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ABSTRACT
From the summer of 1944 to the autumn of 1945, Japan’s government evacuated over 400,000 urban primary school pupils. They were sent in the custody of their teachers to rural areas away from the increasing threat of air raids. The children lived and were schooled with classmates in Buddhist temples, inns, and other facilities. Officials couched the policy in terms of a training exercise, placating military and political opponents to the removal of children from their families. Furthermore, the government offered images of nurturing teachers as surrogate guardians to assuage parental concerns. Local environments strongly influenced how comfortable or severe living conditions were, but food supplies dwindled throughout Japan. Evacuees largely avoided air raids but experienced health problems from insufficient nutrition and crowded residential quarters. This article explores the ideological underpinnings and implementation of Japan’s wartime school evacuation, finding evidence of contradictory principles, unauthorized motives, and illicit improvisations.
Acknowledgement
An earlier version of this article was presented at the conference ‘Childhood, Education and Youth in Imperial Japan, 1925–1945’, Kyoto University 11–12 January 2014 (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council grant AH/J004618/1) and is based on parts of the author’s unpublished doctoral dissertation, Johnson, ‘Mobilizing the “Junior Nation”’.
Notes
1 Johnson, ‘Mobilizing the “Junior Nation”’, 81–88.
2 Ibid, 88–109.
3 Ibid., 128.
4 Information from nine interviewees and 22 survey respondents was collected between 2002 and 2008 in this research project, though only some interviews and surveys are cited in this article. Most interviewees and respondents were contacted through the author’s attendance at meetings of the Zenkoku Sokai Gakudō Renraku Kyōgikai (National Liaison Council of Former Schoolchild Evacuees). The council members’ gracious assistance was both inspiring and invaluable. Some were accessed through personal contacts. The decision whether to conduct an oral interview or written survey was based on the residence location and convenience of the respondent; questions were the same in each case, and dealt with the respondents’ memories of their experience as evacuees.
5 Enko sokai is translated for simplicity as ‘family evacuation’ in this article.
6 By April 1945, at least 30% of potential participants were evacuated in school groups and nearly 58% evacuated with family members. See Johnson, ‘Mobilizing the “Junior Nation”’, 245.
7 Originally for third through sixth graders, the program was expanded to the first and second grades in March 1945.
8 Dai Nippon Kyōikukai Kenkyūbu, Sokai gakudō no kyōiku shishin.
9 Ibid., 19.
10 Ibid., 5.
11 Ibid.
12 Johnson, ‘Mobilizing the “Junior Nation”’, 237.
13 Kobayashi, ‘Sokai gakuryō kyōiku no hassoku’, 5.
14 Hayashino, ‘Seta ryō no kyōiku’, 146.
15 Nagahama, Kokumin gakkō no kenkyū, 140–41.
16 Ibid., 133. In the 1941 educational reform, primary schools were renamed ‘national schools’, with a six-year ‘ordinary program’ (jinjō-ka) for all, followed by a (usually) two-year ‘higher program’ (kōtō-ka) as an option for children who did not continue to a selective secondary school. The primary curriculum was also reformed.
17 Ibid., 137.
18 ‘Kokumin gakkō kyōsokuan setsumei yōryō’, 3.
19 Yamamoto, Gakkō gyōji no seiritsu to tenkai ni kansuru kenkyū, 285.
20 See, for example, Osa, ‘Gakudō shūdan sokai kiroku’, 81.
21 Ibid., 106.
22 Henmi, Shashin kaiga shūsei gakudō sokai, vol. 3, 55.
23 Ibid., 55. Comments in children’s diaries and letters must be used with caution because writers were often well aware that their teacher would be reading their work. Children were sometimes unable to ask family to send food or complain about the living conditions to parents because teachers read outgoing mail. ‘Gakudō sokai wa kō shite okonawareta’, 17. One interviewee who provided his fifth-grade diary for this study commented: ‘This [diary] was written as a measure for increasing war morale. Children knew that full well and it was written, one thing after another, with what the recipient [the teacher’s side] demanded or what the child thought would please the teacher.’ Y. H., undated personal correspondence in Japanese to the author, used with permission. This is not to assert that children were never able to express themselves, but to note that at least some of them engaged in self-censorship and experienced monitoring of their communications by teachers.
24 ‘Gakudō sokai sensō to kodomotachi’, 16–17.
25 Yamato Shiyakusho Sōmubu Jōhō Shiryō Shitsu, Gakudō shūdan sokai kankei shiryō shū, 22.
26 Ishida, Japanese Political Culture, 10.
27 Ibid., xii.
28 Fridell, ‘“Family State” (Kazoku kokka)’, 147.
29 See Johnson, ‘Mobilizing The “Junior Nation”’, 351–80.
30 Kobayashi, ‘Sokai gakuryō kyōiku no hassoku’, 5.
31 For an analysis of the roles of these private institutions, see Rubinger, Private Academies of Tokugawa Japan. For a first-person account of life in one such school, see Fukuzawa, The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa.
32 ‘Ureshii na, gakkō e kayoeru’, Asahi shimbun, 2 September 1945, in Henmi, Shashin kaiga shūsei gakudō sokai, vol. 2, 134; Ariyoshi, Tōkyō daikūshū to gakudō shūdan sokai, 175, 225. For contemporary views of Edo period schools, see Rubinger, Literacy in Early Modern Japan.
33 Dai Nippon Kyōikukai Kenkyūbu, Sokai gakudō no kyōiku shishin, 9.
34 Ibid.
35 Ibid.
36 Zenkoku Sokai Gakudō Renraku Kyōgikai, ‘Gakudō sokai ikkagetsu’, 4, 364–65.
37 Kobayashi, ‘Sokai gakuryō kyōiku no hassoku’, 4-5.
38 Yamato Shiyakusho Sōmubu Jōhō Shiryō Shitsu, Gakudō shūdan sokai kankei shiryō shū, 16.
39 T.M., survey response.
40 Ariyoshi, Tōkyō daikūshū to gakudō shūdan sokai, 175.
41 Ibid.
42 Ibid.
43 Ōyama, ‘Shin Chitose Taishō Kokumin Gakkō kundō nikki’, 637.
44 Yamato Shiyakusho Sōmubu Jōhō Shiryō Shitsu, Gakudō shūdan sokai kankei shiryō shū, 23.
45 United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Osaka Field Report, ‘Summary for the Dispersion of Schoolchildren’.
46 Monbushō, ‘Teito gakudō shūdan sokai jisshi saimoku,’ 11.
47 Shimane-ken Kyōikuchō Sōmuka Shimane-ken Kindai Kyōikushi Hensan Jimukyoku, Shimane-ken kindai kyōikushi, 2, 739.
48 H.H., survey response.
49 Ōyama, ‘Shin Chitose Taishō Kokumin Gakkō kundō nikki’, 637.
50 Niigata Nippō, 27 August 1944, in Zenkoku Sokai Gakudō Renraku Kyōgikai, Gakudō sokai no kiroku, vol. 4, 303.
51 Shimotsuke shinbun, 24 August 1944, in Zenkoku Sokai Gakudō Renraku Kyōgikai, Gakudō sokai no kiroku, vol. 4, 292.
52 ‘Ureshii ne kaki o te ni shita sokaiji’, Mainichi shinbun senjiban, 10 October 1944, in Zenkoku Sokai Gakudō Renraku Kyōgikai, Gakudō sokai no kiroku, vol. 4, 377.
53 ‘Yamamori no gohan, tanoshii shokujidoki’, Shimotsuke shinbun, 27 August 1944, in Zenkoku Sokai Gakudō Renraku Kyōgikai, Gakudō sokai no kiroku, vol. 4, 304.
54 ‘Oyatsu no tōmorokoshi o itadaku’, Asahi shimbun Tokyo edition, 14 August 1945, in Zenkoku Sokai Gakudō Renraku Kyōgikai, Gakudō sokai no kiroku, vol. 4, 562.
55 ‘Taberareru yasō’, Shinano Mainichi shinbun 16 May 1945, in Zenkoku Sokai Gakudō Renraku Kyōgikai, Gakudō sokai no kiroku, vol. 4, 507; and Shinano Mainichi shinbun, 17 May 1945, in Zenkoku Sokai Gakudō Renraku Kyōgikai, Gakudō sokai no kiroku, vol. 4, 509.
56 Yamashita, ‘The “Food Problem” of Evacuated Children in Wartime Japan, 1944–1945’, 135–36.
57 Piel, ‘Food Rationing and Children’s Self-Reliance in Japan, 1942–1952’, 403–404.
58 Osa, ‘Gakudō shūdan sokai kiroku’, 118, 124.
59 Ibid., 124.
60 Ishida, Sato ni utsurite, gakudō shūdan sokai, 66–67.
61 Ibid., 71–72.
62 Ibid., 81–82, 92.
63 Havens, Valley of Darkness, 163.
64 Daniels, ‘The Evacuation of Schoolchildren in Wartime Japan’, 106.
65 Ōyama, ‘Shin Chitose Taishō Kokumin Gakkō kundō nikki’, 650.
66 Ibid., 198.
67 M.K., survey response.
68 Y.S., survey response.
69 Dai Nippon Kyōikukai Kenkyūbu, Sokai gakudō no kyōiku shishin, 23–24.
70 ‘Kiken na keitai shokumotsu,’ Chūbu Nihon shinbun, 9 September 1944, 326, ‘Sokai gakudō no byōki wa sukunai,’ Chūbu Nihon shinbun, 12 November 1944, 410, and ‘Sokai gakudō no sekiri,’ Shinano Mainichi shinbun, 3 September 1944, 318, all in Zenkoku Sokai Gakudō Renraku Kyōgikai, Gakudō sokai no kiroku, vol. 4.
71 Yamada, Sannensei no gakudō sokai senki, 73–81.
72 Shashin shūhō, 31 January 1945, 357. In fact, the title of one memoir, Kōgō heika no bisuketto [A Cookie from Her Majesty the Empress], invokes the event; Nakata Masako, Kōgō heika no bisuketto, 66–70.
73 I.S., survey response.
74 Kitamura, ‘Kitamura Chizuko no nikki’.
75 H.H., survey response.
76 ‘Byōki taisaku naru’, Shimozuke shinbun, 19 September 1944, in Zenkoku Sokai Gakudō Renraku Kyōgikai, Gakudō sokai no kiroku, vol. 4, 335.
77 ‘Sokaiji no hoken kyōiku’, Shimozuke shinbun, 26 September 1944, in Zenkoku Sokai Gakudō Renraku Kyōgikai, Gakudō sokai no kiroku, vol. 4, 353.
78 ‘Gakudō shūdan sokai hoken ni banzen saku’, Hokkoku Mainichi shinbun, 27 September 1944, in Zenkoku Sokai Gakudō Renraku Kyōgikai, Gakudō sokai no kiroku, vol. 4, 360.
79 In October 1944, out of 1749 municipalities hosting 354,940 children from Tokyo, Kanagawa, Aichi, Osaka, Hyōgo, and Okinawa, 351 towns receiving 52,009 pupils lacked a licensed medical doctor. ‘Sokai gakudō fuken betsu ukeire ni kan suru chō’, Shigeta Sadamasa bunshō, National Institute for Educational Policy Research archives, quoted in Henmi, Gakudō shūdan sokai, 168.
80 Henmi, Gakudō shūdan sokai, 89–90.
81 Ōyama, ‘Shin Chitose Taishō Kokumin Gakkō kundō nikki’, 76–77.
82 Henmi, Shashin kaiga shūsei gakudō sokai, vol. 1, 15–16.
83 ‘Gakudō no taii teika’, Niigata Shinpō, 13 October 1945, in Zenkoku Sokai Gakudō Renraku Kyōgikai, Gakudō sokai no kiroku, vol. 4, 583.
84 Havens, Valley of Darkness, 145.
85 Hamada, Ukigumo kyōshitsu, 254.
86 Kitamura, ‘Kitamura Chizuko no nikki’, 83.
87 Henmi, Shashin kaiga shūsei gakudō sokai, vol. 3, 77.
88 Ibid., 62.
89 Ibid., 62–63. School diaries show that evacuees at a number of evacuation sites received air raid warnings and took shelter.
90 Yamada et al., ‘Shakai chōsa ni miru jidō fukushi no rekishi’, 3.
91 Henmi, Gakudō shūdan sokai – kodomotachi no sentō haichi, 178–80.
92 Ibid., 182–83.
93 Ibid., 184.
94 ‘Sokai gakudō no kaikyōbyō’, Mainichi shinbun senjiban, 17 September 1944, in Zenkoku Sokai Gakudō Renraku Kyōgikai, Gakudō sokai no kiroku, vol. 4, 331.
95 I.K. (female then age 18) letter to younger sister I.S. (then age 12), 23 August 1944, unpublished personal papers of sister I.Y., file 1 (August 1944 to October 1945). Used with permission.
96 See Johnson, ‘Mobilizing The “Junior Nation”’.
97 Ōyama, ‘Shin Chitose Taishō Kokumin Gakkō kundō nikki’, 650.
98 H.S., interview.
99 Naitō, Gakudō sokai, 92.
100 Osa, ‘Gakudō shūdan sokai kiroku’, 123; Yamada, Sannensei no gakudō sokai senki, 41, 117.
101 Yamato Shiyakusho Sōmubu Jōhō Shiryō Shitsu, Gakudō shūdan sokai kankei shiryō shū, 13, 21, 25, 35.
102 Ibid., 34, 51.
103 Ibid., 26.
104 Hamada, Ukigumo kyōshitsu, 106–107.
105 K.C., survey response.
106 Y.S., survey response.
107 Hamada, Sokai kyōshi hatachi no nikki, 124–25.
108 Nagahama, Kokumin Gakkō no kenkyū, 283–88.
109 Y.H., interview, 17 January 2004.
110 Hamada, Sokai kyōshi hatachi no nikki, 138–39.
111 K.K., survey response.
112 F.S., survey response.
113 Osa, ‘Gakudō shūdan sokai kiroku’, 117.
114 Okamoto, Ichikundō no gakudō sokai nisshi; Honnō Kokumin Gakkō, Shōwa 20 nenchū gakkō nisshi; Hayashino, ‘Seta ryō no kyōiku’; Yamato Shiyakusho Sōmubu Jōhō Shiryō Shitsu, Gakudō shūdan sokai kankei shiryō shū.
115 ‘Daihō Kō [sic] kōchō kunronroku’, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1938.
116 See for example, http://www.kimura-product.co.jp/kannon3/tatenui33/tatenui040.htm (accessed 7 December 2014); ‘Shiga-ken vāchuaru Kinen Heiwakan’; Kamiya, ‘Fusuma ni rakugaki no ato’, 8.
117 Johnson, ‘Mobilizing the “Junior Nation”’, 298–99.
118 Dower, ‘Sensational Rumors, Seditious Graffiti’.
119 Okamoto, Ichikundō no gakudō sokai nisshi, 122–23.
120 T.M., survey response.
121 Osa, ‘Gakudō shūdan sokai kiroku’, 123.
122 See Johnson, ‘Mobilizing The “Junior Nation,”’ 189, 234, 237‒39.
123 Osa, ‘Gakudō shūdan sokai kiroku’, 111.
124 ‘Jōsenji gakuryō daiyori’.
125 Okamoto, Senjika no kyōiku jissen, 178.
126 Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, quoted in Bowers and Gehring, ‘Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi: 18th Century Swiss Educator’, 312.
127 Okamoto, Senjika no kyōiku jissen, 54.
128 Pestalozzi’s goals of education did not include ‘reproduction of an ideal or real world’, for example, but instead aimed for the development of individual autonomy; Soëtard, ‘Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi’, 300. This was the antithesis of Japanese educational policy, which stressed collective behavior. Rural evacuee classrooms in inns or temples were in some respects less formal than in a usual school situation, such as students and teachers sitting on the floor. Nevertheless, as one teacher of the time indicates, the dormitory was a place of strict education; Ariyoshi, Tōkyō daikūshū to gakudō shūdan sokai, 225–26. Students were taught that in order to make Japan an even better nation they must train their bodies and minds and become loyal subjects of the emperor. The curriculum was steeped in this message. And most teachers followed the national line single-mindedly, with no room for criticism of content or method; ibid., 226. Therefore, wartime Japanese schooling in evacuation centers was tasked with the production of a strengthened ideal society precisely by denying individual autonomy, in contrast to Pestalozzi’s ideal.
129 See Johnson, ‘Mobilizing The “Junior Nation”’.
130 See Moore article in this issue.