American Burakumin – an untold story

By Pat Kitano

7 Dec 2009

This Thanksgiving, I broached a topic with my Japanese American cousins about a heritage issue they weren’t too familiar with.

Few Americans know that the Japanese historically has an underclass of untouchables similar to other Asian cultures like India. The “burakumin” are descendants of a feudal outcaste that worked in occupations handling dead bodies – butchers, leather workers – and considered unclean. They are indistinguishable in physical appearance from other Japanese, and live mostly in the western half of Japan. Even in Japan, it’s a hidden culture that makes for embarrassing public conversation, let alone media coverage. My wife who grew up in Tokyo knew very little about their existence.

The Burakumin have always lived a segregated existence because the government keeps family records based on residence that made escaping their heritage difficult. Their plight became publicized with the 1975 disclosure of a hand written book that disclosed the locations of burakumin ghettoes for use by Japanese corporate recruiters. Even this year, Google Earth caused an uproar in Japan by overlaying old maps that highlighted burakumin neighborhoods, which Google eventually doctored. The systemic societal ostracism accounts for estimates that 70% of Yakuza, the Japanese mafia, are burakumin.

Normally reticent Japanese now discuss the burakumin issue in the chat forums. Information suppressed for generations is disclosed (in Japanese) albeit under cloak of anonymity. There are inferences that many burakumin emigrated from Japan to the US in the early 1900’s as a natural cleanser to their tainted background. The old Hollywood meme of the Japanese gardener and florists in LA may have been started by burakumin who would tend garden at the castles (although it’s also said that non-burakumin Japanese also followed into the profession).

Burakumin were nameless during the feudal era that ended in the mid-1800s. Many were then given geographical or directional names. Burakumin ghettoes were located near rivers and higher up in less arable land. Yamaguchi means mountain mouth, and Olympic skater Kristi Yamaguchi is said to be burakumin.

The American Burakumin

What makes this interesting to Japanese Americans is the experience of the American Burakumin has almost no documentation. My 87 year old aunt says their status in San Francisco was known and my grandmother discouraged a relationship between a cousin and a known family. But that’s all. I think the socially liberal Japanese Americans didn’t give it a second thought.

Then I met a 70-year-old Japanese American woman last year who described in great detail two segregated cultures of Japanese Americans while growing up in Los Angeles. Brings up searing questions… why isn’t this documented? How did they co-exist when Japanese were shipped out to those WW2 internment camps? Was this downtrodden culture already too docile to put up a fight against relocation?

If you’re Japanese American, do you know if you’re a descendant of the burakumin? It’s possible that story never got told. Is there family lore that you’re descended from samurai? If so, might it be a whitewash tale? It’s an intriguing heritage issue.

I’ve created a posterous blog to try to document this at http://burakumin.posterous.com. Please tell your story. My wife tells me it could make Japanese uncomfortable.

* This article was originally published in Media Transparent on November 27, 2009.

© 2009 Patrick Kitano

7 comments on this post

vkm at 7:48 p.m. on Mon 7 Dec 2009

I had heard about the burakumin issue when the Google map thing came up, but I hadn't made the connection to think about whether the issue had come over to the U.S. as well. I've never heard of it being an issue here.

If you are able to find out more, I hope you share more here!

pkitano at 10:49 a.m. on Tue 8 Dec 2009

Exactly, there is no record of this being an issue in the US because the Japanese tend to brush embarrassing issues under the rug. I would like to hear from Issei and Nisei who recognized that there may have been community issues.

vkm at 2:23 p.m. on Tue 8 Dec 2009

I wonder if many burakumin came to the US as a way to escape the discrimination they faced in Japan, in which case, it would make sense that they wouldn't want to have that information be known.

Masaji at 7:38 p.m. on Sun 13 Dec 2009

Very interesting, Pat. I've done some research into this too. When living in Japan, I was told by well connected Japanese friends that large, Japanese companies had a directory of names and addresses that identified those of burakumin background. Remember that this group is as ethnically 'Japanese' as any other; they just have the misfortune of being born into this underclass which, I believe, was created by the Buddhist leaders of that day. I would like to know more too. For your information, there is a burakumin museum in Osaka that is worth a visit.

pkitano at 2:45 p.m. on Fri 18 Dec 2009

The discovery of the secret "corporate" buraku directory seemed to have spurred the Burakumin civil rights movement in 1975. Wikipedia has a comprehensive writeup on the Burakumin at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burakumin

pkitano at 5:11 p.m. on Wed 24 Feb 2010

I just found a book/thesis that delves into Japan's institutional exportation policies of the lower classes http://burakumin.posterous.com/exporting-japan-politics-of-google-books.

vkm at 9:10 p.m. on Wed 24 Feb 2010

Very interesting! Have you read it yet? What does it say about bunrakumin?

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