Manchukuo

Development Labour Service Corps

handbook

Propaganda to recruit immigrants to Manchukuo
Source: Biglobe

Item number: C122-M123

Year: AD 1941

Material: Paper

Provenance: Quan Jian Zhai 2022

This is the personal handbook of Ryo Sasaki during his service in the “Manchukuo Development Labour Service Corps”. In April AD 1940, after coordination between the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Development, and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the “The Revitalization of Asia Student Labor Volunteer Corps” and the “The Revitalization of Asia Youth Labor Volunteer Corps” were merged to form the “Manchukuo Development Labour Service Corps”. The plan was to send ten thousand people to Manchuria each year.

Between the Mukden Incident in AD 1931 and the end of World War II fourteen years later, Japan saw the migration of 1.66 million people. Many of these migrants originated from the impoverished population of Japan’s Northeast region and were arranged by the Japanese government to settle in Manchuria, primarily as agricultural workers. The Northeast region of Japan was heavily reliant on agriculture in the 1920s and suffered greatly from the Kanto Earthquake and the global financial crisis. By AD 1931, the region faced severe crop failures due to harsh weather conditions, leading to reports of families selling their young daughters or resorting to suicide. The dire situation in the Northeast region stirred social unrest in Japan. Seeing Manchuria as an expansion opportunity, the Japanese government decided to systematically relocate farmers to Manchuria, organizing them at the village level. This was aimed at addressing domestic overpopulation while also training the migrants as armed agricultural settlers to strengthen control over Manchukuo.

Masashi Sasaki from Akita Prefecture in Japan was one of these migrants. According to his personal information in the notebook, he arrived in Manchukuo in April AD 1941 at the young age of 19. Sasaki was assigned to a squadron composed of fellow villagers and underwent training at a location called “Genghis Khan Special Class Paddy Farm” in Butaha Banner of the Xing’an East Province of Manchukuo, which is currently part of Zhalantun City in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Sasaki’s personal records not only shed light on the government’s expectations for the service corps but also provide insight into the exploration journey of Japanese rural youth in this new land. At that time, the Japanese government, to embellish its expansion policies, used “sexualization” propaganda tactics to portray China, Manchuria, Taiwan, Korea, and other Asian regions as places filled with temptation and awaiting Japan’s “civilizing liberation,” particularly depicting women in this light. The “Manchurian Beauties Postcards” and “Manchurian and Chinese Beauties” memorabilia mentioned in Sasaki’s notes are examples of Japan’s militaristic era using imagery as a medium to showcase its imagination and gaze towards Manchuria.

滿洲建設勤勞奉仕隊手帳

物件編號: C122-M123

年代: 公元 1941 年

材質: 紙

來源: 泉鑒齋 2022

這是佐佐木亮作在「滿洲建設勤勞奉仕隊」服務時期的個人手帳。公元1940年4月，經過文書省、拓務省和農林省三者協調，將「興亞學生勤勞報國隊」和「興亞青年勤勞報國隊」兩支組織合併為「滿洲建設勤勞奉仕隊」，計畫每年向滿洲移民一萬人。

公元1931年九一八事變到第二次世界大戰結束的十四年間，日本移民達166萬人之譜。許多移民來自日本東北地區的貧困人口，以農民身分被日本政府安排到滿州。日本的東北地區以農業人口為主，在上世紀20年代受到關東大地震和世界金融恐慌的重創。公元1931年之際，東北地區又因為寒害面臨大凶年，農家販賣幼女和自殺時有所聞。東北地區的悲慘遭遇使得日本社會人心浮動，彼時以滿州為擴張跳板的日本政府決定以村落為單位，系統性地安排農民遷往滿州。日本政府冀望以此解決國內人口過剩問題，一面將移民訓練成武裝墾團鞏固對於滿洲國的控制。

來自日本秋田縣的佐佐木正是其中一員，從手帳中的個人資訊能得知，公元1941年4月抵達滿洲國時方年僅19歲。佐佐木被安排在同鄉組成的中隊，於滿洲國的興安東省布特哈旗，今天屬於內蒙古自治區扎蘭屯市，一個名為「成吉思汗水田特級農場」的地點受訓。

佐佐木的個人紀錄中，能了解政府對於奉仕隊的期許外，更能一窺日本農村青年在這片新天地的探索歷程。當時日本政府為美化自身的擴張政策，將中國、滿州、台灣、韓國乃至其他亞洲地區，以「性化」宣傳手法將其描繪為充滿誘惑和等待日本「文明解放」的女性。佐佐木在筆記紀錄的「滿洲美人風俗明信片」和「滿支美人」等紀念品，正是軍國主義時期的日本以圖像為媒介，展現其對於滿州的一種想像和凝視。

See more:

類似/相同物件 請看:

文化部典藏網 Ministry of Culture

https://collections.culture.tw/Object.aspx?SYSUID=13&RNO=QUgwMDY4MDQtMDEx

日本 愛知大學現代中國研究綜合資料庫 Aichi University ICCS

https://iccs.aichi-u.ac.jp/database/postcard/manzhou/category-45/MZ008/

更多相關訊息請參考:

馬偉,〈偽滿洲國的“勤勞奉仕”〉,《外國問題研究》,（黑龍江佳木斯市,2012）,頁8-14

張素玢,〈國策會社與日本移民事業的開展滿洲拓植公社與臺灣拓殖株式會社〉, 《師大臺灣史學報》,（台北, 2009）,頁32-71

白取道博,〈「満州建設勤労奉仕隊」に関する基礎的考察〉,《北海道大學教育學部紀要》第80期（2000）,頁277-295