Shifting Nikkeijin identities and citizenships : life histories of invisible people of Japanese descent in the Philippines
Date
2005
Authors
Ohno, Shun
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This thesis documents the 100-year life histories of pre-war Japanese migrants and
their descendants in the Philippines, who are called 'Philippine Nikkeijin', across three generations, namely Issei (the first generation), Nisei (the second generation) and Sansei (the third generation), focusing on the transition of their consciousness and national/ ethnic identities. It examines the historical background of the formation of the biggest Japanese community in pre-war Southeast Asia and thousands of births of intermarried Issei's children, and reflects on the origin of their problems, which include the post-war long separation of intermarried families and ambiguous nationality/citizenship.
This study also aims to clarify the causes and process of redress movements by the Philippine Nikkeijin who were stigmatized as 'collaborators' or 'children of the enemy' in post-war Philippine society, and of their collective actions to regain their once-surrendered Japanese ethnicity and even Japanese nationality. It analyzes the mechanism of these 'identity politics' that have been strengthened particularly after Japan's immigration law was revised to favor 'returned' alien Nikkei workers in 1990.
In exploring Nikkeijin's life histories by ranging extensively through the literatures relevant to their lives and a substantial number of in-depth interviews with Issei, Nisei and Sansei, this study clarifies determinants such as educational background and socioeconomic status in diversifying and shifting their identities and citizenships/nationalities within a life span and across generations. It also analyses the causes and factors behind the association and dissociation between national identity and citizenship/nationality in the Philippine Nikkeijin community, both relationships that have been a crucial theme in the social sciences. Lastly, it focuses on the peculiarities of Philippine Nikkeijin's life histories, identities and citizenships in the global Nikkei context, and discusses them in connection with Philippine and Japanese ·government policies, which are found to have had a significant influence upon Philippine Nikkeijin's shifts on identity and citizenship.
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Thesis (PhD)
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