Table of Contents

Introduction: Malthusian expansion and settler colonialism; Part I. Emergence, 1868-1894: 1. From Hokkaido to California: the birth of Malthusian expansionism in modern Japan; 2. Population and racial struggle: the South Seas, Hawai'i, and Latin America; Part II. Transformation, 1894-1924: 3. Commoners of empire: labor migration to the United States; 4. Farming rice in Texas: the paradigm shift; 5. 'Carrying the white man's burden': the rise of farmer migration to Brazil; Part III. Culmination, 1924-1945: 6. Making the migration state: Malthusian expansionism and agrarianism; 7. The illusion of coexistence and coprosperity: settler colonialism in Brazil and Manchuria; Part IV. Resurgence, 1945-1961: 8. The birth of a 'small' Japan: postwar migration to South America; Conclusion: rethinking migration and settler colonialism in the modern world.

Promotional Information

Shows how Japanese anxiety about overpopulation was used to justify expansion, blurring lines between migration and settler colonialism. This title is also available as Open Access.

About the Author

Sidney Xu Lu is Assistant Professor of History at Michigan State University.

Reviews

'Brilliantly researched and conceptually sophisticated, this book offers a new interpretation of Malthusianism and will have a huge impact on the way we think about Japanese migration while complicating the divide between studies of the Japanese empire and Japanese immigration to the US, Hawaii, Latin America and other locations in Asia-Pacific.' Takashi Fujitani, University of Toronto
'The Making of Japanese Settler Colonialism offers a bold new synthesis of the histories of Japanese imperialism and diaspora. It shows vividly how Japanese ideologues from the late nineteenth century straight through until after World War II were driven by anxieties about overpopulation and by the ideology of race competition.' Jordan Sand, Georgetown University, Washington DC
'Sidney Lu's wonderful new book delves into the history of Japanese migration and its relation to the quest for power on the world stage. It's the story of a nation's fixation with overpopulation: how Malthusianism gained traction in the 1860s and why it flamed out in the 1950s. This is an important addition to the literature on Japanese empire and settler colonialism.' Louise Young, University of Wisconsin, Madison
'Lu (Michigan State Univ.) presents a well-written, innovative study of how Japanese empire builders invented and promoted the discourse of overpopulation to justify Japanese settler colonialism across the Pacific between the early Meiji and post-WW II periods ... Including stories from Japanese who participated in this movement to the far corners of the Pacific Rim, this book is highly recommended for anyone interested in modern Japanese history and transnational colonialism.' M. D. Ericson, Choice
'I recommend without reserve to scholars and students of Japanese imperial expansionism and trans-Pacific migration, as well as any reader interested in the history and policies of modern Japan.' Hugues Canuel, Global Maritime History
'As Lu's erudite book reveals, the shift in colonial imaginations expressed in the characters offers a distinctively Japanese inflection to theoretical understandings of colonial migration-one that is best understood in its transpacific manifestations.' Martin Dusinberre, Project Muse