Buried under Fukushima: Leading Figures Who Challenged Exodus from “Migration Prefecture” by Installing Nuclear Power Stations

Fukushima was one of Japan’s “migration prefectures” from the mid-1890s to the 1960s even after the WWII, sending migrants to Hawaii, North America, Peru, Brazil, and such colonies as Manchuria and Saghaline. For example, Mazie Hirono, the current US senator from Hawai’i, traces her familial origin to Date County. However, the collapse of the Japanese empire turned Fukushima into a major resettlement destination for repatriates from ex-colonies. The shifting directions of migration and repatriation policies were closely intertwined with the state-led development of Fukushima as an energy supplier. 

This study links the examination of the history of migration in Fukushima Prefecture and the trans-Pacific migration networks of Fukushima people with the analysis of the leading figures who advocated the installment of the nuclear power stations. It sheds light upon post-WWII repatriation and resettlement, and explains how the forgotten past of migration in Fukushima has been affecting post-March 11 disaster reconstruction. 

Following the restriction of migration to North America in 1924, Brazil, and then Manchukuo after 1934 were the most popular destinations. After the war, the flow of people abruptly reversed. Fukushima became a domestic resettlement territory where repatriates from abroad arrived mainly as cattle raisers and peach farmers. The postwar government designated the several ‘frontier agricultural associations (Kaitaku Noukyo)’ in certain special mountainous areas as reclamation zones. Settlements sprang up in the Abukuma Mountains, along which border the nuclear power station was built.