Barriers to Repatriation: Reestablishing Identity and Domicile

Abstract

With the “Wartime Death Decree” of 1959, most of the orphans’ domiciles (equivalent to birth certificates) were eliminated from their parents’ household domiciles. They already had their graves in their hometowns. Instead of rescinding this wrongful decree, the Ministry of Justice decided to treat the repatriates from China as legal aliens in 1975. Even if their domiciles had not been eliminated, the orphans had no way to find them unless they knew their Japanese names. Therefore, the orphans could not legally become Japanese again unless they reestablished their domiciles. Reestablishing domiciles required a trial process at a local family court, as well as the kin’s proof of their identities. Another way to establish their domiciles was to reconfirm their Japanese nationality at a district court. The latter procedure was even more difficult than the former, because it involved a prosecutor as an agent of the national government. In addition to the arduous task of finding their kin, the orphans had to go through a strenuous legal battle with the Japanese government to reestablish their domiciles for repatriation to their homeland.¹