異文化体験のライフコース分析 : 「かつての帰国子女」の追跡調査(第一部報告)

スポンサーリンク

概要

• 論文の詳細を見る

• I. Purpose This study aimed to investigate the life courses of Japanese and secondgeneration emigrants who had lived abroad in a cross-cultural setting when children and then came to Japan ("returnees"), and to discover what sort of effects this experience caused in their lives. A survey was conduced on women who had gone through the Special Class for returnee education at Toyo Eiwa Jogakuin (Toyo Eiwa girls' school). II. Method (perspective of study) 1. The surveyed returnees were divided among two cohorts: those who went through the Special Class and later graduated from a regular class before the end of World War II as the Former Cohort, and those who graduated after the end of the war as the Latter Cohort. The Former Cohort was further divided into two groups, one being nisei (second-generation emigrants) and the other being those born in Japan or born abroad but not of emigrants. Members of the second group were nisei born in Canada. The subjects were interviewed to research their life courses. 2. (Part One) The interviews were intended to answer the following questions : What kind of effects did the war have on their lives, both during and after the war? How have their life courses developed in relation with their cross-culture experience? 3. (Part Two) Information provided by members of the two cohorts will be analyzed in the future as Part Two of this study. III. Interviews Subjects: Ten returnees were interviewed (four from Former Cohort I, four from Former Cohort II, and two from the Latter Cohort). At the time of the interviews, five were living in the US and the other five were living in Japan. Dates of interviews: May through October, 1992 Interview methods: Three returnees in Los Angeles were interviewed by telephone, due to the civil disturbances taking place there at the time. Three returnees were interviewed in person in San Diego and five in Tokyo. All interviews were conducted by the author. Number of interviews per subject: Each subject was interviewed one to four times. The average duration of the interviews was two hours. Content of interviews: actual status of cross-cultural experience; problems and adaptation immediately after returning to Japan; school life and entrance to schools of higher education; marriage; job selection and the effect of cross cultural experience; relation between crosscultural experience and life during and after the war; present evaluation of cross-cultural experience; sense of cultural affinity. IV. Conclusions All subjects experienced the war as members of the same generation. Two of the four members of Former Cohort I who returned to the US before the war married other nisei. They were taken to concentration camps and experienced hardship. The other two married Japanese. Their husbands were drafted, one of whom died in the war. Those who remained in Japan during the war experienced very harsh times because they were treated as enemies, in addition to suffering from the general food shortages and the fear of anal bombardment. However, after the war these conditions were reversed and the times became very favorable to them. There were few people who were able to speak both English and Japanese and who were knowledgable about the cultures of both countries, so they were very highly valued in Japan. Both the Japanese government and the occupation authorities sought returnees to work in their organizations. These people made full use of their unusual characteristic of being bilingual and bicultural. They were treated very well, receiving more than several times the pay of ordinary workers, and resumed their affluent life styles. Later, as the economy recovered, their potential field of activities expanded. When interviewed they were still working at jobs which require English-language skills. They have extended their activities into various fields other than business, such as international cultural exchanges including overseas kabuki theater performances and the Olympic Games. When asked about her sense of affinity, one returnee replied "As a cosmopolitan person who knows both cultures, I feel responsible to do something. I enjoy introducing Japanese culture and traditions to Americans, and I've been diligently practicing calligraphy for ten years for this purpose." As a conclusion concerning the interview subjects, I was strongly impressed that their crosscultural experiences in childhood greatly affected their lives and gave them direction even though they knew only two languages and two cultures.

• 国際基督教大学の論文

著者

• 原 和子

  国際基督教大学

関連論文

• 異文化体験のライフコース分析 : 「かつての帰国子女」の追跡調査-第二部報告
• 異文化体験のライフコース分析 : 「かつての帰国子女」の追跡調査(第一部報告)
• 「海外・帰国児童生徒教育」の一考察 : 第二次世界大戦下の(帰国子女学級)東洋英和女学院「別科」の事例

スポンサーリンク