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Forced Fingerprinting in Japan

Ron Fujiyoshi

 

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The issue of forced fingerprinting of all foreigners in Japan has come to the forefront due to the courageous actions of a few conscientious persons. Reprinted below is a statement by Ron Fujiyoshi, a Japanese-American missionary, which he made at the Summary Court on Sept 27, 1982 and circulated by the Committee for the Study of the Fingerprinting System.

 

The Kobe Public Prosecutors have declared on a number of occasions that fingerprinting is not an infringement of human rights. My views run contrary to this statement, and I hope the majority of Japanese people will agree with me.

Before presenting a summary of the reasons for my refusal, I must clarify my motivations in taking this action. I believe that individuals are the sum total of their heritage, experiences, and beliefs. Therefore, it is necessary to understand something of my personal history to assess my action.

My heritage is related to the history of Japanese-Americans. In 1868, the first boatload of Japanese immigrants was taken to Hawaii to work on sugar plantations. More and more Japanese continued to emigrate until the number of Japanese in Hawaii totaled approximately 150,000 or about 38% of the population in 1936. My grandparents, both paternal and maternal, were part of this migration. Time does not permit a more detailed explanation, but the primary motivating factor for our ancestors migrating to America was to improve their economic situation, the same reason other Asians continue to live in Japan.

The other crucial episode in the history of Japanese – Americans was the World War II experience. Most of you are aware that the Japanese – Americans residing on the mainland U.S.A. were forcibly placed into concentration camps scattered throughout the country because they were suspected of being spies for Japan. Approximately 110,000 people of Japanese heritage, 75% of whom were second-

 

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generation Japanese-Americans, were incarcerated. What many of you may not know is that no Americans of German of Italian background suffered this injustice because they were of a different color. As a result, anyone coming from this kind of experience would be sensitive to any state, which treats an ethnic or racial minority in a discriminatory manner.

Although I was born in Los Angeles, California before the outbreak of the war, my family was fortunate in returning to Hawaii just three months prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Had we remained three months longer, we would have accompanied my mother's family to the concentration camp in Grenada, Colorado. Because Japanese-Americans totaled 40% of the population in Hawaii, the sheer size made it impossible for all to be placed in concentration camps. However, there were numerous checks for espionage on us. For example, my father was a Christian pastor of a small Japanese-American church in a sugar plantation town on the island of Kauai. One unit of the U.S. military lived in the church buildings, and someone was assigned to attend the Sunday worship services, taking notes to ensure my father's sermons did not discredit the U.S.A. If time permits, there are more experiences, which I would like to share later in this trial to illustrate the way we Japanese-Americans were made to feel inferior to other Americans and somehow made ashamed because we were of Japanese background. Although there was never a shred of evidence of Japanese-American disloyalty, we were discriminated against merely because of our Japanese heritage. According to U.S. law, anyone born in the U.S.A. is entitled to American citizenship; yet, 75% of the incarcerated Japanese-Americans were second-generation Japanese in America who held American citizenship.

In my grammer school class of about forty students, only two were White-both sons of managers of the sugar plantation. Although Japanese comprised the largest ethnic group in Hawaii, we grew up feeling inferior to the White

 

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man. It was only after attending seminary on the mainland U.S. that I was able to fully convincing myself otherwise. The seminary I attended was in Chicago, where I lived for five years. I was fortunate to work in the Black ghetto, sharing some of their lives and problems they faced, and am grateful to them for educating me about racism and how it is related to economic exploitation.

Perhaps the most instructive part of my experience was meeting liberal Whites who truly believed they did not bear prejudice towards Blacks, but their subtle paternalism emerged in a variety of ways. I found that being an Asian-American working in Chicago was unique: Whites didn't treat me like a Black, and Blacks didn't treat me like a White. However, since I was an Asian-American, I yearned to learn more about my Asian heritage and decided to come to Asia. A Japanese friend advised me not to go first to Japan because I had a Japanese face and was not versed in Japanese at all. I took his suggestion seriously and in 1968 departed for Singapore. Altogether, I spent five years in Southeast Asia before coming to Japan.

In Southeast Asia, I was perceived by some to be an American, by others, Japanese. I began to understand concretely what American imperialism meant. I also began to realize that my being educated in America had imbued me with aspects of American chauvinism that needed to be shed if truly wanted to be in solidarity with other Asians. I learned much about the Japanese as reflected through the reaction of Southeast Asians toward them and was surprised that many resented the Japanese not only from experiences during World War II but from their actions and attitudes in the more recent past. It baffled me that the Japanese looked at other Asians with condescension. While in Southeast Asia – Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand – working among a number of different 'ethnic minorities added to my experience   and   furthered   my   understanding   of discrimination and how it works.

 

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I came to Japan nine years ago to work together with Koreans in Japan. Much of my time was spent in Ikuno Ward of Osaka where the largest number of Koreans in Japan resides. I have also been fortunate to visit South Korea many times and treasure the friendship of many Urban Industrial Mission workers there. I had heard about Japanese discrimination towards Koreans even before coming to Japan, however, I was surprised to hear from Japanese and even a few Koreans in Japan that there was no discrimination in Japan — at least not anything like the discrimination of Whites toward Blacks in America. Through my experience in Ikuno-ku, I realized that although it may be a little more subtle, there is clear discrimination of Koreans by most Japanese. When real estate dealers publish notices of apartments for rent with Gaijin fu akimasen or Gaijin fuka or Jumin hyo yo, they are clearly advertising in a discriminatory manner. One agent informed me that Koreans drink every night and get into fights. If this is so, there must be a lot of "Korean" salary men taking the late night train back to Kobe with me. My personal experiences have confirmed that prejudice similar to that which Blacks suffer in America does exist among many Japanese toward Koreans. What I found difficult to understand was why Japanese who held a high opinion of Koreans in the past now looked down upon Koreans.

With this background of my personal history, I can proceed to explain the basis for my refusing to be fingerprinted. Very simply, there are two reasons. First, fingerprinting is an infringement of an individual's human rights. The process of being fingerprinted is a degrading, humiliating experience. The only Japanese citizens who are forced to undergo fingerprinting are those who have broken the criminal law as determined by the Japanese state. Thus, the majority of Japanese associate fingerprinting with the investigation of criminals. And this is historically correct, because fingerprinting was developed as a method to trace criminals. Sir Richard Henry, who later became the

 

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commissioner of Scotland Yard in England, developed this system, which was adopted by Great Britain in 1902 and is used throughout the world today. Recent evidence indicates that elements within the Japanese Ministry of Justice have planned for the computerization of all fingerprints, allowing for more efficient processing and control of individuals who have been fingerprinted. Seen against this background of criminal investigation, the requiring of fingerprinting of only foreigners is a violation of their individual human rights.

Second, fingerprinting is an infringement of the human rights of other Asians in Japan, especially those of the Koreans in Japan. As a missionary of the Korean Christian Church in Japan, I have worked mainly with Koreans for the last nine years. Since about ninety percent of all foreigners in Japan are Koreans, the fingerprinting law affects them more than any other foreigners do. In fact, when this law was originally drafted during the time of the U.S. Military occupation, it was clearly done with the Koreans in mind. Recently, a Western missionary in Tokyo protested his being fingerprinted; he was told that the law was meant for Koreans and not for him. As an American citizen, I feel a responsibility for the role, which the U.S. has played in affecting the legal status of the Koreans in Japan. For example, the 1951 Japanese immigration law used as a model the U.S. immigration law, which was discriminatory towards Asians then.

As I questioned the origin of Japanese prejudice toward Koreans, I began to understand that behind the laws that deal with long-term Asian residents of Japan is a policy that for want of a better term I call "coerced assimilation." After studying, the Sakanaka thesis, which was published by the Ministry of Justice in 1977, this policy, became clearer. Since then both the Immigration Law and the Alien Registration Law have been revised. On the surface, a variety of restrictions has been lifted. However, the main discriminatory aspects remain. For example, the legal

 

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staus of Koreans in Japan was determined by the Japan-Korea Normalization Treaty of 1965. The grandchildren of Koreans living in Japan in 1965 find that their legal status is an even less secure one than of their grandparents. I know of no other country in the world where the legal status of people residing there gets worse. Most countries recognize birthplace as the basis for citizenship rights. There is no positive attitude toward recognizing Korean ethnic education, the Korean language, or Korean names. The position of Koreans in Japan is a discriminated, insecure one. The alternatives available are not attractive. Either one remains in this insecure legal situation with the threat of deportation always present or one can become a naturalized Japanese, but without using one's Korean name.

What are human rights? It should not be viewed as a slogan that has recently swept the international scene. Since I come from a Christian background, I ground my understanding of human rights in that all persons are created in the image of God. Japan ratified the International Covenant on Human Rights three years ago. However, the violation of human rights lies in this policy of coerced assimilation by will-fully refusing to respect the ethnic pride of long-term Asians living in Japan. A refusal to respect the culture, history, language and names of Koreans is a refusal to respect their existence as a people. This is the fundamental failure to respect the human rights of the Korean people. But can this policy be changed? Yes. China has an enlightened policy toward the ethnic minorities who live there. A friend of mine visited China six years ago to study its policy towards the five percent of Chinese who are not ethnic Han people. At a visit to a Han elementary school, he saw first grade students learning a Korean dance. The school principal, who was an ethnic Han, explained that older Han Chinese cannot rid themselves of prejudice toward the minority groups because of the chauvinistic education they received. Prejudice, however, can be eliminated if children are taught to respect the culture of others. Imagine what

 

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would happen if every Japanese first grader learned to dance an Okinawan dance! Its beauty and intricate movements would impress every student with a respect for the Okinawan people. Yes, instead of an assimilation policy, the Japanese government should maintain one where all people are treated equally without discrimination.

Finally, I would like to pose the question, "Why does the Japanese government follow a policy of assimilation of long-term Asians in Japan?" I submit that this is related to the ideology of nationalism that was used to rationalize the cannot simultaneously consider themselves Asian While believing it justifiable that Japan invades other nations in order to build itself into a world power.*

 

 

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Taken from Praxis Nos. 3-4, 1982.