Paper short abstract:

This paper examines Bokukoku Kenkyū Kai, an ethnic Japanese organization in Los Angeles, to consider how Japanese immigrants in the U.S. envisioned Mexico as a hospitable destination for Japanese imperial subjects after the 1924 introduction of an act that banned Japanese immigration to the U.S.A.

Paper long abstract:

In 1924, the U.S. government enacted an immigration law that prohibited Japanese immigration. Past research has explored the historical significance of this policy (Higham, [1955]1981; Daniels, 1968; Minohara, 2002), but the fact that Japanese immigrants in Los Angeles called for remigration to Mexico has been little studied. This paper highlights the activities of the Bokukoku Kenkyū Kai (Mexico Study Society), an ethnic Japanese organization established to study the possibility of migration to Mexico. By drawing on Japanese, Spanish, and English sources, this paper explores how Japanese immigrants in the United States envisioned Mexico as a hospitable destination for Japanese imperial subjects in the western hemisphere.

The Bokukoku Kenkyū Kai gained support from the Japanese consulate in Los Angeles and published a guidebook about migrating to Mexico. Their activities, however, did not result in the large-scale migration of Japanese from the U.S. to Mexico. Nevertheless, they demonstrated their determination to survive in the western hemisphere rather than return to Japan, hoping that Mexico would be, in their words, "the ideal site for the place of our future burial." More importantly, they showed a nuanced view of Latin America that combined an imperialistic perspective with a relatively humble attitude toward its people. A close analysis of the Bokukoku Kenkyū Kai helps us see Japanese immigrants as realistic decision makers who carefully examined the feasibility of resettlement and the hospitality of Mexico toward Japanese imperial subjects, and not as settler colonialists with foolhardy illusions of easy settlement in Mexico and domination over the local people.