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Chapter 10

Identifying the Periphery: Challenging Citizenship, Nationality, and Identity on the Ogasawara Islands David Chapman

10.1

Introduction: Islands and Migration

As Gillis (2003) puts it, “civilizations think about islands in very different ways.” Historically, those living on continents have seen islands as located on the geographical periphery, far from the metropolitan center, isolated and insulated by watery barriers. For many island communities however, the ocean has been a connector, a means for transport and trade, positioning islands as accessible and central. As Epeli Hau’ofa (1993, 6) stated in arguing against the confines of colonial boundaries and the long history of bloodlines in the Pacific, “[t]he world of Oceania is not small; it is huge and growing bigger every day.” Connell and King also counter notions of insularity and isolation by arguing that islands are places likely to have “unusually intense engagement with migratory phenomena” (1999, 1). Baldacchino further describes an “islandness” that highlights a dialectic of “acknowledging dependence on the external while enjoying such a sharp sense of territoriality” (2004, 274). Islands are not just connected sites of intense migration; they are also contested spaces or at times locations of boundedness that involve entrapment, experimentation and secrecy far from the gaze of others. As Semple (1911, 424) in the early twentieth century describes islands are “nodal locations” visited by “sailors and traders, colonists and conquerors.” It is important therefore to understand that islands require careful contextualisation and analysis within the framework of migration studies. First settled as British territory in 1830 by a diverse group of settlers from Europe, the Pacific and America, the Ogasawara Islands were also colonised by Japan in the

D. Chapman (*) School of Communication, International Studies and Languages, University of South Australia, Magill, Australia e-mail: [email protected]

193 C. Plüss and K.B. Chan (eds.), Living Intersections: Transnational Migrant Identifications in Asia, International Perspectives on Migration 2, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-2966-7_10, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012

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late nineteenth century, placed under US Navy administration after the Second World War and then reverted back to Japan in 1968. The many reconfigurations to the nation space of the islands and the varied heritage of the original settlers have situated them and their descendants in an unusual position within Japanese history and society. The story behind this little known history provides new understandings of the nature of migratory phenomena and transnational movement, particularly in relation to islands and island life. It also has broader application in highlighting how the intersections of political, economic, social and cultural characteristics can yield diverse and multiple definitions of transnational spaces. The study of migration most often deals with the movement or displacement of people from one place to another, usually across national or regional borders, and involves a certain degree of temporal presence or living in a new location. However, the destabilising effects that characterise many migration contexts can also occur without the movement of people, a process which this chapter brings to light. This can happen when old borders are removed and new ones created or when spaces are reconfigured, restructured and reorganised. In the context of the Ogasawara Islands, despite staying in one place, the original settler descendants have been exposed to changes that are comparable to those encountered when physically moving to a new location. As Ahmed et al. have argued, “staying put is not without movement” (2003, 10). Moreover, feelings of home and belonging are no less affected by changes to the inhabited space than being moved from that space to a new location where border crossings have occurred even whilst remaining still. As governing bodies have changed over history so has the way in which this community has been identified; there is a historical as well as social dimension to the processes of identification and the way space is produced. This chapter examines how political, economic, social and cultural characteristics reciprocally constitute each other in influencing the way islanders are identified. In this study I develop Stuart Elden’s argument that “space, place and location are crucial determining factors in any historical study” (2001, 3). I adopt Elden’s suggestion of a “spatial history” in mapping the contemporary context of an island community and how the process of identification is historically contingent. Space is central in examining the history of the Ogasawara Islands. I argue that, despite remaining in place, this community has experienced the same feelings of uprootedness and regrounding that characterise many migration contexts. This research explores the effects on individuals when the same space (home) is reconstructed, refigured and replaced and I argue that the changes in space over history have impacted upon the original settlers and their descendants in multiple and complex ways. Focussing on history and space highlights the intersectionality of multiple factors in the lives of islanders. Whilst the islanders have remained relatively static (at home), the numerous changes to the nation space around them have destabilised identity and influenced their notions of place and belonging. Under such conditions the arbitrary and malleable nature of cultural and social constructs becomes juxtaposed with rigid and unyielding yet politically contingent notions of nationality, national identity and citizenship. As the introduction to this book makes clear, people whose lives are embedded in transnational spaces use cultural, social, and

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economic capital (Bourdieu 1986) in complex ways to attempt to improve the conditions in which they live. For the Ogasawara original descendant community, just like transnational migrants moving from one place to another, the conversion of such capital has been both necessary and advantageous in optimising their life chances in a continually changing space.

10.2

Early History1

The Ogasawara Islands consist of three distinct groups: Muko-jima Rettō, Chichijima Rettō and Hahajima Rettō. The oldest recorded Japanese visit to the islands was in 1670 when a vessel was blown off course by a typhoon (Koji Ruien cited in Kublin 1947, 15). News of the islands made its way to the Japanese Shogunate and an expedition was sent to explore the islands in 1675, resulting in a detailed report presented to officials upon the expedition’s return. In the end, despite numerous visitations to these islands, Japan mostly ignored them. The fact that they were uninhabited coupled with their distant location from Japan led the shogunate to believe they posed no real security threat (ibid, 23). It is also highly likely that Japan’s self-imposed isolation from most of the world at this time contributed to these islands remaining peripheral in its interests. However, with the eventual spread of the whaling industry in the Pacific and the increase in ships in the region, foreign claims over the islands were inevitable. In the nineteenth century these islands were transformed out of virtual obscurity into a space contested by powerful nations. In 1823 the American, Reuben Coffin, captain of the British ship Transit, landed to the south of the archipelago, naming Coffin Island (now Hahajima)2 and laying claim to this single island. It was not until 4 years later, in 1827, that Englishman Captain Fredrick Beechey landed on Peel Island (Chichijima) and claimed it and the surrounding islands in the name of the British Empire. News of Beechey’s discovery soon made its way to the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands where stories of a paradise with an excellent climate, rich soil and protected harbour quickly spread. Conversations soon began between two men, Matteo Mazarro and Richard Millichamp, who wanted to settle on the islands, and the British Consul of the Sandwich Islands, Richard Charlton, who was keen to secure these newly discovered islands for the British Empire (Simpson 1843, 124). Eventually a group of 22 was assembled, consisting of Americans, Europeans and Pacific Islanders, who sailed from the Sandwich Islands to land at Port Lloyd on 26 June 1830. From the beginning, this community was multicultural, multilingual and multiethnic and made use of diverse cultural resources to adapt to local conditions, eventually resulting in the emergence of a diverse, complex and transnational community.

1

For a detailed account of the early history of the Bonin Islands refer to Chapman (2009), Ishihara (2007), Long (2003), and Odo (2003). 2 Hahajima is located 50 km to the south of Chichijima.

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The Bonin Islands, as they were called at the time, were mostly ignored by Britain. However, they drew the interest of Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853 as a possible location for a refuelling station for steamships from the US on their way to Hong Kong (Hawks 1856, 244). Perry thought seriously enough of this plan to buy land from one of the islanders, Nathaniel Savory, an American and one of the original settlers (letter from Alex Simpson to Lord Claredon 1853, in Pineau 1968, 143; Cholmondeley 1915, 102–5). Nathaniel Savory recognised the possibility of political, social and economic advantage in using the cultural resources available to him as an American and held strong hopes of the islands eventually becoming US territory. However, in his later years Savory was faced with another possible scenario. Japan’s interest in the islands was reignited by Perry’s plans and in 1861 the Tokugawa regime attempted to colonise the Bonins. The Shogunate’s representative Maru no Tani visited the islands and when meeting with Savory justified the colonisation on the grounds that Japan had discovered the islands some 300 years before (Obana 1861). Some of the original settlers at this point, sick of being ignored and without assistance from any nation, seemed grateful to the Japanese for the provision of such things as medical attention and supplies (Obana 1861). The prospect of protection and some semblance of law and order were also welcomed. This first attempt at colonisation, however, lasted only 18 months. The Japanese colonialists left, returning to the mainland and to the islands from which they had come. Some 12 years later in 1875, year after Nathaniel Savory’s death, Japanese officials returned to the islands and colonised them again. News of this second attempt reached the British Consul in Yokohama, Russell Robertson, and he decided to visit the islands only a few days after Japanese officials landed on Peel Island to make their claim. Robertson asked Nathaniel Savory’s widow, Maria Dilessanto, how she felt about the islands becoming part of Japan. In the face of increasing numbers of settlers from the mainland and the changing status of the islands, Maria and some of the other islanders with her, perhaps recognising the arbitrary nature of national identity, expressed some indifference at the prospect of becoming Japanese. They declared themselves to be first and foremost Bonin Islanders (Robertson 1876, 138). This ambivalence toward a national belonging and a strong sense of island identity is not limited to the early history of the islands but is something that has remained throughout the complex changes over time. As I elaborate below, within the turmoil of numerous changes to the nation space, later generations also demonstrate a strong connection to the islands as a source of their identity.3 The islands became the responsibility of Governor Obana Sakunosuke who, according to an early account by Reverend F. B. Plummer who visited the islands in 1877, was popular. Demonstrating a desire for greater social, cultural and economic

3

According to Baldacchino, “the identification with, and assertion of, a specifically island identity” is a common feature of island life and what he calls “islandness” (2004, 273).

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resources, for some other islanders at least, the return of Japanese governance to the islands was welcomed over disorder and lawlessness. The advent of order of some kind was hailed with gladness by all the more respectable portion of the population, as before this the island had been made the scene of many acts of violence and even of murder. (Plummer 1877, 9)

The Ogasawara islanders represented outsiders living within and the only way of dealing with this situation was to have the islanders rescind their original nationality and become Japanese subjects (shinmin).4 Governor Obana tried to persuade the settlers to make a declaration and become Japanese subjects early in the colonisation process but most were resistant to the idea except in circumstances where there was some perceived advantage in making such a choice. In perhaps the earliest example of cultural ambiguity in this community one of the first to be registered as Japanese and to recognise an advantage in becoming so was Robert Myers, a British subject from Manila, who had narrowly escaped being murdered by a fellow islander some months before Reverend Plummer’s visit. Realising the opportunity that Japanese sovereignty would provide and wanting protection under Japanese law, Myers requested Plummer write a letter to the British Consul in Yokohama, Russell Robertson, expressing his desire to become a Japanese subject (Plummer 1877, 10). Four others, also recognising the advantage in becoming Japanese subjects, also registered alongside Myers. However, upon receiving a letter from Myers and others, the British Consul sent a memorandum to British subjects residing on the islands in December 1877 advising careful consideration of the consequences of naturalisation as a Japanese subject because they would fall under the auspices of Japanese law and would no longer be protected by Britain (Robertson 1877). This advice was countered by the threat of expulsion from the islands by the Japanese government and all of the settlers eventually agreed to become Japanese subjects and all were entered on the household registry by 1882. Over time, more Japanese from the mainland and other islands migrated and settled on the Ogasawara Islands. Eventually, schools were built and this generation of settlers, not unlike the experiences of many immigrants moving to a new country, found themselves in a society with a new language and different customs. Two American anthropologists conducted interviews on the islands in the early 1970s. Charlie Washington, born in 1881, was interviewed at this time and gave detailed accounts of life on the islands at the end of the nineteenth century. Demonstrating his generation’s integration into the Japanese community, he contrasts the use of Japanese at school and English at home. The older generation was obviously concerned about the loss of their original cultural and linguistic capital through integration with the ethnic Japanese and Washington described how his Uncle Horace (Savory)5 would “give us a good whack” whenever he heard Japanese 4 At this point in time nationality in the Western sense did not exist in Japanese law. From 1872 when the Household Registration Law was introduced the Japanese population were identified as subjects of the empire. Many of the original settlers were from various islands in the Pacific and held no official nationality. 5 Second generation descendants of the first settlers were not Japanese speakers (Long 2007).

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being spoken (Hammond and Shepardson 1973). He also recalls frequent trips from the islands onboard whaling ships and with fur traders travelling throughout the Pacific. Washington, like many other islanders of his generation, was bilingual and a capable hunter and fisherman and demonstrated cultural and social capital useful to a global network of visitors to the islands. This allowed Washington and others access to wider economic, social and cultural resources and underscores their transnational positionality. This was in stark contrast to the many monolingual ethnic Japanese farmers on the islands anchored to their land. Integration occurred over time with members from the two communities progressively mixing and intermarrying. An ethnic Japanese spouse married to a descendant of the original settlers highlights the inbetweenness of cultural hybridity when describing the members of this community as “half ‘American’ and half ‘Japanese’ in their customs” (Hammond and Shepardson 1973). Other interviews highlight the inclusion and exclusion that often accompanies such a position. Miriam Savory, a descendant of Nathaniel Savory, discussed the good relations between the original settler descendants and the ethnic Japanese. Photographs from the early twentieth century and discussions with elderly members of the community confirm a population in which ethnic origins were mostly ignored and a sense of community prevailed. However, demonstrating the dynamic and shifting discourses that mitigate circumstances for those that are already peripheral and the ruptures that can manifest between cultures, Miriam Savory also described the influence of the Pacific War in generating tension between the two communities: “we used to get along with the Japanese on Chichi,” she said,6 “but when the War started they began putting us down.” Miriam explained how she was told by members of the ethnic Japanese community, “the War will be over in 10 days” and “your people can never win” (Hammond and Shepardson 1973). Wilson Savory traced the change on the island further back to the late 1930s and recalled that, “around 1937 and 1938 a definite change in attitude became apparent. The speaking of the English language was prohibited” (US Navy 1955, 3). This was at a time when Chichijima was being fortified and the military presence increased. Children were also questioned at school as to whether they spoke English at home. Those that affirmed this found their families subjected to questioning and surveillance by the military police (kenpeitai) (Hammond and Shepardson 1973). Wilson Savory also remembered how Japanese soldiers stood guard at his front door to enforce the prohibition of English (US Navy 1955, 3). This was particularly difficult for the older generation who spoke mostly English and at best only broken Japanese. The uncertainty of war also led to militant social control and intensified nationalism.

6

It is also interesting to note here that Miriam Savory makes the distinction between the “Japanese” and the first settler community. This may have been a response to the type of questioning being used by the anthropologists at the time. However, there are numerous instances of this distinction in other sources and it is a distinction that some descendants still make even today.

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Nationalistic zeal also emerged within the school, where teachers were likely to reprimand children for anti-nationalist behavior7 and be suspicious of children of the original settler community (Shepardson 1998). Along with the clampdown on English the Japanese government’s assimilation policies (kōminka) enforced the use of Japanese names (sōshi kaimei) from 1939. This meant that the descendants of the original settlers, most of whom had “foreign” names rendered in katakana,8 were forced to change them to Japanese. In one case, a member of this community living on the mainland at the time received a telegram from relatives telling her to change her name from English to Japanese using a name they had provided. It was not until she returned to the islands that she discovered the reasons for this request (informant on Chichijima, 2010). These names remained in place until many years later when on 14 April 1969 a Tokyo Family Court representative came to Chichijima to administer the applications of 32 people for permission to change their names on the koseki. Sixteen changed their names from Japanese to English and 16 changed their names from English to Japanese. All were eventually granted permission and those changing their names to English were allowed to use katakana on their koseki registration (Tsuji 1995, 96; Kasuga 2006, 32). This remains an exception in the history of Japan’s household registration.9 Most original settler descendants even today have a Japanese and an English name and some have a combination of both. The Japanese name is more likely to appear as officially registered on the koseki. The diverse name changes within this community are another way that ambiguity, often characteristic of those straddling across cultures, is manifested. From the very beginnings, through until 1981, ambiguity and differential identification of the islanders was institutionalised by the state through administrative procedures and legislation. For example, according to a report by Yamakata Ishinosuke, a geographer commissioned by the Tokyo government in 1906, the inhabitants of the Ogasawara Islands were categorised as Hachijō-tōmin (islanders from Hachijō Island),10 nai’chijin (islanders from the mainland) and kikajin (naturalised people) (Arima 1990, 182). And from 1968 until 1981 under Japanese administration the Ogasawara Restoration Measures Law divided the inhabitants of

7

Abel Savory discusses being punished by teachers for comments against the Emperor (Long 2003). This is likely to have been the same treatment for other Japanese children as well but, according to Jeffrey Gilley, some teachers were especially suspicious of the children who were descendants of original settlers (Shepardson 1998). 8 Katakana is a phonetic script used to write foreign words or words originating from foreign lexicon in Japanese. 9 In 1987 a law was passed that allowed non-Japanese names to be registered on the koseki. 10 The first colonisers were from Hachijō Island. Like many other peripheral islands in the Japanese archipelago, this island was first inhabited by expelled criminals and political exiles mostly excluded from participation in traditional life on the mainland. Such a label would thus socially stigmatise this group and clearly differentiate them from mainlanders (nai’chijin).

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Ogasawara officially into three categories: kyutōmin (people who had residence on 31 March 1944 and their descendants),11 shintōmin (new or recent islanders) and kikajin (original settler descendants)12 (ibid, 182–9). These processes of identification represent a multilayered context of categorisation in which the boundaries between communities on the island were officially declared by governing authorities. The bureaucratic distinctions were also matched by references to the original settler descendants by the ethnic Japanese during this period: terms such as kikajin (naturalised people), ijin (different people), gaijin (foreigner) and ōbeikei (Europeans) were used.13 These types of identifications added to an already complex intersectionality for this community.

10.3

Evacuation

The machinations of nation-state level politics often have dramatic effect on the lives of social actors. War in particular can dramatically change the lives of all members of a society but it can be especially difficult for those already living between cultures. The Second World War was a particularly difficult period for all inhabitants of the Ogasawara Islands. However, for the group of approximately 135 descendants of the original settlers this was a period in which they were reminded of their difference through particularly trying and dangerous experiences. Along with increasing authoritarian control during the lead up to war the Ogasawara Island chain, including Iōtō (also known as Iwojima), were fortified and came under the control of and inhabited mostly by the military. At the height of the Pacific War US forces began concentrated bombing raids on Chichijima and between the months of April and August 1944 (Koyama 1999, 251) 6,886 people14 were uprooted from their homes and forced to evacuate to the Japanese mainland (nai’chi).15 The ships carrying the islanders strategically evaded the American bombers but took days to reach their destination. As vividly described to me this evacuation was extremely dangerous: “it was really up to the heavens as to whether we survived or not” (informant on Chichijima, 2010). Being evacuated to the mainland meant that this community was now located in the heart of a nation at war with their ancestors. A culturally ambiguous position

11

Also known as kitōmin or returnees. Also referred to as zairai tōmin and ōbeikei or ōbeijin. 13 In some cases older locals still use the term kikajin when discussing the descendants of the earlier settlers. 14 There were 825 Ogasawara Islanders in the Japanese military that remained on the islands and were not evacuated (Yokozuka 1999, 232; Koyama 1999, 251). Amongst the first settler descendants were Simon and Jimmy Savory, Frank Washington and Jeffrey Gilley (Hammond and Shepardson 1973). 15 Nai’chi is the term used by Ogasawara Islanders when speaking about mainland Japan. “Japan” is also used on some occasions. 12

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exacerbated by the speaking of English and leading to experiences on the Japanese mainland that forced most to confront their difference more intensely than ever before. It was a time in which, for most in the community, a transnational positionality meant inequality and exclusion. In recounting their experiences during this uprooting many in this community highlight their “different faces”, describing how they were often interpellated as “foreign,” “Western,” “European” or “American” and as such had to negotiate their way through the difficulties they faced during wartime Japan. As a number of informants have told me, amongst a suspicious public this group was prevented from purchasing food and the lack of nutrition that ensued became a primary concern (informants on Chichijima, 2009, 2010).16 Members of the group were questioned about their origin and most times their interrogators were unaware of the existence of the Ogasawara Islands much less the small community of “ōbeikei” (European descendants) (Hammond and Shepardson 1973). Surveillance by the military police and periodical questioning also vexed this community with negotiations regularly occurring between the authorities and community members (informants on Chichijima, 2009). In many instances however, enough cultural and social capital could be accessed to avoid disaster. For example, speaking Japanese and understanding Japanese culture and custom helped in negotiations and dialogue during difficult encounters. Those around them identified the members of this community as “not from here,” not fitting into the nation space of Japan. Their difference inscribed them within specific cultural configurations not belonging to a recognisable Japanese national identity but, rather, locatable as “Western” and, during wartime, as the “enemy.” However, demonstrating the difference between social and institutional identification, as far as the authority of the state was concerned they were Japanese with as legitimate a claim to being in the nation space as any other Japanese national. All of the original settler descendants held Japanese seki (registration) that identified them as Japanese nationals with permanent and legal residence.17 The problems encountered by this community demonstrate how the demarcations of nation spaces are complexly mediated through various forms of identification, both legal and symbolic. On the one hand, the body is judged to belong or not belong through state-sanctioned identification, and on the other, through encounters with others, the body is assessed as adhering to or deviating from specific criteria formulated through exclusivist narratives of a homogeneous Japanese national identity. At the end of the War the hope was for all to return to the Ogasawara Islands. However, as a condition of surrender under the Potsdam Proclamation of 26 July 1945, Japanese sovereignty was limited to the four islands of Honshu, Kyushu,

16 Charlie Washington also highlighted “the hardest was getting something to eat. The farmers wouldn’t sell us food” (Hammond and Shepardson 1973). Emily Gilley also recalled stealing food at night (ibid). The supply of sufficient food was also a major concern for many Japanese during the War. For the first settler descendants the problem was exacerbated by their appearance. 17 The original koseki was introduced from China in the seventh century and used as a form of social control and a vehicle for regulated tax collection for the Yamato Court. It has remained in Japanese society in one form or another since.

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Hokkaido and Shikoku. Okinawa and the Ogasawara Islands were to be placed under direct US occupation and later both locations continued to be administered by US military. Requests by the evacuees to be returned to the Ogasawara Islands were initially refused by the Allied Forces and appeals by the descendants of the original settlers for special consideration were ignored. Using what social and cultural capital they had however, the group was able to communicate directly with US authorities in English and petition for their cause. They described how life was hard for them on the Japanese mainland because they were perceived as different. In a demonstration of cultural conversion they exploited their American heritage to full advantage using this also to appeal to SCAP (Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers) for a chance to return to their homes. Eventually their voices were heard and their requests were granted, allowing them and their ethnic Japanese spouses to return to the islands. The ethnic Japanese evacuees however, also uprooted from the islands, were forbidden to return for 22 years until the reversion (henkan) of the islands to Japan on 26 June 1968.

10.4

Identification Under the US

In October 1945 five hundred of the US occupation forces landed on Chichijima and began investigations into war crimes that were committed on the island.18 After the investigations finished on 29 January 1946, the last remaining Japanese soldiers left and the Allied Forces began administering the islands (Koyama 1999, 252). On 17 October 1946, appeals to social and cultural capital facilitated the return of the 129 original settler descendants onboard the Keyaki Maru to their homeland. From 1951 the US established a naval base on Chichijima and under Article 3 of the Treaty of Peace with Japan19 the Bonin and Ryukyu Islands came under US military trusteeship in which the US had “the right to exercise all and any powers of administration, legislation and jurisdiction over the territory and inhabitants of these islands, including their territorial waters.” Japan held residual sovereignty over the islands but they were administered by the US military. As mentioned above, in the late 1800s the koseki was crucial in turning a transnational group of foreigners living within Japan into Japanese subjects living under Japanese rule. The koseki is also important later in the history of Ogasawara when the descendants of the original settlers found themselves without koseki registration under the US administration. The koseki documents were destroyed during the War and the original settler descendants were officially placed

18 Chester Hearn (2003) has written a book that vividly recounts the atrocities of Japanese commanders on Chichijima, including ordering the cooking and eating of human flesh taken from American pilots who had been captured around the Ogasawara Islands. 19 Signed 8 September 1951 and entered into force 28 April 1952.

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under US administration and therefore recognition of their Japanese status was suspended. In addition, the original settler descendants, although regrounded on the islands, were administratively detached from Japan. This administrative detachment meant that they were not identified in an official capacity as Japanese nationals nor were they identified as American nationals. Instead, the members of the community were identified as “Bonin Islanders.” This category appeared on numerous official documents and, I argue here, placed the original settler descendants in a situation of statelessness for 22 years. Eventually, with impending reversion to Japan in 1968, the nationality issue was resolved and most of the original settler descendants returned to official status as Japanese nationals and were again registered on the koseki. The administrative documents used for identification during the US occupation demonstrate an uncertainty of legal status and a state of indefinite transition. Given the context of the US interest in the islands remaining under US Navy control, the documents also represent the advantage of maintaining an ambiguous identification of the descendants as islanders rather than as Japanese or American citizens. It also reflects the de-identification of the islanders with Japan. This was an advantageous position adopted to maximise the affiliation with the US allowing access to resources and capital offered by the occupation administration. As Moreman (2009, 349) argues, here we can see how the question of cultural authenticity becomes a question of cultural ambiguity for communities like this one.

10.4.1

Identification and Documentation

The shifting transnational positionalities of the islanders during the US occupation resulted from self-initiated dis-identification as Japanese, re-identification as American as well as the effect of official state-sanctioned documentation and identification. There were three types of documentation used for identification purposes. These were travel documents, birth certificates and an identification certificate. The travel documents were issued for travel outside of Chichijima and listed only birthplace (Chichijima, Bonin Islands) and that the holder was protected under US authority. During the US Navy administration islanders were allowed to travel to Japan under special circumstances approved by the US. Children from the islands attended high school on Guam and Saipan so this document was used when leaving for the start of school and when returning home. The use of these travel documents was limited for travel to Guam, Saipan, Japan and the trust territories of the Pacific Islands. Upon arrival into Chichijima the holders were expected to return the documents to US authorities (informant on Chichijima, 20 November 2009). Another set of official documents issued by the US Navy were the birth certificates issued of children born on Chichijima during this period. During fieldwork on the islands I was shown a birth certificate from someone who had both a parent who was an original settler descendant and a parent who was ethnic Japanese.

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Information contained on the certificate is revealing and perhaps best represents the US position on the identification of the descendants and their spouses. Again, no nationality is recorded; instead “citizenship” and “race” are the identity categories used. “Race” for the original settler descendants was recorded as “Bonin Islander” and for their ethnic Japanese spouses was recorded as “Japanese.” Citizenship follows this, with the original settler descendants being classed as citizens of the Bonin Islands and their spouses as citizens of Japan. Despite the descendants of the original settlers being Japanese nationals prior to US occupation, they are not identified on these documents as Japanese, whilst ethnic Japanese spouses are clearly stated to be citizens of Japan and their “race” as Japanese. Furthermore, the term “Bonin Islands” had not been officially used in naming the islands since before Japanese colonisation in 1875. A return to this term in naming the islands and its inhabitants again demonstrates a decoupling of place and people from the Japanese state and a reversion to a pre-Japan context. Only one of the documents issued during occupation stated the nationality of the original settler descendant community. These documents are titled “Certificate of Identity” and clearly state the holder’s nationality as Japanese. They were issued on 25 June 1968,20 exactly one month prior to reversion, and would probably have been issued as a result of requests from Japanese government officials in preparation for reversion. These ID certificates were the only official documents to list the nationality of the descendant community as Japanese. Indeed, as stated above, they were the only documents to list nationality during the entire period of US occupation. On both the birth certificates and travel documents nationality was not listed and individuals were identified only as Bonin Islanders. The US military government stamp on these documents is the only indication of a national presence. Not only do these documents reflect a transient state or a period of liminality for Chichijima under US occupation, they also represent the use of administrative instruments of identification to detach the islands and their inhabitants from Japan. Under the US occupation the descendants of the original settlers were not identified as Japanese but as Bonin Islanders. This highly unorthodox situation placed the descendants of original settlers in an ambiguous and uncertain position for a period of undefined length without a globally recognised citizenship or nationality. The negative experiences of this community during the evacuation to the Japanese mainland, the assertion of American heritage, and a long period under direct US Navy administration created a complex context of disconnection with Japan whilst reclaiming an historical and genealogical link with the US. There is perhaps complicity between the community and these identification processes in the process of capital conversion from a member of the Japanese nation-state to a desired position affiliated closely with the US.

20

All certificates were dated 25 June 1968.

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10.4.2

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The Koseki

As mentioned above, the koseki registry is the definitive instrument that bureaucratically confirms legal status as Japanese and was used to confer Japanese status on the original settlers in the late nineteenth century. According to Yokozuka (1999, 238), the household registry records for Ōmura and Iōtō were completely destroyed by a US aircraft carrier on 15 June 1944. Damage to koseki records during wartime was widespread on the Japanese mainland as well as Ogasawara and Okinawa (Okuyama 2006). Despite a concerted effort elsewhere the maintenance or reissuance of koseki records was not attempted during the period of US navy administration of Chichijima. However, there is some evidence that a small number of new birth, marriage and death registrations were recorded. Ōsato (1982, 244–5)21 states that there were 127 cases of recordable instances (deaths, births and marriages) but only 27 made it to the Tokyo office responsible for koseki administration. Citizenship was raised as a concern by the government of Japan (GOJ on US navy documents) in 1967, the year before reversion. In a US navy document GOJ representatives are described as taking “the view, in ignorance, that they (original settler descendants) were stateless because they had not registered births, deaths and marriages in the proper way” (US Navy 1967–1969, 3). The document also states that: Council members (Bonin Islander representatives) told the GOJ people in forceful languages [sic] not to use the word “stateless” (mukokuseki) because they are Japanese citizens who were unable to make the required registrations due to extenuating circumstances. (ibid)

At this point the council requested the Japanese officials correct this matter upon reversion.22 This demonstrates another instance of capital conversion or, multiple capital conversions where the islanders reasserted their links to Japan— both legal and historical. The period of detachment from Japan under the US Navy was necessarily contextualised as “extenuating circumstances” in which temporary detachment was unavoidable. With the nation space changing once again the descendants of original settlers appealed to cultural and social capital linked with Japan. Although the period of US administration was an extraordinary context the fact that, until Japanese nationality was restored to the original settler descendants, the

21

Ōsato (1982) was a government official who worked on the restoration of koseki records on the Ogasawara Islands after reversion. 22 Japanese officials also went to Guam in 1968 to distribute Japanese passports to students from Chichijima. There were no direct flights or boats from Guam to Chichijima at this stage and passports were probably created for the main purpose of return to Chichijima through Tokyo (informant on Chichijma, 25 November 2009).

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documents presented here were indeterminate outside of Chichijima highlights limitations and restrictions placed on the mobility of islanders. Some of us used to think we were like wild goats, no citizenship of any country. We carried a yellow document from the Navy which was our “passport”. Not knowing anything about passports, I went to Japan with it before reversion and got in trouble with the Japanese immigration service. Stood there in line and had to explain in my poor Japanese why I had that yellow document. I told them we did not have Japanese passports or a US passport (got the Japanese passport after reversion). Finally they let me through and then when I returned to Guam I got in trouble with the American immigration service for not having a visa. One guy was nasty and told me he could send me right back to Japan. Tearfully I responded saying, “I am a person of no country” (email from informant, 2010).

It also demonstrates, as this informant encountered, how ambiguous identification and documentation processes can lead to problems particularly at border control points, reminding us how those in this position can be multiply affected and ambiguously placed.

10.5

Self-identification

Under US occupation the islanders were exposed to the usual cultural and social events that exist in the US. Many participants in this research discuss happy memories of celebrating Halloween, the Fourth of July and Christmas. US movies were played every night on the island and popcorn and soda served. Sporting, social events and American schooling exposed the islanders to a range of American customs. During the occupation the Japanese government made repeated requests for repatriation of ethnic Japanese evacuees from the mainland back to the islands. In response to this the original settler descendants submitted petitions (1951 and 1955) to the US government for the islands to become permanently part of the US. The 1955 petition was taken by Wilson Savory, Nathaniel Savory, Jerry Savory and Richard Washington to Washington DC in late November of that year. All island residents over 18 years of age signed the petition requesting that the Bonin Islands become an affiliate of the US. According to a memorandum of conversation from US Navy files (1955), at a meeting between Robert McClurkin and the representatives of the Bonin Islanders during their visit to the US, McClurkin enquired as to “what they considered their citizenship to be.” Jerry Savory said he was not sure but assured him that “all the present residents would like to be American residents and have applied for citizenship” (ibid, 2). This event would have been in the interests of the US Navy in its negotiations with the Japanese government over the possession of the islands and demonstrates how the space of the Bonin Islands became politicised in order to protect the interests of the US administration in Japan. However, at the same time this demonstrates the complex process of dis-identification as Japanese and a re-identification with American heritage. The influence of over 20 years of life under the US occupation, the ambiguity of status as neither Japanese nor US citizens and uncertainty over the return to Japanese control exacerbated feelings of uprootedness. The petition submitted in Washington

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is an indication of a desire to remain under US affiliation but discussions with islanders on Chichijima also reveal that some at least were never convinced that the Ogasawara Islands would remain under US control, nor indeed become US territory (informant on Chichijima, 26 November 2009).

10.6

Reversion

The Ogasawara Islands reverted to Japan on 26 July 1968 in a ceremony that lowered the US Stars and Stripes and was followed by the raising of the Japanese Hi no Maru.23 The reversion to Japan received a mixed response and is still a point of contention for islanders who lived through the periods of occupation and reversion. At the time of reversion President Nixon passed legislation that allowed a window of 2 years for the descendants of the first Bonin Islanders to become American citizens (US Government 1970). Some took advantage of this offer and others chose to remain on Chichijima and live as Japanese citizens. Some of the younger island men decided to enlist in the US forces and were able to attain US citizenship after leaving the forces (informant on Chichijima, 25 November 2009). The reversion meant that administration of the islands was returned to Japan virtually overnight. The islanders had again officially become Japanese nationals. According to numerous US Navy documents concerns were raised about the welfare and well being of islanders under reversion to Japanese rule. Of particular concern was the future of a generation born under the American flag and educated in English. Apprehension was expressed for how these children would compete with others educated and literate in Japanese. These worries were well founded and, although the lives of this generation are extremely diverse with some taking advantage of their social, cultural and linguistic capital to move to the US and other Pacific Islands. Many, however, remained on Chichijima where the legacy of the US naval occupation is still significant.

10.7

Place, Space, and Belonging

Traditional understandings of transnationalism and migration often posit movement as the primary concern. What can be concluded from the complex history of numerous uprootings and regroundings of the Ogasawara Islanders? This study challenges assumptions of “home” as static and somehow protected from the destabilising consequences of displacement and dislocation. As Ahmed et al. argue, challenges need to be brought against “presumptions that movement involves freedom from grounds or that grounded homes are not sites of change, relocation or uprooting” (Ahmed et al. 2003, 1). In the case of the Ogasawara Islanders, home has been a site of 23

The reversion is celebrated each year on Chichijima with a festival (henkansai).

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extraordinary political, cultural and social change. Although there was some relocation from the islands to the mainland during the War, for the most part the original “settler” descendants have lived through numerous reconfigurations of the nation space by being at home. The world around them has changed and the intersections of political, economic, social and cultural characteristics complexly transformed in both space and time. Despite the relatively fixed place of the Ogasawara Islanders on Chichijima, their history of variously changing identifications combined with the challenges the original settler descendants present to notions of a homogeneous Japan have highlighted the cracks in the normative notions of Japanese citizenship, nationality and identity, laying bare their incongruencies and ambiguities. It also demonstrates the dynamic processes of capital conversion as individuals seek to make sense and exploit what resources they can to achieve goals and create opportunity by intersecting political, economic, social and cultural characteristics with roots in different regions. The same can be said in a broader context of global immigration and the problems facing those who inhabit a space of reconfiguration, reconstruction and re-identification. Given the changing context of space and the identifications of the descendants of the original settlers within that space it is unsurprising that members of this community have expressed diverse feelings regarding belonging and place, with some islanders expressing ambivalence towards identification based on nationality alone. Able Savory for example, is more connected with place: I have mostly American blood, so I guess I feel more affiliation with America. Then, I have Japanese registration (seki) as well, but I have American blood. However, I guess more than anything else I am a Chichi Islander. (Long 2003)

In this narrative Able Savory identified himself as an islander. Although he did highlight his connection to the two nations that have controlled the space of the Ogasawara Islands, he did not identify himself as either Japanese or American. Having lived through various uprootings and regroundings Savory found home in place rather than with any particular national identity. His self-identification brings together the symbolism of administrative and bureaucratic registration (seki) that identified him as Japanese with narratives of national identity and its connection to the physical body or, in this case, blood. In reconciling these different “belongings” Savory at least at the time of this interview, concluded that, more than anything else, he is located somewhere in between or apart from both nations and, instead, is strongly connected to place as a Chichi Islander. In contemporary Chichijima some informants who are descended from original settlers also describe themselves as “islanders” first, articulating similar ambivalence to that of Able Savory. “I am not American and I am not Japanese. Because of my face they won’t let me be Japanese” (informant on Chichijima, 29 November 2009). However, demonstrating the diversity that can exist in any community despite similar experiences, some islanders have adamantly underscored their Japanese identity. As one informant, demonstrating resistance to the notion that their difference may exclude them from the right to be Japanese and reasserting capital conversion as a member of the Japanese community stated, “Watashi wa bari bari nihonjin desu yo” (I am 100% Japanese).

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Conclusion

In this chapter I have brought islands into the field of migration studies as a location where unusually intense migratory phenomena can occur. I have also detailed one case and underscored how space and history take centre position in explaining the effects of multiple uprootings and regrounding for a particular community undergoing continuous and extraordinary change. I have demonstrated how change to space over time is not dissimilar to movement across borders for those that call that space home and make claims of belonging. In detailing the history of the community in question I have brought forth the complex intersections experienced by its members and the appeals to cultural, social and economic capital available to them as they straddle the cultural milieu created by multiple changes to space. Multiple changes meant multiple cultural capital conversions as they strategically negotiated an ever-changing environment and took advantage of their transnational positions. For many, place became a location of identification amongst the flows and ebbs of change in the space of the Ogasawara Islands. It takes account of the history of shifting identifications in a space that has, under the control of various governing bodies, been geographically and ethnically marginalised. This chapter is also research about how the intersections of varying forms of identification impact upon feelings of place, home, and belonging. The outcome demonstrates not only how feelings can be shared but also how, despite similar experiences, these feelings can vary amongst individuals. Acknowledgements This project was made possible through a research fellowship from the Japan Foundation, that provided financial assistance to conduct fieldwork on the Ogasawara Islands in November 2009. I would also like to thank Dr. Daniel Long again for his assistance in all things relating to the Ogasawara Islands and the staff at Tokyo Metropolitan University for accepting me as a visiting scholar. Professor Kawakami Ikuo and the staff at Waseda University Tokyo also provided assistance and supervision as part of the Japan Foundation grant during November and December 2009. Dr. Ishihara Shun is always generous in providing information about excellent sources relating to the Ogasawaras. I am also indebted to Satō Yuki for her enthusiasm in sharing her contacts and knowledge so generously. Thanks also to Dr. Gracia Liu-Farrer for valuable and insightful comments as a reviewer in an earlier version of this paper. I am also indebted to the staff at the Ogasawara Board of Education (Kyōikuiinkai) for allowing me free access to all their resources. Mostly however, I would like to thank the people of the islands that are the focus of this paper. The Ogasawara (Bonin) Islanders have been the most generous and friendly hosts to me during my visits and have become not just acquaintances but friends.

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