The Odyssey of Japanese Colonists in the Dominican Republic

The Odyssey of Japanese Colonists in the Dominican Republic

Oscar H. Horst; Katsuhiro Asagiri

Geographical Review, Vol. 90, No. 3. (Jul., 2000), pp. 335-358.

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THE ODYSSEY OF JAPANESE COLONISTS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC*

OSCAR H. HORST and KATSUHIRO ASAGIRI

ABSTRACT. In an agreement formalized with the Japanese government in 1956, Generalis- simo Rafael Leonidas 'Trujillo Molina of the Dominican Republic extended an offer of refuge for Japanese immigrants seeking to improve their fortunes in the late 1950s by taking up residence in Trujillo's vaunted "Paradise of the Caribbean." The provision of sites ultimately unfavorable for colonization, lack of infrastructure, failure of the Japanese government to address the complaints of the colonists, and political instability within the Dominican Re- public led to the abandonment of five of the eight colonies. By 1962 only 276 of the 1,319 original colonists remained; the rest had either returned to Japan or sought refuge in South America. Although the fortunes of these Japanese families fell far short of their expectations, Trujillo could hardly have envisioned the contributions to Dominican society to be made by their descendants. The experiences of this relatively small number of migrants reflect the difficulties encountered when racial and geopolitical concerns take precedence over judi- cious plans for colonization. Keywords: colonization, Dominican Republic, Japanese emigrants, Rafael Trtljillo.

B e t w e e n 1930 and 1961 every phase of life in the Dominican Republic was domi- nated by the looming presence of Generalissimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina. The island republic made significant economic gains during his thirty-plus years of rule, albeit achieved at considerable loss of personal liberty. Trujillo was capable of governing with wisdom and benevolence, but these attributes were often countered by the actions of a tyrant bent upon retaining the Dominican Republic as his personal fiefdom.

Among the projects Trujillo undertook to achieve his vision of a greater Carib- bean nation was an idiosyncratic promotion of selective immigration into the Do- minican Republic. Initially this involved Europeans and later, Japanese. The majority of the European arrivals, however, regarded the Dominican Republic as a tempo- rary stopover at best. This attitude was not novel: The historian C. Harvey Gardiner noted that, for five centuries, the Dominican Republic had served as a trampoline. Beginning with the arrival of Spaniards on Hispaniola in 1492, individuals continued to land on Dominican soil with the express intent of seeking their fortunes elsewhere (1979,42).

* Funding for our research was provided by the Lucia Harrison Endowment of Western Michigan University; Richard Longwell of Western Illinois University was highly instrumental in generating support through the aus- pices of the National Council of Geographic Education. Nobukatsu Nakajima generously provided access to documents housed in the Japanese International Cooperation Agency in Santo Domingo. The content of this manuscript was significantly enhanced by the critiques of three reviewers and Paul Starrs. Finally, we owe special thanks to the Matsunagas, Yamamotos, Tabatas, Yanais, Ariyamas, and countless other Japanese families who invited us into their homes and willingly shared their experiences with us.

% DR. HORST is a professor emeritus of geography at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008-5053. MR. ASAGIRI is an assistant manager in the International Affairs Department, Association for Promotion of International Cooperation, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-8584 Japan.

The Geographical Review 90 ( 3 ) :335-358, July zooo Copyright 0 zoo1 by the American Geographical Society of NewYork

336 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

FIG. I-Part of the initial group of Japanese emigrants destined to go to the Dominican Republic, posed near the migration building in Yokohama on 2 June 1956. They had been brought to Yokohama for a training session.Yoshimi Kokubun (first row, third from the left) and his four brothers were born in the Philippines. The four brothers left La Vigia because there was not enough land for the family unit. One is now a fisherman in Azua; another returned to Japan; the third works as a carpenter in Santo Domingo; and the fourth lived off and on in Constanza and in zoo0 had a plantain farm in Vicente Noble, near Barahona. (Photograph courtesy of Fukutsuchi Yamamoto)

For the Japanese, however, all was to be different. They arrived fully committed to making the Dominican Republic their permanent homeland (Figure 1). Unfor- tunately, and for different reasons, they too would ultimately find themselves seeking refuge elsewhere. For those who remained, it was especially through the labors and successes of the second-generation Japanese Dominicans, the nisei of familiar Japanese parlance, that contributions to Dominican societywere made, and, at that, in ways Rafael Trujillo never envisioned.

The decision by the Dominican government to house immigrants in colonies along its western frontier evolved out of long-standing fears of Haitian incursions into their territory. These dated from 1800, when revolts by slaves led to the murder and flight of 40,000 mulattos and French colonists and to Haiti's declaration of independence from France in 1804 (Galindez 1976, 5). Thereafter, Haitian forces repeatedly invaded Spanish Hispaniola with the objective of bringing the entire island under Haitian rule (Pefia Batlle 1946,113-114). Outnumbered on the order of four to one, Dominicans were understandably fearful of Haitian designs on their territory (Hazard 1873,152,484-485; Wells 1928,1,7; Leyburn 1966,18).

Dominicans declared independence from Spain in 1821, only to be invaded by Haitian forces the following year. This led to an occupation that endured for twenty-

337 JAPANESE COLONISTS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

two years. Consolidating their hold with an attempt at cultural dominance, Hai- tians undertook a thoroughgoing "Africanization" of their newly acquired domain (Wells 1928, 51-53). In 1844 Haiti was routed by Dominican revolutionaries, who again declared a forceful independence from Spain.

Freedom from further incursions by Haitians was short-lived. Haitian troops and expansionist settlers repeatedly sacked and burned frontier villages and sought to reoccupy the Dominican Republic in 1845 and 1849. In an attempt to mediate the conflict between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, England, France, and the United States warned that they were not disposed to permit "the black races of Haiti to subjugate those of Spanish origin in the Dominican Republic" (Rodriguez Demorizi 1944,25). Notwithstanding this warning, the Dominican Republic was invaded in 1855 by a force of 30,000 Haitians. The intruders retreated in defeat the following year (pp. 26-29).

To defend themselves from the Haitians, the Dominicans unsuccessfully peti- tioned for the protection of the United States in 1860, and again in 1870-1871. In the interim, they resorted to a brief, ill-fated reannexation with Spain (1861-1864). A treaty of nonintervention with Haiti in 1874 provided for a guarded tranquility in their relationship that extended through the remainder of the nineteenth century (Pena Batlle 1946,166-170).

Throughout the 18oos, Dominicans' fear bordering on hatred of Haitians was based on cultural differences and repeated indignities suffered at the hands of their Hispaniola neighbors. Each invasion produced incidents of brutal murder and rape, as well as the sacking and burning of Dominican villages. Greatly outnumbered by Haitians, the Dominicans feared being forced into cultural subservience and a political union with what was flatly and dismissively referred to as the "Black Repub- lic." Dominicans were further alienated by Haitian cultural predilections, with French as the Haitian linguistic root and the Haitian embrace and maintenance of such Afrocultural traditions as voodoo. In response, thousands of Dominicans sought refuge abroad or sanctuary in the remote interior highlands (La Nacion 1946,24- 25; Rood 1986,76). The seeds of animosity toward Haitians sown during the nineteenth century persist to this day.

After the turn of the twentieth century, the security of the Dominican Republic continued to be maintained under the 1874 treaty of nonintervention with Haiti (augmented and reinforced by the American occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934). This, however, failed to stem the growing tide of landless Haitian peasants who flowed into the thinly populated western frontier of the Dominican Republic. Rec- ognizing this was a law enacted in 1907 to promote development of the "regions bordering the neighboring Republic of Haiti" (Troncoso de la Concha, Ortega Frier, and Rodriguez Demorizi 1945,46-47). The population census of 1920 was the first to fully reveal the extent of Haitian penetration (Dominican Republic 1923).

In 1925, to prevent "a ceaseless absorption of black blood'' and to assure "the maintenance of the purity of our Catholic faiths" (La Nacion 1946,67,81), the Do-


minican government passed the first law authorizing the establishment of "farmer families of white race" along the Dominican frontier (Troncoso de la Concha, Ortega Frier, and Rodriquez Demorizi 1945,46-47). Five colonies established by 1927 were increased to nine by the time Rafael Trujillo took office as president in 1930 (Besault 1936,183; Gardiner 1g79,14).

Once in power, Trujillo moved quickly to assert Dominican sovereignty over the nation's frontier provinces. He negotiated an agreement with Haiti on the de- marcation of their mutual boundary. To improve local administration, three border provinces were subdivided into seven, with three of those gratuitously named in Trujillo's honor (Augelli 1980,30). Place-names in French were discarded in favor of Spanish toponyms (Tolentino Rojas 1944,329-334). Improvements in infrastructure and human services were designed to encourage settlement in the "linea fronteriza" (La Nacion 1946,91-126,159; Trujillo Molina 19 50; Augelli 1980, 24-33). Key in this effort were the reorganization and crucial siting of colonies to include both foreign and Dominican settlers (Augelli 1962). These actions were fore- shadowed-and proved all the more essential-by the massacre of reportedly 20,000 Haitians over the span of two days in early October 1937 (Hicks 1946,112). To counter international condemnation of this atrocity, Trujillo fell upon a plan to restore his reputation abroad by offering asylum to European refugees of war (Hicks 1946,134- ~ j ;Galindez 1976,83).

Beginning in 1939, the Dominican government magnanimously offered a haven for 3,056 Republican refugees of the Spanish Civil War, who arrived between No- vember 1939 and May 1940 (Gardiner i979,35). Next to land on the shores of the Dominican Republic were Jews in flight from the Holocaust in Central Europe.' Most of these reached the Dominican Republic between mid-1941 and October 1944, with smaller contingents arriving in 1947 and between 1953 and 1956. Their numbers totaled approximately 700 (pp. 137-138).

An understanding reached by the government of Generalissimo Trujillo's Dominican Republic and the Spain of Generalissimo Francisco Franco afforded refuge between 1955 and 1959 to an additional 4,466 Spaniards, 75 percent of whom arrived during the first year of the agreement (Gardiner 1979,181-182). In 1957, following the failed Hungarian revolt of 1956, arrangements were made for the entry of 582 Hungarian "Freedom Fighters" (SEREC 1957a, 1957b; Gardiner 1979,196-197). The only attempt by Trujillo to recruit non-Europeans occurred during the mid-1950s.

Beginning in 1954, negotiations between the Dominican Republic and Japan led to the entry of Japanese colonists in July 1956. Small groups continued to arrive intermittently over the next three years (Figures 2 and 3). By September 1959 a total of 1,319 Japanese had arrived in Ciudad Trujillo (as Santo Domingo was called during the generalissimo's rule), the capital city. In mid-March 1960 the Japanese government requested permission to establish another colony of farmers in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican government responded with an apology, stat- ing that, due to exigent circumstances, it would not extend the agreement for the

JAPANESE COLONISTS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 339

FIG. 2-Japanese women and children in LaVigia, Dominican Republic, with President Rafael Trujillo in April 1957. The men were all in their fields harvesting peanuts. (Photograph courtesy of Fukutsuchi Yamamoto)

further immigration of Japanese colonists (Despradeli996,76). Although Trujillo had originally expressed an interest in allowing entry of as many as 25,000 Japanese, economic and political turmoil within the Dominican Republic brought to a close the sponsored immigration of Japanese.

Trujillo's early immigration policies were based on a complex set of motives, both personal and nationalistic. In the aftermath of the massacre of Haitians in 1937, he was particularly anxious to counteract "world protests against his regime" and to regain acceptance, especially by the United States, as a devout Catholic and statesman (Hicks 1946,134; Ornes 1958,94-95). Trujillo's offer to accept immigrants, however, also satisfied his perceptions of what would most benefit his country. Im- migrants were to be "of the white race and farmers" (Troncoso de la Concha, Ortega Frier, and Rodriguez Demorizi 1945, 43).2 In terms of the former, "certain aspects" of the white race were viewed as superior and would benefit Dominican society. Furthermore, the tendency of Dominican Negroes to have larger numbers of children than did whites could be offset only by encouraging the immigration of whites. Trujillo was particularly hopeful that immigrant farmers would enhance native agriculture by demonstrating advanced methods of cultivation and animal husbandry.

Trujillo was mindful of Spanish traditions and of the contributions that Span- ish immigrants would make to Dominican culture. He was also conscious of the need to disperse immigrants throughout the nation to encourage their assimilation into the native population and to discourage activities by possible dissidents. Fi-


0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450

1956

1957

1958

1959

Arrival of Japanese Colonists in the Dominican Republic, 1956-1959

FIG.3-Japanese migration to the Dominican Republic,1956-1959. Sources: Gardiner 1979;JICA1990. (Drafted by the University of Nevada Cartography Laboratory after an original by Oscar Horst)

nally, in hopes of securing his nation's border with Haiti, he planned to settle se-lected European immigrants in colonies along the nation's western frontier. His distasteful experience with immigrants from Spain taught him the folly of some of his original goals, however. Most of the Spanish immigrants had been raised in urban environments and possessed neither the skills nor the inclination to engage in farming. Furthermore, it became evident that in accepting Trujillo's offer, most intended onlyto utilize the Dominican Republic as a stepping stone to destinations elsewhere in Latin America. Finally, having escaped political oppression in Spain, the refugees were not inclined to relish the tyranny of Trujillo. This quicklygave rise


to dissident opposition within the Dominican Republic and to negative foreign re- action in response to criticisms levied by the Spanish refugees who departed the Dominican Republic for other destinations in Europe and Latin America. Although the Jewish agricultural colony in Sosua posed less of a problem, most of the colonists were ultimately repatriated, emigrated to other countries, or took up residence in Ciudad Trujillo. It was against this backdrop of experiences that Trujillo began to consider the possibility of Japanese colonists.

In the case of Japanese immigrants, Trujillo was not overly concerned with cur- rying world opinion. He believed that he had been misled earlier by"impliedn qualifi- cations of refugees and was determined that the Japanese selected for passage to the Dominican Republic be bonafide farmers. He also requested that fishermen be included among those selected. He hoped that the immigrants might induce native farmers to experiment with new crops and improve fishing and cultivation tech- niques. Trujillo's father, it has been noted, was most impressed by Japanese military prowess exhibited during the Russo-Japanese War and, as a result, named one of his daughters-the future generalissimo's sister-Japonesa. Trujillo, son, is also said to have admired the diligence and accomplishments of the Japanese. It is further specu- lated that Trujillo, in seeking foreign markets for Dominican sugar, may have an- ticipated that the Japanese would look favorably upon the Dominican Republic as their source of sugar in exchange for his charity to the Japanese immigrants (Dominica imin .. .1992,21).

Trujillo's offer in 1954 to accept Japanese settlers came at a most propitious time, from the Japanese point of view. In the aftermath of World War 11, Japan was over- whelmed by the forced repatriation of nearly 7 million Japanese from its former colonial territories. Its effort to cope with shortages of food and unemployment had met with only partial success. Before 1951, the United States resolutely discour- aged Japanese emigration. But American confiscation of Japanese land for military purposes and the displacement of farmers in Okinawa during the Korean War buildup brought modifications in that policy (Dominica imin . . .1992,24). In 1953 the Japanese government set up an emigration section in its Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The following year the Federation of Japan Overseas Associations (FJOA)

was established to facilitate the emigration of Japanese to Latin America (Takahashi 1987,221.

By 1959, 37,257 Japanese had departed for Latin America. Of these, 82 percent went to Brazil. Paraguay and the Dominican Republic ranked second and third, respectively, receiving 11 and 4 percent of the emigrants. Most of the remainder settled in Bolivia or Argentina (JICA 1990). After peaking in 1961, Japanese contract emigration to Latin America declined precipitously, due to the rapidly improving Japanese economy (Nishi i962,47-49; Tigner 1981,472-473; Miyama ~ggla, 5).

In negotiations conducted between President Trujillo and the Japanese government in 1954, agreements were reached on the provision of housing, the assignment of

342 T H E GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

land, and the payment of financial subsidies for each Japanese immigrant family. In August of the following year a commission of Japanese arrived in the Dominican Republic to examine the locations that the Dominican government was proposing for colonization. Shortly thereafter, Trujillo gave his final stamp of approval for the settlement of Japanese immigrants in the Dominican Republic.

In early 1956 advertisements appeared in Japanese newspapers extolling the beauty of the Dominican Republic and describing the great opportunities awaiting those who emigrated there (FJOA 1956a, 1-14).~ The favorable inducements offered by the Dominican government enhanced the recruitment of applicants and allowed Japanese officials to be selective. Families chosen were required to possess adequate financial resources, and no family unit was allowed with fewer than three males between the ages of fifteen and fifty (Takahashi 1987,216). Meanwhile, preparations for their arrival were under way in the Dominican Republic.

Of the eight colonies to which Japanese were assigned between 1956 and 1959, six were located in the vicinity of the Haitian border. Two of these, La Vigia (near Dajabon) and Pepillo Salcedo, were in the north; two others, La Altagracia and Agua Negra, were along the southern border (Figures 4 and 5); and La Colonia (near Duverge) and Plaza Cacique (near Neiba) were established within the Hoya de Enriquillo, a longtime entry point into the Dominican Republic from Haiti. Two additional colonies were established within the Cordillera Central, one near the community of Jarabacoa, the other on the southern outskirts of Constanza.

In early July 1956, twenty-eight Japanese families left Yokohama for the Domini- can Republic by way of the Panama Canal. Later that month they arrived in Ciudad Trujillo, where they were welcomed with great fanfare (Despradel1996,46). There- after, the families were trucked northwestward to La Vigia, where housing and par- tially cleared land were made available; families' were instructed to produce peanuts and rice (FJOA 1956a, 1-14; Kokubun 19gla; Tanioka 1991; Yamamoto ~ g g ~ a , ~gglb) . Of the families that arrived later in the year, thirty were transported to the southern outskirts of the highland community of Constanza to specialize in vegetable farming (FJOA 1956b, 15-66; 1956c, 27-28; Ariyama 1988,1991); five fishermen were sent with their gear and families to the port of Pepillo Salcedo to ply their trade in Manzanillo Bay (FJOA 1956b, 15-26; Matsunaga 1991).

Between 1957 and 1959, Japanese colonists were assigned to the two colonies in the Hoya de Enriquillo. Those sent to Plaza Cacique, 2 miles north of the city of Neiba, were to specialize in the production of vegetables and tobacco (FJOA i957a, 29-45). Others were settled in La Colonia, located on the floor of the Enriquillo basin. Here, 4miles east of the city of Duverge, they joined Dominican and Spanish colonists, along with a few Hungarian "Freedom Fighters" who remained out of a large contingent sent to the colony six months prior to the arrival of the Japanese (Garcia 1991). The production of vegetables was planned for this colony (FJOA i957a, 29-45 1.

During 1958 the focus of Japanese colonization turned to Jarabacoa, at an eleva- tion of 1,736 feet in the Cordillera Central, and to La Altagracia and Agua Negra, at 2,460 feet on the southwestern flanks of the Sierra de Baoruco. Those assigned to


the former were to specialize in horticulture (FJOA 1957b, 46-57); those in the latter were to be involved in the revitalization of coffee farms abandoned by Haitians who had been driven from the region two decades earlier (FJOA 1958,58-69; Naito 1988; Tabata 1991; Karawa 1992).

FIG. 4-A Japanese colonist, accompanied by his daughter, wa- ters a seedbed of cabbage in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic. (Pho- tograph by Oscar Horst, November 1960)

In 1959, new Japanese arrivals were dispersed to the previously established colonies (FJOA 1959,7046). With the assignment of these families, the large-scale emigration of colonists from Japan to the Dominican Republic came to a close.

ABANDONMENT, RELOCATION, AND REPATRIATION, 1958-1961

Rising dissatisfaction led to the departure of Japanese from most of the colonies (Figure 6). In interviews with us$ Japanese complained that the Dominican gov-


FIG.5-Japanese colonies in the Dominican Republic, showing a marked concentration of communities founded near the Haitian border and along the western margin of the country, providing some- thing of a settlement buffer between Santo Dolningo and the perceived threat at the Haitian border. (Base cartography by Oscar Horst)

ernment failed to provide the amount of land that had been promised (Takahashi 1987,112; Ariyama 1988; Miyama ~ggla, 5). They repeatedly attributed crop failures to droughts and inadequate systems of irrigation (Asahi 1994, 18)) and they cited difficulties in transporting agricultural products to markets. They also reported conflicts with local native Dominicans (Dominica Nihon . . . 1981, 13; Takahashi 1987,73,154,156-157; Ariyama 1991; Kokubun iggib; Miyama lggia, 5). In the more remote colonies, promises of schools and medical facilities were unfulfilled (Mukai 1991; Tabata 1991). The Japanese government, in turn, blamed the colonists for lack of enterprise and for unwillingness to make the effort required to succeed (FJOA

1959; Takahashi 1987,171; Ueda 1988,44; Asahi 1992,18).

Each colony had its set of grievances. In Plaza Cacique the Japanese complained bitterly about rock-strewn fields and the absence of water for irrigation (Takahashi 1987,91,93,105; Matsunaga 1991) (Figure 7). In La Colonia the failure to provide an irrigation system made it impossible to flush soils impregnated with salts (Takahashi 1987,85; Fukunaga 1991; Garcia 1991; Miyama lggia, 5). Colonists sought to rent land suitable for farming (Dominica iju ...1972,28). In La Altagracia and Agua Negra the Japanese colonists were left to search for land on their own (Takahashi 1987, 74; Naito 1988; Tabata 1991). This led to conflicts with Dominicans close to the two colonies, forcing the Japanese to acquire suitable land at some distance from their homes (Dominica iju . . .i972,26; Miyama ~ggia, 5; Mukai 1991).

I 71

Japanese Families in 2 0 -

Dominican Colonies 1 956- 1 987

Monte Cristi

I9 -0

Monte Plata families La Colonia

Villa o Altagracia SANTO

DOMING0 I958 1959 (Ciudad Trujillo) San Pedro

de Macoris La Romans(olov abandon4 1959) El lsla Saona

40 Miles

70 Caribbean Sea I

FIG. 6-Numbers of Japanese families in Dominican colonies, 1956-1987. The marked decline in population of most of the Haitian-border Japanese communities, which tended to fade fast in the late 195os, is in contrast to the central colonies at Constanza and Jarabacoa, which remained in relatively robust fashion. Sources: Dominica iju . . ,1972; Gardiner 1979; Takahashi 1987; JICA 1990. (Rase cartography by Oscar Worst)


FIG. 7-Under conversion to the production of grapes in 1991, these fields in Plaza Cacique, Domini- can Republic, were parceled out to Japanese colonists in 1957 for the planting of vegetables and tobacco. The original colonists complained that the land assigned to them was literally blanketed with rocks and small boulders. Shoji Koichi testified, "Of the remaining tools I had brought from Japan, only a double pickax could be used on my lands in Neiba" (Takahashi 1987,93). (Photograph by Oscar Horst)

In La Vigia, colonists complained of poor soil and the shortage of water (Dominica Nihon . . . 1981, 43; Takahashi 1987, 44; Kokubun iggia; Tanioka 1991; Yamamoto iggia, iggib). Fukutsuchi Yamamoto and his wife recalled that they had initially been advised to grow peanuts, a crop with which they were unfamiliar. They next attempted, without success, the planting of yuca, sweet potatoes, and tobacco, after which they tried other vegetables. However, they encountered difficulties in transporting their produce to distant Ciudad Trujillo, and the local market soon became flooded with produce that was foreign to local tastes (Yamamoto iggia, iggib). In a measure of desperation, the Japanese sought to rent additional acreage on which rice could be irrigated-but once the colonists had improved the land the owners increased the rent, infuriating the colonists (Dominica Nihon . . . 1981,44; Takahashi 1987,53; Kokubun iggia; ~ in ioka 1991; Yamamoto iggia, iggib).

The fishermen sent to Pepillo Salcedo soon discovered that there were few fish in Manzanillo Bay. Unfortunately, they lacked the equipment that would have made it possible for them to fish in the open Atlantic (Takahashi 1987, 184; Matsunaga - 1991; Paulino 1991). In spite of admonitions from Tokyo that they persist in their efforts, the fishermen abandoned their small settlement in 1958 (Takahashi 1987, 185-186). In Agua Negra, Teru Tabata (1991) reported that three fishermen, fearing the loss of financial subsidies, left their families in Pepillo Salcedo and departed for


the desolate island of Beata, off the southwestern coast of the Dominican Republic. After nine months of trying without success to make a living from the sea, they migrated cross-country to the shores of the Bay of Samana, where good fortune continued to elude them (Takahashi 1987,190-191). Even in the more favorable environments of the highland basins of Constanza and Jarabacoa, the Japanese complained that they had been allotted far less land than originally promised (Ariyama 1991; Hamada 1991; Miyama igglc, 5; Tateyama 1991).

In the arid basin of Enriquillo, the Japanese colonists abandoned La Colonia and Plaza Cacique in 1959 and 1961, respectively (Takahashi 1987, 87,106; Miyama ~ggla, 5). Many of those in the former colony were relocated in Jarabacoa; most of the colonists in Plaza Cacique opted for repatriation to Japan. Wholesale departure of Japanese from the southern border colonies of Agua Negra and La Altagracia occurred during 1961. These abandonments led to the migration of Japanese to the distant colonies of LaVigia, Constanza, and Jarabacoa, thereby placing further pres- sure on the limited resources of those co lon ie~ .~ The colonists' adversities were rapidly brought to a head by the assassination of Trujillo on 30 May 1961.

In the two years before his assassination, Trujillo's attention to the colonists was diverted by threats from foreign-based political dissidents, increased hostility on the part of the United States, and sanctions imposed by the Organization of Ameri- can States in response to his complicity in the attempted assassination of President Romulo Betancourt of Venezuela (Crassweller 1966,418). Absent Trujillo's support, the Japanese colonists found it ever more difficult to fend for themselves. This, in conjunction with a perceived lack of backing on the part of the Japanese government, led to a demand by many colonists that they be evacuated from the Domini- can Republic (Takahashi 1987, loo, 153; Miyama igglb, 5).6

The relocation and repatriation of Japanese began in October 1961. The Japa- nese government, highly embarrassed by the public airing of the returnees' hostility, encouraged later emigres to accept relocation in South America (Dominica iju . . .1972,44). By May 1962,672 of the Japanese had been repatriated to Japan and 377 relocated in South America, primarily in Brazil. Only 276 remained in the Domini- can Republic (Dominica iju . . . 1972,19-20; Gardiner 1979). Our interviews with elderly Japanese revealed that many were born or had been long-term residents in the Philippines, Manchuria, or elsewhere in East and Southeast Asia. Having lost virtually all of their possessions in earlier forced repatriations, and with few family ties in Japan, they opted to persevere with whatever the Dominican Republic had to offer (Hidaka 1991; Kokubun 19glb; Yanai 1991).

Following the mass exodus of Japanese colonists to Brazil and Japan in 1961-1962, only 276 of the original 1,319 immigrants remained. Yet by 1971 the number of Japa- nese had risen to 574 (Dominica iju . . .i972,20). The growth appears to have been due to a number of factors: natural increase, the occasional arrival of immigrants from Japan, and intermarriage with Dominicans who, with their offspring, came to


be included in the count of Japanese.' A 1981 publication commemorating the twenty- fifth anniversary of the arrival of Japanese colonists in the Dominican Republic placed the number of Japanese at 641 (Dominica Nihon . . .1981). In 1985 a total of 671 Japanese were recorded, of whom 281 were listed as having been born in Japan and 390 in the Dominican Republic (JICA 1990). A thirty-year history of Japanese colonization in the Dominican Republic reported 706 Japanese (Takahashi 1987), and by 1991 the number had increased to 831 (Dominica imin . . .1992,62). Over the two decades between 1971 and 1991, Japanese permanent residents in the Domini- can Republic increased on the order of 45 percent.

The most striking aspect of Japanese settlement within the Dominican Repub- lic has been the dispersion of their families throughout the nation (Figure 8). In 1959 all of the families resided in the seven remaining colonies. Within three years Plaza Cacique and La Colonia had been abandoned, and only small numbers remained in La Altagracia and Agua Negra. By 1971 a larger number of Japanese families (fifty-six) was reported to be living in the city of Santo Domingo than within the former colonies (thirty-seven). Another forty-two families resided in sixteen communities scattered throughout the country. The precipitous decline in the number of Japanese colonists in the South District ("F") was due to their repatriation to Japan and emigration to Brazil. Smaller numbers sought refuge in the remaining colonies of LaVigia, Constanza, and Jarabacoa or migrated to Santo Domingo or to urban centers within the South District. The major declines in the district of Dajabon and the colony of Jarabacoa are attributable to migration to Santo Domingo. Smaller numbers moved to neighboring communities in the districts within which their colonies were located.

The movement of Japanese families into other regions of the Dominican Repub- lic continued between 1971 and 1981. Most striking was the increased movement into the cities of the rich agricultural region of the Central Cibao (La Vega, fifteen families; Santiago, seven families). Through this decade Santo Domingo had become less attractive than were communities elsewhere in the country. By 1981 seventy-two families were recorded as living in twenty-seven widely dispersed communities throughout the country, a considerable increase over the numbers reported ten years earlier. Whereas the number of families remaining in the colonies during this period remained essentially unchanged, it constituted a smaller proportion of the total Japa- nese population.

Data on the distribution of Japanese families in the Dominican Republic after 1981 are illustrative. Trends in the number of families shown in each of the "districts" do not necessarily reflect the population as a whole, however. Although the numbers of Japanese families in each colony held steady, the total populations of the colonies continued to decline, as sons and daughters of aging parents opted for life elsewhere in the nation. The decline has been countered in urban centers by rates of increase in the number of families, rates that overstate an increase in the number of Japanese. This is due to the trend toward smaller families in the cities. Through all these re- gional and urban-village shifts, there has been an overall increase in the number of


72 7'1 20 -Distribution of Japanese Families

D O M I N G 0 (CiudadTrujillo)

O NATIONAL CAPITAL

1 District 1959 1971 1981 1985 1987 1991 1993 I A. Dajabon 63 17 16 16 17 16 17 B. Santiago - 3 8 ? 9 10 9 C. LaVega - 7 2 1 ? 26 3 3 3 5 D. jarabacoa 3 3 14 14 ? 10 12 12 E. Constanza 20 16 19 19 20 25 25 F. South 133 5 9 12 15 18 18 G. Santo Dorningo - 73 67 65 83 92 96

Total 249 135 154 inc. 180 206 212

FIG.$-Distribution of Japanese families in the Dominican Republic, by district, 1959-1993. By 1993 the near majority of the remaining Japanese residents had translocated to Santo Domingo, in a marked reversal of the late-1950s pattern, in which the Japanese were strongly concentrated in the South and Dajabon regions. Sources: Dominica iju . . .i972; Dominica Nihon . . .1981; Takahashi 1987; Dominica imin . . . 1992; JICA 1986,1990,1991,1993,1994. (Base cartography by Oscar Horst)

Japanese families residing in Constanza and the three "districts" of Santo Domingo, La Vega, and the South. Since 1981the number of Japanese in the two "districts" of Dajabon and Santiago and in the city of Jarabacoa has remained relatively static.

Following the initial rush of Japanese colonists to the city of Santo Domingo, a number of families began to reestablish themselves in smaller communities, primarily to the east and west of the capital. More recently, however, opportunities gener- ated by the dramatic growth of the city have attracted increasing numbers of Japanese. The flow of families to Constanza is attributable to an increase in the production of vegetables made possible by the expansion of land under irrigation. This is unlike


FIG. 9-Four young Japanese immigrants on the beach of Manzanillo Bay, near Pepillo Salcedo, in the mid-1960s. Their destinies mirror the fortunes of Japanese colonists, generally, in the Do- minican Republic. All four were married to Japanese wives. One returned to Japan in 1989; another is a copyist in LaVega; the third, who lived in LaVigia at the time of our interviews, returned to Japan in 1998. The fourth moved to Panama but has a brother who lives in Jarabacoa; a family related to his wife returned to Japan. (Photograph courtesy of Fukutsuchi Yamamoto)

Jarabacoa, where the fortune of Japanese small landholders has been negatively impacted by the establishment of well-financed, large-scale commercial producers of flowers and vegetables, with access to foreign markets (JimCnez 1991). Most pro- nounced is the continuing attraction of Japanese farmers to the highly productive soils of La Vega and the agricultural oases of Azua and Bani.

THE OUTCOME OF COLONIZATION

The younger generation of Japanese, opting for life in the larger urban centers of the Dominican Republic, has left an aging population in the colonies. Initially, a few

JAPANESE COLONISTS I N

marriages were arranged with new- comers from Japan; however, among second- and third-generation Japanese, unions with Dominicans or other nationalities are common (Figure g). In 1985, of 180 Japanese families, 61 were of mixed marriages, 57 of these with Dominicans (JICA 1985). The assimilation of Japanese continued, with families of mixed marriages increasing from 34 percent to 47 percent by 1991 (Do- minica imin . . . igg2,63).

Invited to the Dominican Repub- lic to share their expertise with Do- minican farmers, the Japanese in Jarabacoa and Constanza were sin- gularly successful in the cultivation of fruits and vegetables (Figure lo). These products, especially potatoes, tomatoes, beets, carrots, cabbage, let- tuce, onions, garlic, and strawberries, quickly revolutionized the quality and availability of domestic produce. More recently, they have become ac- tively involved in the introduction and marketing of new varieties of grapes, eggplants, and green beans. Most of this activity is focused in areas favorably suited for horticultural activities-the Central Cibao, the plains of Azua, the environs of Santo Domingo, and the highland basins of Jarabacoa and Constanza-as op-posed to the marginal areas to which most of the Japanese colonists were initially assigned. In the western Cibao, the Japanese contributed significantly to the development of improved varieties of rice and improved methods of cultivation. In- volvement in the cultivation of rice has led to Japanese operation of five rice mills (IICA 1986) (Table I).$

THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

TABLEI-OCCUPATIONOF 162 HEADSOF

JAPANESE I N THEHOUSEHOLDS DOMINICAN 1985REPUBLIC,

NUMBER OF

OCCUPATION HOUSEHOLDS

Agricultural activities Vegetable producer Produce exporter General farmer Rice-mill operator Fruit producer Livestock producer

Total 86

Service activities Salaried clerk 16 Mechanic 4 Beauty-salon worker 2 Driver 2 Martial-arts school operator 2 Hospital employee 2 Hotel or restaurant manager 2 Janitor 2 Shop manager 2 Cook 1 Dry-cleaning establishment worker 1 Hairdresser 1 Photographer 1 Tailor 1

Total 42

Professional activities Engineer Architect Doctor Teacher

Total 15

Manufacturing activities Manufacturing or sales worker 4 Carpenter 1

Total 5

Miscellaneous activities Entrepreneur Civil servant Con~pany manager Fisherman

Total

Source: JICA 1985.


Within four years of their arrival in Jarabacoa and Constanza the Japanese began to market produce in Santo Domingo. By 1985 their horticultural expertise and entrepreneurial talents led to the establishment of fourteen companies devoted to

FIG. lo-Yoshimi Kokubun in his three-year-old vineyard in La Vigia, Dominican Republic, June 1991 (Photograph by Oscar Horst)

the export of fresh and processed vegetables (Figure 11; Table I). At that time, the degree of their involvement in the agricultural sector of the economy was reflected by the fact that half of all heads of Japanese households continued to be associated in one way or another with agriculture.

Among Japanese families the degree of literacy is high, and 60 percent of the second generation are college graduates. Although some are employed as clerks,


carpenters, or mechanics, others have become teachers, engineers, architects, or doc- tors. In keeping with Japanese traditions, they have established well-regarded schools of martial arts in Santo Domingo and Santiago (Matsunaga 1991; Sakamoto 1991). A

FIG. 11-A roadside vendor hawking eggplants, yard-long beans, and squash. The eggplants and beans had been purchased from a Japanese farmer living near San Francisco de Macoris. (Photograph by Oscar Horst, September 1991)

number of second- and third-generation Japanese have been recruited to work for Japanese relief agencies and trading companies in the Dominican Republic; others have found employment in Japan (Asagiri 1997). A fondness for gardening is reflected in Japanese sponsorship of the impressive Japanese gardens in the National Botani- cal Gardens of Santo Domingo (Matsunaga 1999).

THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

Much of the housing provided for Japanese colonists in the six border settlements now is either abandoned or occupied by impoverished families. Ironically, buildings in some of the border settlements provide dilapidated shelter for Haitian families.

The Japanese who remained in the Dominican Republic were ultimately able to find havens, if not for themselves, then for their children. Although most of the colonies in which the Japanese originally settled have foundered, individual sacri- fices set the stage for highly substantial contributions to Dominican society. The extent of those contributions belies the small numbers of Japanese involved. Unlike their Spanish, Jewish, and Hungarian counterparts, the fact that these Japanese colonists came from rural backgrounds may in part have accounted for their ability to withstand the adversities from which their later contributions were to flow.

Because Trujillo was obsessed with protecting his western frontier against en- croachment by Haitians, geopolitical concerns took precedence over good settlement policies. Having recruited the Japanese for their agricultural expertise, he made the mistake of settling most of the immigrants in exceedingly hostile physical environments without the wherewithal for ~uccess.~ This failure in judgment contributed significantly to the decision by many Japanese to abandon the "island paradise" to which they had come with such high expectations. Whatever Trujillo's reasons for seeking out the Japanese as immigrants, his hopes that they would contribute to the agricultural sector of the Dominican economy were eventually realized, however.

In 1989 the Japanese government enacted a law that enabled direct descendants born of overseas Japanese to obtain residency when applying for work permits in Japan. This resulted in a dramatic increase in Dominican applications for residency in Japan after 1990. It is a great irony that the Japanese government, which once attempted to shunt a surplus rural population overseas, is now courting the return of its urban, bilingual, Caribbean descendants. The overseas expansion of Japanese private and government enterprises into the Dominican Republic has likewise offered employment for the Dominican Republic Japanese descendants. Although opportunities were slow in coming, neither Trujillo nor the Japanese government could have envisioned the character of benefits that would accrue as a consequence of the generalissimo's often-misguided policies of governance.

1. The Evian Conference, convened in Evian-les-Bains, France, in July 1938, attempted to encourage nations to accept the entry of European Jewish refugees. The Dominican Republic, one of only two nations to respond positively to this request, attracted world attention by offering haven to 50,000 refugees (McDonald 1940,3; Munro 1942,281). An advisory committee headed by the distinguished geographer Isaiah Bowman, former director of the American Geographical Society, was charged by the Dominican Republic Settlement Association of New York with examining the problem of Jewish refugee settlement in the Dominican Republic (Troncoso de la Concha, Ortega Frier, and Rodriguez Demorizi 1945,32-33).

2. This is reminiscent of actions taken in 1824 by President Jean-Pierre Boyer of Haiti, who, during his nation's occupation of its neighbor, invited what were referred to as American Negroes ("per-sonaspor cuyos venas circulara sangre africana") to settle in various regions of the Dominican Republic

355 JAPANESE COLONISTS I N THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

in order to contribute to the local culture and demonstrate improved methods in the cultivation of crops (Rodriguez Demorizi 1945, 26-27).

3. The Federation of Japan Overseas Associations prepared handwritten reports, duplicated them, and distributed them for use in recruiting Japanese emigrants to Latin America. Seven of these reports for the Dominican Republic are assembled in manuals that contain neither a title nor a place of publication. The first report (FJOA 1956a, 1-14) also appears in Takahashi (1987,215-227).

4. We interviewed numerous Japanese repeatedly between 1988 and 1999, in Tokyo as well as in the Dominican Republic. Our interviews were in settings with families, with groups of men, and with individuals. Discussions with families or groups involved multiple responses to questions. Obviously, to cite a single individual in these instances is to deny the contribution of others. Given this complex- ity, most citations are restricted to initial meetings, though these were not necessarily the most infor- mative. The responses of the informants were sometimes in conflict with one another, which created an added complication. All of the interviews were personally conducted in Spanish andior Japanese.

5. In May 1959 Dominican authorities permitted the transfer of Japanese colonists from La Colonia to Jarabacoa (Dominica iju . . . 1972, 28). However, the wholesale departure of Japanese from the Dominican Republic and their disorganized movement elsewhere in the country makes it difficult to establish the precise number of families and individuals remaining in any of the colonies.

6. In 1991, former Japanese colonists in the Dominican Republic residing in Japan, in cooperation with Japanese residents living in the Dominican Republic, compiled a list of grievances concerning their failed colonies in the Dominican Republic (Ishii 1991; Konno 1991; Miyama igglb). Their complaints were subsequently submitted to a Japanese lawyers' association, which in turn took the matter up with the Japanese Foreign Ministry. In late August 1992, responding to the government's rejection of their claims, the former colonists, including representatives from the Dominican Repub- lic, met in Tokyo to consider further action against the government. In a highly publicized meeting they issued demands for an apology from the Japanese government and compensation for its failure to fulfill promises made to them (Hidaka 1992; Yanai 1992).

7. Among the original immigrants, many family units included individuals, generally males, who were not relatives. Thus 680 males and szo females were enumerated in 1960 (Dominican Revublic , ~

1966). The preponderance of males often led to marriage with females of other nationalities, primarily Dominican.

8. Concerning "tanioka" rice, at the time of its development this Japanese-derived strain was a significant improvement over existing varieties. Japanese immigrants introduced the hand planting of rice from seedbeds, a labor that eventually came to be relegated to immigrant Haitians. Only later did the remaining Japanese farmers in the Dominican Republic change to a new variety of rice, in which seeds are mechanically cast in fields. The new variety is shorter and planted densely, so that the individual plants support one another. The rising cost of Haitian labor was cited as the reason for the switch; however, we believe there is more to it than that.

9. In an account that is strikingly similar to the establishment of Japanese colonies in the Do- minican Republic, Charles Hitchcock detailed the founding of an Italian colony on the remote island of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina (1949). The emigration of Italians in 1948 from their "war-torn homeland" to the southernmost outpost of Ushuaia in Argentina mirrors the post-World War I1 desire of Japanese to escape the economic travails of a defeated Japan and their relocation in colonies along the equally remote western frontier of the Dominican Republic. In both instances, most colonists were made up of family units, males outnumbered females, selection was restricted to those with special- ized talents, and the governments of both Argentina and the Dominican Republic offered colonists additional subsidies. In both countries vehicles were insufficient to meet the needs of the colonists. and access to markets was inadequate. In terms of environmental limitations, unlike the tropical, arid environment endured by the Japanese in the Dominican Republic, the Italians were beset by a "water- soaked and frozen turf [subsoil]" and an unforgiving winter of darkness and cold (p. 647).

The Italians were to "develop Ushuaia as a naval base and tourist resort and to make use of the natural resources of the region" (p. 640). Unfortunately, infrastructure and routes of communication were essentially nonexistent, and mineral resources to be exploited had not been identified. Only cutover barrens remained of the forests intended to supply wood pulp for the planned production of "cellulose." In a similar fashion, Japanese farmers given inadequate acreage in hostile environments

356 T H E GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

devoid of access to water and fishermen without the equipment they required to venture into the open seas lacked the wherewithal to make use of the talents demanded of them as colonists. Unfortunately, Hitchcock's account ends one year after the arrival of the Italians in Ushuaia, leaving the reader to specu- late upon the outcome of the Italian venture in Argentina. Given the highly similar histories in the establishment of the Italian and Japanese colonies, however, it would be reasonable to assume that the outcome of the colonists in the former followed the same path as we describe for the Japanese in the Dominican Republic, except for the large repatriation of Italians to their homeland.

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357 IAPANESE COLONISTS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

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The Odyssey of Japanese Colonists in the Dominican RepublicOscar H. Horst; Katsuhiro AsagiriGeographical Review, Vol. 90, No. 3. (Jul., 2000), pp. 335-358.Stable URL:


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Agricultural Colonization in the Dominican RepublicJohn P. AugelliEconomic Geography, Vol. 38, No. 1. (Jan., 1962), pp. 15-27.Stable URL:

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Nationalization of Dominican BorderlandsJohn P. AugelliGeographical Review, Vol. 70, No. 1. (Jan., 1980), pp. 19-35.Stable URL:

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Empresa Borsari: Italian Settlement in Tierra Del FuegoCharles B. HitchcockGeographical Review, Vol. 39, No. 4. (Oct., 1949), pp. 640-648.Stable URL:

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http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-0095%28196201%2938%3A1%3C15%3AACITDR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-E&origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0016-7428%28198001%2970%3A1%3C19%3ANODB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W&origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0016-7428%28194910%2939%3A4%3C640%3AEBISIT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-O&origin=JSTOR-pdf

Documents

The Odyssey of Japanese Colonists in the Dominican Republic