Beyond the postwar system: what changed
what stayed the same?

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], General & world history [HBG]