Keiko Itoh - The Japanese Community in Pre-War Britain: From Integration to Disintegration

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The Japanese Community in Pre-War Britain

From Integration to Disintegration

The Japanese Community in Pre-War Britain

From Integration to Disintegration

Keiko Itoh

First Published in 2001
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
http://www.routledge.co.uk

2001 Keiko Itoh

Typeset in Janson by LaserScript Ltd, Mitcham, Surrey

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book has been requested

ISBN 0700714871

Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent.

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

My maternal grandmother, Kano Tatsuko, died in London in May 1935 and is buried in the Hendon Cemetery in North London. Near her grave is a Japanese communal plot which commemorates over 200 Japanese who lived and died in Britain before and after the Second World War. The 66 square-metre plot is surrounded by pine and maple trees, and is adorned with a stone monument, brought over from Japan. It was first leased, and then purchased by the Zaiei Dobo Kai, the Japanese Friendly Society, which was created in 1933 to help the less fortunate Japanese living in Britain. I had not known of the Japanese communal plot until I first visited my grandmothers grave in 1991, and thus began my quest to find out about the Japanese in Britain in the years before the Second World War. Who were they and why had they come to Britain in the first place? What kind of lives did they lead in this country? Why do we hear so little of Japanese immigrants to Britain? Is it just because of their small numbers, or because they had blended into British society so completely that they became invisible? These are the questions I set out to answer in undertaking my study.

Acknowledgements

Without the kindness and generosity of a number of individuals, this book would never have been possible. I owe a special thanks to Sadao Oba, who started me off in the right direction by sharing the sources he assembled over the course of his pioneering work on the Japanese in Britain. I am most indebted to those who provided the oral evidence, which forms the backbone of the book. In alphabetical order, they are: the late Shigeo Ataka, Mihoko Hamaoka, Noel John Hori, the late Shigeo Horie, Saburo Kimura, the late Xavier Koike, Shigeru Konno, Hisatsugu and Taeko Nakamura, Itsuko Nakamura, John Neill, Yoshio Okawa, Roy Hiroshi Oshima, Robin Otani, Edna Read, Rosina Saiko Said, Percy and Hana Sekine, Hidehiro Takaki, Mitsue Takaki, Tokuji Teraoka, Joyce Suga Unger, Moya Ward, Catherine Wu and John Chushi Yamanaka.

My parents, Rosa Hideko and Eikichi Itoh, have been the inspiration behind the book, having first met in London in 1934, and instilling in me since childhood a fascination and curiosity about the Japanese in pre-war Britain. My mothers help was essential in identifying and getting in touch with so many contributors to the book, and in recounting her experiences of life in Britain.

I will be forever grateful to the Economic History Department of the London School of Economics which took me on as a mature post-graduate student with a doctoral thesis topic that falls outside mainstream economic history. The stimulating and supportive environment provided by the LSE has been phenomenal. I am especially indebted to Janet Hunter and Dudley Baines, my supervisors, for their invaluable advice and encouragement. My thanks also go to the other LSE staff members and fellow students who helped me to clarify the issues and broaden my perspective during my research and writing.

Olive Checkland has been a most generous adviser, reading many parts of the manuscript, giving me her constructive views and welcoming me often at her home in Cambridge. Richard Bowen provided me with invaluable information on judo in Britain, and Yasushi Fukushima with information on tennis and golf in Japan. Noboru Koyama assisted me in obtaining a number of written sources, as did Yunosuke Okura. I am indebted to so many others who assisted in my search for difficult-to-find information. Among them are the late Kazuko Aso, Marie Conte-Helm, Sir Hugh Cortazzi, the late Tomohiko Hayashi, Ayako Hotta Lister, Setsuo Kato, Tsugumi Ota, Professor Ian Nish, Midori Nishiwaki, Sadaaki Numata, Shijuro Ogata, Phillida Purvis, Sir Julian Ridsdale, Pernille Rudlin, Kunio Sonoda, Yumiko Ueno, Momoko Williams, Elisabeth Wright and Yuko Yamagata. I am grateful to Professor Sheldon Garon for his advice and friendship. I owe thanks also to Linette and Keiko Hori, Winston Koike and Ryosuke Taoka who provided me with information on their families.

Peter Sowden of Curzon Press made possible the publication of this book, based on my PhD thesis. The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation helped me with a grant at the outset of my research. I was able to benefit from the collections and services of: the British Library, the Diplomatic Record Centre of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, LSE Library, Japan Society Library, Osaka Prefectural Library, Public Record Office, Kew, Royal Academy Library, SOAS Library, Tokyo Municipal Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum Library. Photographs are reproduced with the kind permission of John Hori, Eikichi and Rosa Itoh, Hitoshi Katsurai, Yoshio Okawa, Rosina Said, Joyce Unger, Moya Ward, John Yamanaka, the Japan Society, The British Library and the Nippon Club. Nakabayashi Namiko and the families of Ezawa Shozo, Hoshino Hiroshi, Takahata Seiichi and Yamamoto Makiko kindly gave me permission to use excerpts from their memoirs.

Finally, a thank you to my husband, Tommy Helsby, for all his support on both intellectual and domestic fronts, and to my daughters Akiko Sophie and Anna Yukiko for never letting me forget there is far more to life than a PhD.

Note on Japanese Names

Japanese names in this book appear according to usual Japanese practice, with family names first, followed by given names, and using the standard Romanised spellings. The exceptions are when individuals are known widely by a name in the western order, or by a unique spelling of their names, such as in the case of the artist, Makino Yoshio, who was known as Yoshio Markino.

Introduction

The Japanese who first arrived in Britain came as individuals instead of as groups, and were on the whole educated and urbanised. In 1884, when the government first officially recorded the number of Japanese residents in Britain, there were 264, centred mainly in London and Glasgow.

Japanese emigration started later than some European countries and China because the Tokugawa regime had prohibited Japanese from travelling abroad between 1638 and 1854. who took the opportunity to extend their touring activities abroad.

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