repatriation and rebuilding lives after the war

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K13352
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 03020:Japanese history-related
• Research Institution: Ritsumeikan University
• Principal Investigator: Hosoya Toru 立命館大学, 経済学部, 准教授 (40762068)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 海外引揚 / 引揚げ / 引揚者 / 満蒙開拓団 / 家族経営 / 生活保護 / 戦後開拓 / 農地改革

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study draws on the example of a mountain village in Tokushima Prefecture to ascertain the living conditions of Japanese returnees from Manchuria in the period from immediately after World War II to the early 1950s.
This study classifies returnees seeking to rebuild their lives in the village into 3 categories: landowners, the propertyless, and people taken in by farming households. A hierarchical analysis was performed based on those categories. Results indicated that as of the early 1950s many of the returnees had escaped from poverty. The categories differed in terms of their level of dependence on farming and other attributes, but a commonality was that returnees built their lives through communal ties to the community and by working a second job or multiple jobs. In addition, returnees were aided by a combination of postwar reforms such as welfare, land development policies, and land reform.

Free Research Field

日本史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、満洲移民を送り出した地域・母村が、敗戦後、引揚者をどのように迎え入れたのか、また、引揚者がどのような援護を受け、「戦後」を生きていったのか、具体的な生活再建過程に即して明らかにするものである。引揚げ研究は、近年注目され始めたテーマであり、その全体像や国際比較など議論が進んでいるが、その一方で、引揚者の戦後史については十分に明らかにされているとは言い難い。また、現在、人の移動や地域社会のあり方、社会福祉行政への関心が高まっている。そうした中で、敗戦後の引揚者と地域経済社会、戦後日本社会との関係を問う研究は歴史研究にとどまらず、現代的な諸課題を考えるうえで示唆を与えるものとなろう。