Prisons and Forced Labour in Japan

The Colonization of Hokkaido, 1881-1894

Pia Jolliffe

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781351206334
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: History

Prisons and Forced Labour in Japan examines the local, national and international significance of convict labour during the colonization of Hokkaido between 1881 and 1894 and the building of the Japanese empire.

Based on the analysis of archival sources such as prison yearbooks and letters, as well as other eyewitness accounts, this book uses a framework of global prison studies to trace the historical origins of prisons and forced labour in early modern Japan. It explores the institutionalization of convict labour on Hokkaido against the backdrop of political uprisings during the Meiji period. In so doing, it argues that although Japan tried to implement Western ideas of the prison as a total institution, the concrete reality of the prison differed from theoretical concepts. In particular, the boundaries between prisons and their environment were not clearly marked during the colonization of Hokkaido.

This book provides an important contribution to the historiography of Meiji Japan and Hokkaido and to the global study of prisons and forced labour in general. As such, it will be useful to students and scholars of Japanese, Asian and labour history.

1 Forced labour and arrest in Edo and Ezo

From the Kamakura period (1185–1333) onwards, Ezo has been a place of exile. For instance, in 1191, thieves were sent to Ezo, and from 1216 pirates were sent there, too. Importantly, the legal code of the Kamakura shogunate, the Goseibai Shikimoku (Formulary of Adjudications), promulgated in 1232, mentioned “exile to Ezo” (Ezo shima rukei) as punishment (Nakagawara, 1988, p. 3). During the early Tokugawa period, there was an initial lack of cooperation between Matsumae han and Edo (Hall, 1955, p. 101) which impacted on Ezo as a space of exile and banishment. For example, after the promulgation of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s anti-Christian edict in 1614, Christians were exiled to northern Japan. Some found refuge in Ezo where it was still possible to practice their faith (Cieslik, 1941, p. 320; Shigematsu, 2011, p. 148). As a consequence, priests travelled in disguise to these northern territories to visit the exiled Christian communities. When the Jesuit Girolamo de Angelis arrived in 1619, he was – in spite of his disguise – recognized as a priest. However, the daimyo of Matsumae reportedly told de Angelis that he had nothing to fear because “Matsuame is not Japan” (Boxer, 1993, p. 344).

Yet, similar to other han, Matsumae han also had a system of forced labour camps (ninsoku yoseba) and arrest houses (rōya). These institutions were antecedents to the Meiji Prison where forced labour and imprisonment turned into the principal form of punishment.

The ninsoku yoseba in Edo

The first forms of institutionalized forced labour emerged as a Tokugawa policy response to the rising number of dispossessed and homeless people in the 1770s and 1780s. During these years, natural disaster and crop failure caused the general population’s living conditions to worsen. In many rural areas, farmers were forced to abandon their fields. At the same time, the number of peasant uprisings increased, and in the cities the anger of starving citizens turned into attacks on the residences of moneylenders and the warehouses of wholesale merchants (uchi kowashi). In the year 1786 Japan’s entire agricultural production was cut by two-thirds. Yet, the bakufu was unwilling and unable to alleviate the populace’s distress (Hall, 1955, pp. 122–127). Eventually, the government’s Kansei Reforms (1789–1801) aimed at the re-establishment of public safety, including coping with rising numbers of dispossessed and homeless people (Botsman, 1999, p. 203). Thus, in 1789, Hasegawa Heizō, the bakufu official in charge of all cases of arson and theft, drafted plans for an enclosed work camp (ninsoku yoseba) on Ishikawajima, an island at the mouth of the Sumida River in Edo. The declared goal of this ninsoku yoseba was the re-education of marginalized individuals into farmers and shop owners, by putting inmates’ existing skills to work in the camp. Thus, the early labour camps of the Tokugawa period had the declared intention of conditioning their inmates to the wage system through monotonous work processes. Hasegawa introduced economically profitable labour operations, signing contracts with private persons to whom inmates were assigned to serve. In the beginning, tasks focused on the maintenance of the prison facility; however, over time, products for sale on the open market were also produced. Work tasks were divided into three areas: labour, crafting and farming. Labour included tasks such as construction and maintenance of storage facilities, polishing rice for consumption by the rōya and the digging of ditches. Inmates were also put to work privately as labourers and bricklayers and were ordered to do repairs in the houses of wealthy families. In crafting, the inmates were occupied in working with straw, processing coal and various woodworking tasks. The forced labourers were likewise hired by private companies to do similar tasks, as well as to transport coal and wood. Warehouse craftsman cut reeds and manufactured reed screens. Although apparently none of the above tasks drew the attention of the wider population of Edo, the recycling of paper in the yoseba became very controversial. Nevertheless, enough people supported the paper production so that it remained an important source of income for the facility, along with coal and woodworking, until the closing of the yoseba. The agricultural activities of the inmates on Ishikawajima were limited to the reclamation of arable land in the surrounding private estates, and farming to supply the institution (Hiramatsu, 1994, pp. 196–198; Tsukada 1995, p. 34). Measures were additionally enacted by the government to permit not just vagrants to be sent to the labour camps, but also disobedient servants and juvenile delinquents (Botsman, 1999, pp. 193–194). The year 1820 marked a further turning point in the ninsoku yoseba, when camp regulations were changed so that persons punished with banishment could also be deported to Ishikawajima (Hiramatsu, 1994, p. 206). Thus, the labour camp was used as a penal institution well into the era of the Great Tenpō Famine (1834–1837). However, during this great famine and the increasing vagrancy of the poorest of the poor that came with it, the population of the yoseba grew from its usual 150 inmates to around 400. So, to address the prison’s limited capacity in 1838 the admission of banished persons was halted and once again only homeless people were admitted. In Tenpō 12 (1841), after the situation in the region had calmed and the number of inmates had subsided, banishment sentences were once again replaced by deportation to the yoseba (Tsukada, 1995, p. 36).

In 1842, the arrest of vagrants arose again as the result of Chancellor Mizuno Tadakuni’s order to relocate all homeless and beggars to their village of origin. The majority of these marginalized individuals were, however, from Edo and its surroundings and so could not be sent back to countryside areas. These people were instead detained in Ishikawajima, with the camp reaching its highest population, 600 inmates, in 1844 as a direct result of this political measure.

Mizuno also ordered the establishment of a ninsoku yoseba network in areas under the direct control of the bakufu as well as in each han (Botsman, 1999, pp. 219–220). Following this order, the construction of four ninsoku yoseba in Osaka, Kyoto, Akita and Hakodate started in 1860 (Shigematsu, 2005, p. 167). The next section thus turns to focusing on the ninsoku yoseba in Ezo’s Matsumae han.

The ninsoku yoseba in Ezo

The plans to establish the first ninsoku yoseba in Hakodate were intimately related to the bakufu’s economic and political concerns. In the Treaty of Kanagawa (1854), Commodore Perry asked for the opening of the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate. Furthermore, after the signing of the Treaty of Shimoda (1855), the Kuril islands were divided between the Russian Empire and Tokugawa Japan. Thus, the opening of the port of Hakodate and the geographical closeness of the Russian Empire emphasized Japanese ideas of Hakodate being “the lock of the northern gate” (kiitamon sayaku), and urgently called for the “development of Ezo” (Ezochi kaitaku) (Shigematsu, 2005, p. 168). In this context, the establishment of a ninsoku yoseba in Hakodate seemed like a good plan as vagrants and criminals could be used as a cheap labour force for local development plans. However, the initial plan of a yoseba in Hakodate was dropped due to a scarcity of land and also because of concerns about potential moral decay. Proposals for alternative places included Daikoku Island and Okushiri Island, located off the shores of Eastern and Western Ezo, respectively. Eventually, the work camp was established in Usubetsu with a branch on Okushiri Island. Thus, the camp was referred to as Usubetsu Okushirishima ninsoku yoseba (Shigematsu, 2005, p. 168). Usubetsu served for a long time as a place of exile in the Matsumae han. Because of the construction of the yoseba, the infrastructure in the areas around Usubetsu improved and it eventually became a work camp that specialized in fishing industries (Shigematsu, 2005, p. 169). In 1860, another yoseba was constructed in Shiranuka located in Western Ezo. Most of the inmates there were criminals sent to work in the mines (Enomoto, 1999, p. 159). In 1861 a branch office of the bugyo (magistrate) of Hakodate was set up on Okushiri Island; this island, too, was used a space of exile for criminal offenders with light sentences. They worked in fishery specializing in produce such as sea urchins, sea snails, mackerel and wakame (Shigematsu, 2011, p. 149).

The institution of the ninsoku yoseba thus added another dimension to different forms of forced labour – such as the exploitation of Ainu labour in the basho system explained earlier – in early modern Ezo. The next section turns to early modern forms of imprisonment in Ezo.

Arrest in Edo

In early modern Japan, imprisonment was usually not a punishment in itself. Instead, the main function of arrest houses (rōya) was the detainment of suspects and as a holding space for those sentenced as guilty and awaiting their punishment. The rōya also served as a location for the execution of punishments such as decapitation, flogging and tattooing. Although it was used for people serving penalties of life imprisonment and imprisonments of a short period of 30 days, life imprisonment was specially reserved for persons charged with the death penalty or with exile to an island but who for some reason had received special consideration from the authorities (Hiramatsu, 1994, pp. 174–175).

The first rōya was founded under Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s rule about 10 years before the 1603 establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. Between 1596 and 1615 this arrest house moved to the Kodenmachō quarter of Edo near Nihonbashi, where it operated until the early Meiji period (Botsman, 1992, p. 9). The rōya in Edo’s Kodenmachō was possibly the largest institution of its kind and could hold up to 700 inmates, although the number of inmates was usually between 300 and 400. The rōya accommodated its inmates according to their social status and gender. Relatively luxurious accommodations were reserved for direct vassals of the Shogun, and lower vassals, doctors and priests were also given relatively comfortable agariya. These rooms were well lit and usually had a place to wash, a latrine and tatami flooring. Commoners were held in a general prison, farmers in a separate prison and women in a general women’s prison regardless of their social status (Nakagawara, 1988, p. 168). This confinement of women was, during the early Tokugawa period, a way to punish by association the female relatives of male criminals. By the late Tokugawa period, women who were themselves petty offenders were also gradually sentenced to short periods of arrest. This replaced the bakufu’s previous practice of punishing petty crimes by severing men and women’s ears and nose (Botsman, 2014, pp. 139–140).

Speaking was permitted in prisons except during the night time curfew. Smoking pipes was very common, even if it was officially forbidden to consume tobacco. Except for an occasional visit to the bugyō (commissioner), inmates generally did not leave their cells. In Edo during this period, they were usually not made to work and passed the time by playing Go, shōgi and various games of chance (Hiramatsu, 1994, pp. 175–176).

The rōya was different, however, in other parts of Edo and elsewhere in Japan. For example, a detailed account exists of the Spanish missionary Fray Diego de San Francisco’s 18-months imprisonment in a jail in Edo. This account was given in Fray Domingo Martinez’s (1761) Compendio Historico de la Apostolica Provincia de San Gregorio de Philipinas. He was captured on 14 April 1615 together with two Japanese companions. After being interrogated, they were sent to the public prison in Edo. This prison consisted of a square wooden building. The prisoners were kept in a cage inside this building. The cage measured roughly 10 metres (12 varas) by 4.18 metres (5 varas), and its wooden bars were so wide that almost no daylight could enter and prisoners spent their days in darkness. The cage had no windows, except for a little opening through which food and water was passed. Usually there were between 100 and 153 prisoners. They had to take off their clothes before entering the cage and were only allowed to wear a cloth to cover their private parts. No objects were allowed. Due to the narrow space, prisoners had to sit huddled on the floor in three rows so that it was impossible to stretch their legs without touching the other prisoners. It is unsurprising there was a lot of tension among the prisoners and records show they often hit and hurt each other. Worms and lice infestations were commonplace. Up to 30–40 prisoners could be ill at any one time, relieving themselves wherever they had been put. They were thus left lying in their own excrements and the jail stank. Prisoners were generally undernourished as the small amounts of rice they were given was insufficient to sustain an adult person. There was never enough rice provided for everyone so some of the prisoners starved to death, especially the sick who were unable to move and were often deprived of their portion. There was also a severe shortage of water. Each prisoner received one small cup of water in the morning and another in the late afternoon. Severe dehydration was widespread (Martinez, 1756, pp. 167–171).

Arrest in Ezo

The rōya in Matsumae han differed considerably from the rō in Edo’s Kodenmachō, as well as from the general prison in which Fray Diego de San Francisco was kept for 18 months. An important source for the arrest house conditions in Matsumae-han is the testimony of the Russian Captain Vasily M Golownin. In 1811, Golownin and his crew reached the shore of Kunashir, the southernmost part of the Kurile Islands. The bakufu considered this area, which is part of Ezo-chi, as territory belonging to Japan (Oguma, 2017, pp. 16–17). So, by entering Kunashir, Golownin and his six companions had transgressed Japan’s seclusion policy (sakoku) (Hall, 2008, p. 5). This policy only allowed Dutch and Chinese ships to enter Japanese territory through Dejima in Nagasaki. Golownin and his companions spent two years in total as prisoners of the Japanese in Ezo. After his return to St Petersburg, Golownin described his time of captivity in Ezo. His account was translated into several languages, including English with the title, Japan and the Japanese: Comprising the Narrative of a Captivity in Japan (Golownin, 1824a, b). In his memoirs, Golownin provides a detailed account of the various arrest houses he and his companions were kept in. They were initially placed in a prison in Hakodate. Golownin notes that their first sight of the prison “filled us with horror”. The long and dark wooden building looked like a barn and was surrounded by a strong wooden fence and a cheval-de-frise (i.e. a portable frame covered with projecting long iron or wooden spikes or spears). Inside, the building was structured in “apartments formed of strong thick spars of wood, which, but for the differences of size, looked exactly like bird-cages” (Golownin, 1824a, p. 126). The Japanese guards insisted the sailors remained in the presence of one of their own Russian officers “who would teach them, by his example and advice, to bear unavoidable misfortunes; adding that the men might otherwise lose courage, and become the victims of despair” (Golownin, 1824a, p. 127). In contrast to the rōya in Kondemachō, this arrest house in Hakodate did not group prisoners according to their social status, the guards appeared to take into considera...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Technical notes
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 Forced labour and arrest in Edo and Ezo
• 2 Hokkaido prison island
• 3 Prisons and rural development, 1881–1886
• 4 Hard labour as penal servitude, 1886–1894
• 5 Conclusion
• Index