Transformation of citizenship

This paper aims at recapturing citizenship and boundary making from viewpoints of “illegal” or undocumented Korean migrants in Japan in early postwar period.

Recent historical surveys have discovered a large flow of people ‘illegaly’migrated to Japan just after the Second World War. Since the defeat of Japan meant the beginning of conflicts and civil wars in China and Korean Peninsula, enormous number of people had to leave their hometowns and families. At the same time, in many regions where used to be the parts of Japan Empire had to refine their border and migration systems, dealing with mass traffic of these people on one hand and wars due to the Cold War on the other. Citizenship and nationality registration systems in East Asian countries were largely estabilished during this period, from late 1940s to early 1950s. 

One of the citizenship and nationality registration systems which was introduced in this period was finger printing registration. This system was introduced to Japan and South Korea almost at the same time, in order to control this traffic and to capture “illegal migrants” who were thought as “communists”. The system originates in Japan’s colonial management in Manchukuo, and encouraged by Supereme Commander for Allied Powers.

However, these “illegal migrants” were not just subjects of systems; they negotiate their citizenship and tried to live where they wanted, even sometimes with different legal identities.

First, citing written documents from and about “illegal migrants”, I figure out hidden historical ties in Japan, South Korea and United States, which tried to capture nationals through fingerprinting registration. Then, using biographical interviews from “illegal migrants”, I turn to the migrants’ experience. Their personal history of exclusion and obtaining quasi-citizenship will cast light to another aspect of citizenship and nationality, which performed and negotiated in our daily lives.