EMIGRATION OF JAPANESE YOUTHS TO THE CONTINENT
DEPARTMENT OF OVERSEAS AFFAIRS
FROM times past, the training of sturdy and single-hearted young Japanese in Manchuria, the actual site of their future activities, for successful leadership in the work of colonizing that part of the Asiatic continent has been advocated by certain leaders in Japan. On a small scale this has already been tried out. The Government has recognized the need and wisdom of this policy with the result that the decision has been made to send 30,000 boys and young men to the Continent, beginning with the 1938 fiscal year.
Now that the Imperial forces have inaugurated the historic task of laying the foundation for permanent peace in East Asia, it is time for the Japanese people to make peaceful advance in the Asiatic mainland on a large scale. Should they fail to become the real leaders of the peoples with less experience in modern civilization, the peace of the Orient can never be established in essential terms. As a matter of fact, Japanese for the most part are not free from insular ways of thinking as they have remained an isolated, insular people for so long. This trait, if retained, may work to a certain extent against the ability of Japanese to live in harmony with native races and consequently disqualify them for continental colonization.
In view of the future development of the Japanese Empire, it may even be advisable to offer facilities to allow all Japanese to know and understand the Continent through training there for a certain period in their early life or by other means. The new measures adopted by the Government for training young emigrants on the spot for the period of three years form a step in realizing this ideal. These youths are constituting the vanguard of the Japanese people in their advance overseas; they may be regarded as soldiers of peace carrying the ideal of the Japanese people, the ideal of "the whole world as one family," to the Asiatic mainland. Much is expected of them by the State.
Turning to conditions in agrarian communities at home, we face the deplorable fact that not less than 200,000 youths who have reached the employable age, which is about 15, leave their homes seeking employment. When we include those young men who are facing dreary prospects for the future even after gaining
employment, the number of unemployed and underemployed will amount to enormous figures.
The question of the lowering of the physical standard of the rising generation, which has been seriously studied of late, has to do greatly with lack of comfort, encouragement and hope in their economic life. To offer them, therefore, fields sufficiently large to satisfy their activities and to enable them to give full scope to their energy is not merely in keeping with the national purpose of continental expansion but also works directly for mitigating economic pressure placed upon those remaining at home. The matter of improving their physique thus will be solved easily and naturally.
From the point of view of Manchoukuo, again, their presence in the interior will certainly prove to be of service in guarding railways and insuring peace and order at large, and will have the result of expanding the lines of communications. Such services, however, are of secondary value. The primary and essential purpose of the organized emigration of youths lies purely and simply in continental colonization. It is a sound step in successfully carrying out the continental policy which constitutes a permanent problem for the Japanese people. This new system of emigration will be a strong reinforcement to that of the collective agricultural emigration of adults already in operation, under which 3,400 families have already been sent and 6,000 families will be sent to Manchoukuo during the present fiscal year. To this number of families 30,000 youths will be added in the same period. It should be remembered in this connection that the collective adult emigration programme in operation since 1937 is drawn up on the basis of 1,000,000 families to Manchoukuo within the period of 20 years.
Beginnings and Development of the New System
To train single-hearted young men and boys for colonial leadership on the Continent where climatic, geographic and cultural conditions differ greatly from those of their homeland is a serious task which calls for careful planning and preparation. The present system has, in reality, developed out of a series of experiments conducted by far-sighted leaders of the emigration movement during the past four years.
The pioneer group in this field was composed of boys who entered a training institute, a kind of boarding school established by a few men of vision, in Jooho, Sanchiang Province, a border town on the southern side of the Ussuri. This institute served as an experimental station. The group was made up of 14 boys and young
men from 15 to 20 years of age. Training was conducted under the following guiding principles: (1) to improve the spiritual life as the basis of all progress; (2) to foster the spirit of self-sacrifice and to effect unity among Japanese; (3) to realize the mission of the Japanese people.
The individual members of this group, though suffering frequently from hardships and privations, have come through in splendid shape and now enjoy the prospect of a bright and promising future. Their number has increased to 80.
The second group was composed of 293 boys and young men sent to a training institute in Nenchiang, Lungchiang Province. These youths had received a preliminary training of one month in the Uchihara Farm in Ibaraki Prefecture prior to their departure in August and September, 1937 for the institute in Manchoukuo. They were subsequently joined by another unit of 27 boys, forming a total of 320. With a site located in the midst of vast fields of virgin soil and gently sloping hills, the institute is an ideal place for such an experiment. Under the new system, therefore, it is planned to extend this institute to accommodate 10,000 young men and boys.
An Outline of the New System
Under the new system the Government contemplates sending out 30,000 youths during the 1938 fiscal year, recruiting them by proportionate allotments from prefectures throughout the whole country. They are to receive a preliminary training of two months at a training institute in Japan and then will be sent to Manchoukuo to receive on the spot, for a period of three years, a general training in improving their physical, mental and spiritual life as well as technical training in agriculture and related subjects. After completing this three-year training they are to work as independent members of the collective emigration which will be developed simultaneously.
For the operation of this system of emigration the Department of Overseas Affairs takes full responsibility; other Departments, such as War, Agriculture and Forestry, Welfare, Railways and Communications are cooperating within their respective jurisdictions. Private institutions such as the Society for Promoting Migration to Manchuria, Society for Promoting Regeneration of the Agrarian Communities and Union of Young Men's Associations of Japan are also assisting in their respective fields of activities. Prefectural, municipal, town and village offices as well as local organizations for promoting emigration will take charge, as a matter of course, of local
affairs relating to this system of emigration.
Any youths from 15 to 18 years of age are qualified to apply for the training, on the recommendation of heads of local governments, principals of local schools or presidents of local young men's associations. Those who have successfully undergone the physical and oral examinations are allowed to enter the institute for preliminary training.
Training Institute at Home
The training institute at home is established at Nakahara, Ibaraki Prefecture, situated to the northeast of Tokyo on the Pacific coast. Its purpose is this: since these young emigrants form the vanguard of the advance of the Japanese people on the Continent, they are required to stand firmly on one consistent spiritual basis, which in turn calls for a unified spiritual training at the centre where groups of at least 10,000 at a time from different parts of the Empire can be brought together. Thus the traditional spirit of the Japanese people, the spirit motivating and guiding the work of continental colonization, is infused deep into their minds.
The camps in which they live while under training are of quite a primitive type, in keeping with the ideal and spirit of the training. The young men live in groups of 60 which form a squad. Five squads make up a company which is under command of a training leader. Their daily programme is somewhat as follows: rising at 6. a.m., morning service at 6.30; class work, military training and practical exercises from 9 to 11:30; in the afternoon, practical exercises and military training from 2 to sunset; and in the evening, study-period until 8.30, evening service at 8.30, going to bed at 9 o'clock.
Training Institutes on the Continent
After completing the preliminary training at home the emigrating youths receive a three-year training on the spot in Manchoukuo. Training institutes are at present five in number: the Nenchiang Institute in Lungchiang Province, the Shalanchen Institute in Mutonchiang Province, the Teihli Institute in Pinchiang Province, the Poli Institute in Sanchiang Province, the Sunwu Institute in Heiho Province.
Of the 30,000 youths who will be admitted during the 1938 fiscal year, 10,000 will be sent to the Nenchiang Institute, 7,000 to the Shalanchen Institute, 5,000 each to the Teihli and Poli Institutes, and 3,000 to the Sunwu Institute. They are, in principle, to be
grouped according to their home prefectures and it will be so arranged that those from the same prefectures will be sent to the same institute. The sites of these institutes are all situated on elevated ground and extend to 50,000 to 120,000 acres. They are favoured by good water, well-established peace and order, and adequate transportation facilities.
The general arrangement of the institute may be summarized as follows: the general headquarters is situated at the centre, around which headquarters of battalions, with companies and squads under them, are placed. The institute which holds 10,000 youths has five battalions as a rule. A battalion comprises 6 companies, a company 6 squads, and a squad is made up of 60 members. A company is made as the basic training unit which is under a commander with three assistants who are in charge of agricultural and military training and of general affairs. To battalion headquarters physicians and nurses are attached.
The plant comprises 1,045 buildings, of which 200 are dormitories, 90 storehouses, 30 auditoriums. As for the equipment, it comprises trucks, tractors, hospital equipment, arms, and machinery and tools necessary for agricultural and other purposes.
When the boys and young men arrive from Japan, they will be placed in these dormitories, but after a time they will be taught to build their own barracks, thus undergoing training in their future housing problems. Furthermore, as each will be provided with a farm of 5 acres for training purposes, they can live on the products of the farms in their own charge from the second year of their training.
The training course consists of 500 hours of class work, 300 hours of military training, and 800 hours of practical exercises. The class work includes such subjects as the Manchoukuoan language, history, geography, agriculture and live-stock breeding. Their daily programme is to be somewhat along the line of that at the Institute at home. As all the necessaries of life, including clothing, are to be provided free while under training, they will not be in need of any pecuniary or other help from home.
The Future of the Individual
After completing training these youths are, for the most part, to be taken into the collective emigration groups. Thus they will each be given a farm of 20 acres together with a subsidy of about 1,000 yen. They will also be provided with certain acres of land to be used as a ranch which is to be in the nature of joint property held
by the group forming a village. This village is planned to be made up of 300 families. Sixty trained young men will be sent out to do pioneering work for the village. Their leader during the period of training, the experts who trained them in agriculture and live-stock breeding, and the physician who cared for them will accompany them. After a year of labour they will be ready to welcome the main body of the village. All villagers will live in ten groups within an area of about 10,000 acres. Within a few years, it is anticipated that these trained emigrants will become full-fledged proprietors of prosperous farms and will be sturdy bearers of the spirit and traditions of the Japanese people on the Asiatic continent.
With regard to the actual working out of the new plan, 7,700 youths have already been selected from among some 10,000 applicants as members of the initial group to be trained under the new system. It is encouraging to note the fact that these 10,000 volunteers sent in their applications within a few weeks after publication of the plan.