By Moira Dynon B.Sc.
1964
A nationwide appeal was launched for the Australian-Japanese children in 1964. Moira wrote and delivered this address to many audiences around Australia.
Introduction
Australia has a tragic legacy growing up in Japan – and as it grows, the legacy becomes more bitter. Living in hovels and shanties, rejected by other children of their own age, often cold, miserable and hungry, rejected by society, in many cases deserted by their mothers, are scores of children who can rightly say that their fathers are Australian. In the Japan of 1964, this is not something they can say proudly. They are the mixed-blood children. Their mothers are Japanese, their fathers Australians. They themselves are outcasts. Nearly 90 per cent of the mixed blood children in Kure, Japan, live in what is, even by Japanese standards, abject poverty. About half of them have been abandoned by their mothers and are living with relatives, grandparents or friends.
Number of Children
It is impossible to estimate accurately how many children were fathered by Australian servicemen during the Occupation years and the subsequent years when Australians were stationed in Japan during the Korean War. On 23rd October, 1956, an Official of the Japanese Welfare Ministry denied statements that there were more than 1,000 children of Japanese mothers and Australian servicemen in Japan. The Official said that the Ministry knew of only 104. Certainly the correct figure would be higher than this.
Some of the abandoned children have been adopted by Japanese families and some by non-Japanese couples living temporarily in Japan, 8 have been adopted by families in the U.S.A. and some are living with their mothers and step-fathers. Some have been placed in orphanages run by church and charitable organisations. The National Catholic Council of Japan has arranged for the adoption of a number of mixed-blood children and some are being cared for in its orphanages and homes. Some of the school age boys have been gathered together in a Boys’ Town run by the Catholic Church at Yokohama. In this way, it is hoped that a good education will be given to them to enable them later to compete in the highly competitive Japanese employment market. The material needs of these children would seem to be satisfactory.
But in Kure there are 85 mixed-blood children in such dire straits that they cannot disguise their origin or have been forced by poverty to admit it. These children are what the Japanese call “social dust” – so low in the social scale that they are beneath notice. 52 of these are known to have Australian fathers and a further 14 are thought to have Australian fathers. Their ages range from 8 to 17 years.
Kure
Kure was a former Japanese naval base. After Japan’s surrender, Kure was transformed into the headquarters of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces. Virtually all Australian troops who came to Japan between 1945 and 1956 landed in Kure. Australian warships used its naval facilities and Australia was primarily responsible for its logistical support. After Japan regained independence in 1952, Australians stayed in Kure because it was the main supply base for all Commonwealth forces in Korea. The last Australian troops left Japan about the middle of 1956.
In the first years of the Occupation, Australian troops were under strict orders not to fraternise with the Japanese and marriages between Australian servicemen and Japanese women were not recognised by the Army authorities. Official Army statements issued about that time indicate that Japanese registrars were forbidden by the Occupation authorities to conduct these marriages for men in the Occupation forces. If the Army authorities heard that a Shinto rites marriage was going to take place, provosts would be sent to break up the ceremony. Despite this ban on fraternisation by the Occupation authorities, a number of Australian members of the B.C.O.F. married Japanese girls before Japanese registrars and/or by Shinto rites and/or by Christian rites or entered into Japanese Informal Marriages.
In the words of Mr. Denis Warner, “Many Australians married Japanese girls under rites which were legally binding under Japanese law, but which the Australian Army would not accept. Some of the children were born in what the Japanese women had every reason to believe was legal wedlock. Only when the troops were shipped off home and denied the right to take their wives with them, did the Japanese girls discover the deception.”
The law of Japan requires no specific form of marriage ceremony. Legally, the only necessary procedure is the registration of the marriage in the Family Register, which is held in the registry office, according to the Census Registration Law, in the town in which the family lives. Therefore, although a couple have been married by Shinto or other rites and live together, they are not regarded as being legally wed until they have complied with the necessary registration. Such unions are known as Informal Marriages. Court precedents, however, show that informal marriages, which are socially considered binding, are given protection as close as possible to that of formal marriages. In cases of various Government Social Welfare Services, wives and widows of an “Informal Marriage” hold the same status as those of a formal marriage.
Prior to 1952, the policy of the Australian Immigration Department did not permit Japanese wives to join their husbands in Australia. In addition, marriages between men in the Occupation Forces and Japanese girls were not recognised by Australian authorities regardless of the fact that many of such marriages would be considered legally binding according to Japanese law. After 1952, a number of servicemen did marry and succeed in bringing their Japanese brides and children to Australia despite many difficulties and much discouragement by the Australian authorities.
The Children
The Australian-Japanese children in Kure fall into three main categories:
(a) those whose mothers regard themselves as being formally married to Australians who have deserted them;
(b) those whose mothers lived with Australians but were never married and
(c) those whose mothers have disappeared.
Whatever category they might be put in, all those children face the prospect of a bleak future. Despite the introduction of democratic ideas into Japanese life since the war, the family system is still the basis of Japanese society. A child without a respectable background faces a difficult future in Japan. This does not mean that a child has to have a “social” background – quite evidently the bulk of Japan’s 93 million people cannot have that. But a respectable background is very important. Throughout his life, every Japanese is dogged by a Government-kept “Family Record”. This document contains a note on every important event in the life of a Japanese – the circumstances of his birth, his parents (and their parents), his changes of addresses, his marriages, his divorces and his death. A Japanese social worker, Mrs. Kimi Tamura, said that in Japan mixed-blood children would be handicapped through life because of their mixed blood. At some schools there is discrimination against these children. Some of the Australian-Japanese children look so Australian and so little Japanese that they are the butt of taunts from their fellows.
Keith Dunstan, recently returned from Kure, says (Melbourne “Sun”, 18th December, 1963):
“It’s easy to pick out these Japanese-Australian orphans at Kure. They’re different. They speak hardly a word of English. Like everyone else, they wear these ugly, black Japanese school uniforms, yet it’s obvious that they are almost Australian. They are taller, their skin is paler, their hair not jet black and they are wide-eyed. There was one I shall never forget – Yoshio Shimizu, aged 12. His face was covered in freckles. Now freckles in Japan are extraordinary, an object of real curiosity. They called the orphans ‘Specials’ or ‘Mixed bloods’. Being a mixed blood at a Japanese school is not easy to live down, but that is not the only problem. It goes deeper than that. They know these children are even more different. They have no respectable ancestors.”
Mrs. Tamura has stated that “in later life the children would find it difficult to gain employment. Students already found it difficult to gain employment without a handicap such as mixed blood.”
A city which thrived in war, defeat and in occupation, Kure today is a poor town. With a total population of approximately 200,000, its estimated unemployment is 20,000, and there is considerable under employment. The steep hills which bound Kure on three sides are covered with shacks of thin plywood, paper and tin. The icy winds of the Japanese winter literally whistle through the holes and crevices in the walls. Most of these shacks are located in what are known as the outcast areas. This is where many of the Australian-Japanese children live.
What is their condition?
Despite the efforts of Miss Yone Ito and of Father Tony Glynn and others who have worked tirelessly to help them, most of the 52 children are living in varying degrees of poverty, neglect and social ostracism. All have been abandoned first by their Australian fathers, and then, in some cases, by their Japanese mothers. Poverty and hunger are not the worst aspect of their tragedy. It is the sense of being unwanted, outcasts from society. Above all, they crave love and acceptance. As they grow older their problems become greater. Some years ago, when they were little, probably the best solution might have been adoption into the many Australian families, who wanted them. Now, in the view of those best qualified to judge, the problem of separation and adjustment would be too great.
What has been done?
The condition of the children was first brought to the attention of the Australian people by Mr. Denis Warner in 1959. As a first step, the Australian Council of Churches raised £500 to pay the legal expenses for American foster parents to adopt eight children of Australian fathers. In addition, the Council has raised £1,500 a year since then to pay the salary of a Japanese social worker to help the children. Financed by the Australian Council of Churches, the administrative office of the International Social Service was established in Kure in September, 1960 and a trained social worker (Miss Yone Ito) assigned to assist the mixed-blood children there, including some not of Australian paternity.
Other Australian voluntary organisations, notably the Australian Asian Association, the Save The Children Fund, and the Japanese-Australian Children’s Adoption Fund (founded by the late Mr. A.J. Ferguson) have also sent material aid amounting to several thousands of pounds. Eventually, 15 months ago, the Commonwealth Government voted a grant of £20,000 payable over a five-year period.
The Japanese Government does have a system of relief payments but they are very meagre by our standards. We have to remember that Japan has a population of 93 million living in an area just about 1½ times the size of Victoria and the modern Japan is faced with the task of feeding her large population. It is true to say that had it not been for the Japanese relief payments, many of the Australian-Japanese children would have died from starvation. The Kure City has made an office rent-free available to Miss Ito. Under the chairmanship of the Deputy Mayor of Kure City, a special Advisory Committee has been set up to assist the children.
So, despite the squalor and poverty of their lives and their mixed blood, these Australian-Japanese children can no longer properly be called waifs.
Their present needs
What the children need now is:
(a) Money for food, clothes, books and better living conditions.
(b) Money for education.
(c) Money for trained social workers to help them find their way.
Unfortunately, Japanese society does not easily accept half-castes. The Japanese labor market is highly competitive. The drive for more and more education, for ever higher qualifications, is intense. If these children are ever to attain a satisfactory place in Japanese society they must have the best education which the compassion and generosity of Australians can give them. For this reason, I hope and pray that the A.J. Ferguson Memorial Appeal for £50,000, to be launched in April will be successful. This is the amount which the I.S.S. Japan Branch considers will be necessary to maintain the children and enable them to receive secondary education or vocational training so as to equip them to compete later in the highly competitive Japanese employment market.
Unless these children can receive assistance there is a very real danger that they will become misfits in Japanese society. Take the case of Suzuo, for example, aged 15. He is a very intelligent lad and has a high I.Q. Suzuo’s mother has a husband, a laborer, who treated him badly. This was a rough house and Suzuo grew up roughly and got himself on the police lists. He’s picked up under I.S.S. guidance and latest reports say he is studying again.
Then there is Karumi, aged 9, one of the youngest. Life is hard for Karumi. Her mother married a Japanese and he won’t have her. Karumi has never seen their house and her mother visits her only rarely. She lives with her great-grandmother who is deaf and over 80. Their room has peeling paper walls and they live on public assistance from the Kure Welfare Department, £8 a month.
Then there is Reiko – her mother cares for her well; but her mother is dying. She knows that she has not long to live and she is desperately anxious about her child.
Then take Yosie, 10 years old. Her mother deserted her but her grandmother took her in. The grandmother is 80 and has lung disease. Yosie makes paper bags and sells them to buy food.
Take the case of George. The other children call him ‘Big George’. He is 12 and already weighs ten stone. He looks like an Australian. George’s past is a tragedy. He has been abandoned by both parents. His life has been one long fight. His great height makes him conspicuous, and boys of his own age treat him as an outcast. They gang up on him – but it takes four or five of them to give him a beating.
There are many other sad stories about these children.
Miss Ito is frightened that the children could easily turn into delinquents. One already is in a reform school for stealing. Unless these children are helped there is a real danger that they could turn to crime in an effort to try to improve their living conditions. With the girls especially, their mixed blood greatly diminishes their marriage prospects.
In Australia, we contend that our Christian democracy is a precious heritage in the Pacific area of the world. To help these children is an opportunity for us to demonstrate the practice of our convictions. In the words of Sir Charles Lowe: “Australians cannot as a matter of national honour simply evade helping them by ignoring their existence.”
And finally, I believe that unless these children are helped they will become misfits in Japanese society and as such would continue to be an obstacle in the way of the further promotion of good relations between the Japanese and Australian peoples. In this area of the world, the development of friendship, understanding and good relations between the Japanese and Australian peoples is of paramount importance.
The circumstances surrounding the birth of the children and our restrictive immigration policy, which prevented at least some of the Australian-Japanese children being brought to Australia years ago, are additional reasons why I consider it a matter of national honour that Australians should endeavor to ensure that these children are given the opportunity to live happy and useful lives.