The Migration Process of Seinentai of Brasil from Okinawa after World War II

This Article study investigated the characteristics of postwar immigrants in Okinawa,focusing on the Seinentai of Brasil who moved in the 1950s and 1960s. Owing to repatriation and a rapid increase in population after World War II, the Seinentai of Brasil emerged as a part of the process of rearing of rural youth. In addition, this migration system was a form of the public recruitment migration system. Thus, this enabled the emigration of those without the blood relation to the first immigrants. Those rural youth aimed to become farmers after completing the agricultural training with a 4-year contract. Although there were numerous graduates of the agricultural high school and member of the Okinawan Industrial Development Youth Association, not many individuals corresponded to it. Many of the guarantors were prewar immigrants and large farmers in inland areas. Moreover, the guarantors included small farmers in the suburbs of cities, and some of them had their families or relatives. Members were engaged in agricultural training under their guarantors, however, the contract period was as short as 1-2 years, and in some cases, they were engaged in commercial or industrial training. After completing the training, they did not become farmers, but moved from inland areas to cities, engaged in commerce, and also carried out dekasegi to Japan starting from 1980's. These cases demonstrated that although the Seinentai of Brasil was the public recruitment migration for the purpose of agricultural development, it was not different from the general migration process to Brasil or South America by the request of close relatives actually. The following factors contributed to such a development: Insufficient acceptance preparation with the background of the feud with the prewar immigrants, the difficulty of establishing the independence to farmers, and the generation of hyperinflation. There was the institutional problem of Seinentai of Brasil which could not sufficiently support the independence of farmers. In addition, some of them did not aim to perform the task of agricultural development from the beginning. Therefore, only a few people became farmers, although many of them had no blood relations