Mixed-race children born in the postwar Japan
The kind of people who support BLM may snicker when they read the above, but this is a legitimate view if you know the history of Japanese TV anime. First of all, Japan's first TV anime was Astro Boy, which was based on the manga. And the director of this anime was Osamu Tezuka, the same person who wrote the original. That is, there is an assumption that anime and manga are almost one and the same in Japan.
And around the same time Tezuka made his debut as a mangaka, in Japan, there was a rapid increase in the number of children with white parents, which had previously been extremely rare, and children with black parents, which had previously not existed. Most of the whites in Japan at the time were either in the U.S. military or BCOF (British Commonwealth Occupation Force), and all of the blacks were. Therefore, every child born at that time with white or black genes were the children of the U.S. soldiers or BCOF.
But, most of these children would never knew their real fathers for the rest of their lives. And not a few of them never knew their real mothers. This is because, in many cases, they were born as a result of prostitution or rape.
Many people in Japan lost their homes and families to air raids during the war, and after the war, the country was filled with people who could not find jobs. In the midst of all this, Japan, as the U.S. military and BCOF were about to land, decided to establish Recreation and Amusement Association (特殊慰安施設協会. Recreation and Amusement Association. hereinafter referred to as RAA) to deter sexual violence against civilians by them. Cut a long story short, it was a brothel. Some of the women who were struggling to make ends meet went to work there.
The following is a translation of an article from the website of a Japanese weekly magazine.
Why is it that before the occupation began, politicians, military officers, and bureaucrats at the center of the administration had such a strong sense of fear of sexual violence by foreign troops. Nobuyoshi Saka, the police commissioner who prepared the state-sponsored prostitution facilities, testified in a document from the Ministry of Home Affairs.
"Higashikuni-san remembers what the Japanese soldiers did when they entered the city of Nanking. (omission) So, I think he must have had the idea that if the U.S. did that, it would be very difficult" (Taikakai hen, Zoku Naimushōgaishi, Chihou Zaimu Kyōkai. 大霞会編『続内務省外史』、地方財務協会)
In the end, what the militarists were afraid of was not so much the barbarism of the coming occupation forces, but rather their own reflection in the mirror, the shadow of the Japanese military.
(omission)
50 women, most of them novices, were sent to a large room of 10 or 20 tatami mats, partitioned with curtains and screens to create about 30 rooms. As if they hadn't been waiting for a long time, the U.S. soldiers rushed in, kicked down the sliding doors and shoji screens, and barged in with their feet on the ground. The women were thrown into a pit of fear.
"Before I could be frightened, the soldier came in and took me in his arms and sucked my lips numbly. (omission) The next soldier comes in turn (omission) One after another, I held them and sent them, sent them and held them (omission) My whole body is aching......" (From Tokyo Yamiichi Kōbōshi. 東京闇市興亡史)
終戦わずか2週間後「東京の慰安婦」は米軍のいけにえにされた（貴志 謙介） | 現代ビジネス | 講談社（2/4）
Within a year, but, RAA was shut down. This was due to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among the U.S. soldiers, BCOFs and prostitutes. Furthermore, although the facility was designed to deter sexual violence, in the end it failed to do so, and there were many cases of rape by the U.S. soldiers and BCOFs in the neighborhood.
Also, Translation of an article from the website of a Japanese weekly magazine.
Saka, who was police commissioner at the time, claimed that thanks to RAA, there were almost no cases of rape by occupation forces soldiers. However, top-secret U.S. military documents released in recent years suggest that this was undoubtedly a "false declaration" and that the reality was rather the opposite.
There were 554 crimes committed by the U.S. soldiers during November 1945, including assault on women, rape, theft, threats, and racketeering. Which were simply not known to the public due to the ban on reporting.
Rape and robbery cases were particularly common on Ōmori Coast near Komachien. Michio Sugawara, who worked as an introducer of prostitutes, testified as to the reason for this.
"The frequent robberies and rapes in Ōmori are also related to RAA. Many guys asked me to exchange cigarettes and clothes for cash, and those who had nothing to sell would try to get money to hold women by robbing them. There was a line of GIs at RAA, and some of them couldn't get in. When that happens, they start attacking woman at random.
It must have been around eight o'clock at night. I heard a woman's scream on the dark road from Ōmori to Ōmori Beach. She probably was not a prostitute, but she had been raped. I ran away at once. Because Americans had knives".
終戦わずか2週間後「東京の慰安婦」は米軍のいけにえにされた（貴志 謙介） | 現代ビジネス | 講談社（3/4）
Such an act would naturally lead to the birth of new life. But, as I mentioned earlier, there were very few whites and no blacks at all in Japan at that time. This meant that a child with white or black genes would be seen as the child of a prostitute or a rapist just for being there. And the mothers who walk with them are naturally treated as prostitutes or rape victims.
In reality, there were people who had formal relationships with U.S. soldiers and BCOFs, but it was not uncommon for the women to be the only ones who were serious, and they would cut off contact with them once they were ordered to return home. It is also said that even if both parties were serious, the marriage was abandoned because the woman was denied permission to travel when the man was ordered to return home, or because the man's hometown forbade interracial dating.
But, even if the child was the result of a formal relationship, not many people would congratulate her. At that time, there were people everywhere in Japan who lost their relatives in air raids during the war, and victims of crimes committed by U.S. soldiers and BCOF after the war. And neither Japanese government nor GHQ (Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. In Japan, it was called General Headquarters, or GHQ for short) cared about these Japanese people. Kazuo Taoka (田岡一雄), a yakuza and the third generation leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi (山口組), described the situation at the time as follows.
"During the war, there were six POW camps in Kobe, including one at Wakihama Elementary School, and some of the released POWs broke into private homes and attacked crying women at gunpoint. Robberies in broad daylight were also rampant.
On September 25, 17,000 people from the 33rd Division of the 6th U.S. Army moved into Kobe, and security deteriorated further. The cops who tried to stop them were beaten to a pulp.
Immediately after the end of the war, Kobe was a devastation that made me want to cover my eyes". (Kazuo Taoka Jiden Daiichibu Dengeki Hen. 田岡一雄自伝第一部・電撃編)
暴追ネット福岡
GHQ did not allow the Japanese police to arrest or investigate Allied personnel, nor did it allow them to use weapons, so even if they saw crimes committed by Allied personnel, there was little they could do except report them to the Allied forces. In such a situation, yakuza like Taoka played an active role. They were relentless even against U.S. soldiers and BCOFs, which the Japanese police could not touch, and the local people praised them like heroes. It is said that those who knew Kobe at the time when Yamaguchi-gumi was active called the leader of the gang, Taoka, "Taoka-san" with affection. My father was born and raised in Kobe during this era, so I asked him once, "Do you call the leader of Yamaguchi-gumi 'Taoka-san?'" he proudly replied, "Of course!".
This rule has left an impact in after Japan regained sovereignty in 1952, as U.S.–Japan Status of Forces Agreement. Even if a U.S. soldier in Japan commits a crime, the Japanese side cannot arrest him if he is on official business. Even if he is not on official duty, the U.S. will not extradite the suspect unless the Japanese side indicts him. The 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old girl, by three U.S. soldiers in Okinawa led to mass demonstrations after the U.S. refused to extradite the suspects.
That is, the Allied forces were protected by SYSTEMIC RACISM in postwar Japan. Many white and black children thrown in there, they were abandoned by their fathers without recognition their existence, their were abandoned by their mothers in fear, and their were hated by the Japanese as children of the U.S. soldiers and BCOFs. Just by being there, they are abused as "children of enemy soldiers" and "children of prostitutes”, threw a stone, and chased by someone with a knife...
This situation gradually changed when the existence of Elizabeth Sanders Home (エリザベス・サンダース・ホーム), an orphanage established in Kanagawa, became known. The founder, Miki Sawada (澤田美喜), was mistaken for the mother of a dead black baby wrapped in a parcel while riding a train in 1946, the year after the war ended, and this led her to She decided to become the mother to mixed-race children that the U.S. soldiers and BCOFs were throwing away like trash. In fact, she would later be known as "the mother of mixed-race children".
Miki Sawada and children
Sawada was not afraid to take on the U.S. military in order to give her children a human life. It is said that the U.S. military was reluctant to acknowledge the existence of mixed-race orphans as proof of its own sexual violence and made various plans to destroy Sawada. Still, Sawada's determination did not waver. There is an anecdote that, when a U.S. military official told her, "There is no way we would rape a Japanese woman”, she brought a black child from her facility and yelled him to "bring the father of this child here right now!”.
Sawada, like the children and their mothers, was abhorred as someone who supported the children of prostitutes, rapists, and enemy soldiers who had destroyed Japan. But, Sawada's activities have gradually increased the number of Japanese people who try to be close to mixed-race children and their mothers and relatives, albeit slowly, like the steps of a turtle. People have finally come to accept the fact that it was Japan started the war that put them in this situation in the first place, and that the children are innocent of any wrongdoing. Through her activities, Japan was able to realize more than nearly 70 years than Westerns that ideas such as white guilt and black guilt are wrong.
And some artists have emerged who want to depict them. The novel Konketsuji (混血児. 1952) by Setsuko Takasaki (高崎節子), the film Kiku to Isamu (キクとイサム. 1959) by director Tadashi Imai (今井正) and screenwriter Yoko Mizuki (水木洋子), and the film Jidōsha Dorobō (自動車泥棒. 1964) it actor Rikiya Yasuoka (安岡力也)'s debut work... This trend spread to the world of manga, and in 1964, Cyborg 009 (サイボーグ009) by Shotaro Ishinomori (石ノ森章太郎. At the time, the name was Shotaro Ishimori / 石森章太郎) was finally released. The main character of this manga, Joe Shimamura (島村ジョー), is a mixed-race child with a Japanese mother and a white father, but his mother died soon after he was born, and his father, whose name, nationality, and whereabouts are unknown, grew up in an orphanage. This was the same situation as many other mixed-race orphans born after the war.
Early on in the story, Joe is upset when one of his future friends points out that his hair color is light for a Japanese. It was a sign that he was a mixed-race child. And it was the reason why he did not know his parents' faces, the reason why he did not have a family, the reason why he was not treated as a person in society.
© 石森プロ 2013
When his friends find out about it, they tell Joe.
"Being a mixed-race child is not something to be ashamed of. In fact, you should be proud of it... Not yet but... There will come a day when the world will be free of such foolishness as borders and racism"
"We humans are all brothers"
石ノ森章太郎デジタル大全 サイボーグ009 (1)
Last year, in 2020, I saw The Guardian or some sh**ty anti-Asian media in the U.K. cite the anime of the same name, based on this explicitly anti-racist manga, as an example of a racist anime based solely on the design of the African characters. I was so angry about this. But now I can see why they are so hostile to this manga. The African character they pointed out as racist in design is a companion of the main character, that is, in the position of hero. And this work became a huge hit in both manga and anime, and became one of the most important works of this era. When was the first time that a black hero was created on such a scale in the U.K.? Even the U.S. Black Panther was two years later than Cyborg 009.
And it is obvious that the main character of this manga is inspired by postwar mixed-race children in Japan. The father who abandoned them was either in the U.S. military or BCOF... That is Joe's father may be British. Cyborg 009 is a work that always comes up when discussing the history of manga and anime. There is a danger that people all over the world who have come to love anime and manga will learn about the deeds of the U.S. military and BCOF in postwar Japan through this work... Isn't that right, The Guardian?
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