Post-war immigration from Japan to Canada: Challenging or reconstructing Japanese tradition?

Natsuko Chubachi

Ph.D. Candidate, Queen’s UniversityResearcher, Consulate-General of Japan in Honolulu

email: nchubachi2004@yahoo.co.jp

Immigration from Japan to Canada (Kobayashi 2002)

Pre-war immigration

• Primarily for economic reasons

• As a member of family

• More male than female

• Married to a Japanese spouse

Reconstructing Japanese tradition

Post-war immigration

• Not for financial reasons

• Because of individual decision

• Majority: female

• Intermarriage is very common

Escaping Japanese tradition

Objective:

• Explore post-war (im)migration from Japan to Canada, based on interviews with Japanese immigrants in Canada

• Examine whether it is really to challenge Japanese tradition, considering its reasons, characteristics and meanings

Method:

• Pre-structured interviews with 62 Japanese people living in Canada

• Question: “Why and how did you come to Canada?”

• Duration: 1.5-2 hours

• Language: 60 in Japanese; 2 in English and Japanese

Interviewees

Gender #

Female 48

Male 14

Total 62

Age #

21-25 3

26-30 3

31-35 12

36-40 11

41-45 6

46-50 4

51-55 8

56-60 7

61- 0

Unknown 8

Total 62

Marital Status

Married to a spouse born in Canada

17

Married to a spouse born abroad

10

Married to a spouse from Japan

15

Divorced 6

Never married 11

Unknown 3

Total 62

Interviewees (continued)

Year of coming to Canada for the first time

#

1966-1970 5

1971-1975 9

1976-1980 4

1981-1985 6

1986-1990 10

1991-1995 10

1996-2000 8

2001-2004 9

Unknown 1

Total 62

1986: working-holiday visa started

Interview #1:

‘[Before I immigrated to Canada,] I travelled abroad every year. The more I travelled abroad, the more I wanted to live outside Japan. I had been to Canada before, with my mother on a group tour. At that time, both she and I were very much pleased with this land, Canada. […] I felt, “Wow, what a big country this is”’

(Female, 35-40, Canadian citizen)

Interview #2: ‘I had a friend whom I always travelled with. One day

she and I made a reservation for a group tour to Italy, and we requested a vacation from the company we worked for. […] But [after the vacation was approved,] we were informed that the group tour to Italy was cancelled. My friend and I were talking, “We have already taken the vacation. It would be a waste if we didn’t go anywhere”. Then [another friend told me], “My brother lives in Canada, so why don’t you go to Canada?” That’s how we decided to go to Canada. […] Italy [as a destination] turned into Canada.’ (Female, 41-45, Canadian immigrant)

Findings:

• They started the relationship with Canada quite casually.

• They made a trip to Canada, attracted by touristic images.

• Their mental map outside Japan at the point of departure: vague and ambiguous

Immigration as an extension of travelling: Attracted by imagined Canada

Interview #3:

‘I came to Canada because I admired Anne of Greengables. […] When I was a eighth grade, my textbook had a portion of Anne of Greengables. […] Since then I became absorbed in the story. […] Then I started longing for Canada. […] [After I became an adult,] one day on a train, I saw an ad of training course for people who would like to immigrate to Canada. I really wanted to come to Canada. […] So I obtained a permanent visa to immigrate to Canada.’

(Female, 55-60, Canadian citizen)

Interview #4:

What attracted me to America was West Side Story. […] [W]hen I saw the movie, I decided to go to America, [especially] New York, some day. […] Also, the movie named Alamo [fascinated me.] […] I was so very moved by the American spirit in Alamo, Texas. […] I saw West Side Story 24 times, and Alamo 40 times. I went to a movie theatre every day as a student. I took a photo at the entrance. […] Whenever I want to go, there is always such a longing feeling in me towards the place. I went to Paris in the same way. I was moved by the movie Last Tango in Paris. […] In Paris I went to the café where the move was shot. Then I had a tea there. […] I was touched, indeed, thinking this place really existed. […] [I go to places] affected by my unconsciousness. Human beings are like that.”

(Male, 55-60, Canadian immigrant)

Finding:

• They came to Canada driven by a longing feeling towards popular culture

　 Interview #5

‘I have longed for America since a child [...,] attracted by nice-looking white people, yeah. […] I was attracted by those movies, like Superman. […] I longed for America when I was small. [After I grew up] I worked for five years or so in Tokyo, and then wondered what I wanted to do next. Then, I thought, “Before I go to the next [stage], I want to live in a place which I so long longed for”. […] Going to America was my dream for a long time, so I wasn’t able to move on to the next stage without realising the dream’.

(Female, 30-35, Canadian immigrant)

Interview #6

‘I had a big yearning feeling towards America. […] Once I did a home-stay in California, and learned its taste. […] I started longing for that spaciousness. Well, I became so Americanized at that time. [I liked] American openness […] Plus, [you know,] people are forced to be moulded in Japan. I didn’t want to be framed. […] In Japan, if I don’t do as others do, they look coldly upon me. I didn’t like it.”

(Female, 35-40, applying for a immigrant status)

Findings:

• They came to Canada because they wanted to come to America

• Their longing feeling towards N. America/the West:

- constructed through popular culture when they were young

- became a driving force to migrate to Canada later

Interview #7

I came [to Canada] to change my life. If I continued to work in Japan, it means repeating the same thing over and over again, [making] only a minor difference. […] I guess single women in their twenties come to Canada wishing to change something. Daily life for a working woman [office lady] in Japan means doing nothing out of the ordinary over and over again. […] [Y]our life would never change unless you get married or something.

(Female, 25-30, working-holiday)

Interview #8

The reason why I came to Canada was that I got married to a Canadian. […] It was also because I was wishing to quit the job I had in Japan. I felt I would be moulded if I continue to live in Japan. It was the last chance to get out of Japan and to experience something. I thought that I wouldn’t be able to do it if I got older.

Finding:

• Immigration influenced by gender and the life course

Interview #9

I was already over 30 at that time, and my younger brother had got married long time ago. Only I was single among all my relatives. So their response was like, as far as you can find your spouse, you can be anywhere (laugh).

(Female, 30-35, applying for an immigrant status)

Interview #10

[M]y mother is a person who thinks it would be nice if at least one of her [four] children lives abroad. […] She doesn’t want her child to live in a strange place, but well, Canada is a place for Japanese people to long for, you know. She was all right as far as my spouse was sincere.

(Female, 40-45, Canadian immigrant)

Findings:

• Some female interviewees became a Canadian immigrant with a marriage with a Canadian, being tired of traditional Japanese life course

• Their parents accepted their immigration to Canada, believing their daughter was following traditional life course

Conclusion

• Post-war Japanese immigration to Canada can be read both as a rebellion against and as reconstruction of Japanese tradition

• There are multiple meanings attached to immigration which the migrants use cleverly to negotiate their lives.