Japanese Immigrants in Seattle

In the pacific northwest of the United States, Seattle serves as the biggest city in Washington State. Immigrants have been indispensable to making Seattle what it is today and this article traces the history of Seattle through its Japanese immigrants, with related documents from JACAR's database.

- Associations of Japanese in Seattle

The Japanese Association of North America was founded in Seattle in May 1900, according to the document "13. Seattle Chamber of Commerce" (Reference Code : B08061531000) (see [Image 2]). A few years later, in January 1908, the Japanese Business Club was created and later renamed in January 1928 to the Seattle Japanese Chamber of Commerce. Subsequently in 1931 the Japanese Association of North America and the Seattle Japanese Chamber of Commerce were merged into the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Japanese Association of North America.

So while there multiple retellings of the historical details discussed in the past few paragraphs, it can be said that the first association for Japanese immigrants formed in Seattle around 1899 or 1900, but was then repeatedly divided and reintegrated.

- The Anti-Japanese Movements and "the Anti-Japanese Land Law"

There were anti-Japanese movements in the United States which sought to exclude Japanese immigrants from daily life at the time the Japanese Association of North America was established in Seattle. While there was a growing sense of caution against Asia in Europe and in America from the mid-19th century, more and more Asians came over to the United States for work. Many American workers were inclined to exclude Asians because they feared their jobs would be replaced by cheap laborers. Campaigns mounted first at the end of the 19th century against Chinese immigrants, the biggest population of the Asian immigrants, resulting in a series of institutional measures to restrict Chinese immigration (* note 1). And then exclusion gradually shifted to targeting Japanese immigrants, particularly in California where a lot were settled along with Chinese. At this time, US federal laws did not allow for non-white Asian immigrants to be naturalized in America, although children could acquire citizenship if born within the country.

Treatment for Japanese in Seattle reflected trends occurring in neighboring California. In 1921 the Anti-Japanese Land Law was passed in Seattle, adopting another state's legislature, the California Alien Land Law of 1913. This state law prohibited aliens ineligible for citizenship to own or rent land more than three years. Although this act could be applied to Asian immigrants in general, it was presumed that the main target was the Japanese settlers, and it is widely known today as the Anti-Japanese Land Law (* note 2).

- The Japanese Immigrants in Pike Place Market: 1926

Washington's Anti-Japanese Land Law influenced the livelihood of local Japanese merchants at Seattle's biggest municipal market, Pike Place Market. The document of "12. "Seattle" "Pike" Market" (Reference Code : B11092205500) (see [Image 4]) is a report about the market from the Japanese Consulate in Seattle to the Japanese Foreign Minister dated in June 19, 1926, five years after enactment of the state law.

However, this report also indicates that Japanese had some reason for caution, since this conflict concerned the Anti-Japanese Land Law. According to the market's regulations, only farmers who owned land in King Country, Seattle could open booths. Yet the report says that the Japanese farmers were not able to own land because of the Anti-Japanese Land Law.

- The Japanese Immigrants in Pike Place Market: 1931

As the United States went through the Great Depression from 1929, Japanese merchants in Pike Place Market faced an increasingly dire situation, even more so than what was depicted previously in 1926 according to a November 10, 1931 report from the Japanese Consulate in Seattle to the Japanese Foreign Minister "6. Seattle" (Reference Code : B09040487400) (see [Image 5-1] and [Imagde 5-2]).

According to this report, the farmers sold their crops directly at rented booths, and the location and the schedule of the 98 booths in total were assigned by lot. Because of the Great Depression, roughly 249 farmers, merchants and delegates applied and scrambled for the limited number of booths. Some of those scrambling who were not Japanese sought to exclude Japanese farmers and merchants, a dominant group in the market. Campaigns were pushed forward that aimed to revise market regulations so that delegates would be ineligible to participate in the lot drawing. As a result, the regulations were revised on November 1 of 1931.

The report explains the impact of this policy on Japanese farmers, who were not entitled to own or rent land with their own names because of the Anti-Japanese Land Law. Thus their land was secured via proxy through American farmers and therefore in a legal sense they were not actual farmers with respective rights. The Japanese Consulate and the Japanese Association worked together to persuade business leaders of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce and secretaries of the mayor to suspend implementation of the new regulations. But the following report that we will examine casts doubt about the fragile status of the interests of Japanese farmers. It concerns the booths assigned by lot among delegates and also the possible recurrence of anti-Japanese movements.

- The 'Future' of the Japanese immigrants in Seattle

How did Japanese immigrants think about their future in America during strong anti-Japanese movements? The document "25. About the Upgrade of the Consulate in Seattle" (Reference Code : B14090319300) (see [Image 6]) is a petition to upgrade the Japanese Consulate in Seattle as submitted to Japanese Foreign Minister Kijuro Shidehara by Kojiro Takeuchi, the president of the Northwest American Japanese Association (* note 3).

However, Takeuchi's positive vision for US-Japan friendship did not quickly materialize. After the outbreak of the war between the United States and Japan in December 1941, the US government began to forcefully relocate and intern Japanese immigrants, which marked the hardest period for Japanese immigrants in America. The US government maintained a legal framework to define Japanese immigrants as "enemy aliens" until 1949. Since then, because the United States gradually established and reformed legal measures about ownership of land and acceptance of new immigrants, Japanese-Americans paved the way for a new era in the American society.

[note 1] In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited Chinese laborers (except merchants and some others) from entry into the United States. Initially this was a temporary measure for ten years, but subsequent legislation maintained the prohibition for a long time. ［↑］

[note 2] Prof. Toshihiro Minohara defines this law as a key step for the anti-Japanese movements in California and examines the historical process of this law in detail in his book, The Anti-Japanese Movement and the US-Japanese Relations: Why "the Immigration Act of 1924" Was Enacted? (2016). He presents important findings that the Japanese immigrants rather expanded their own land by using loopholes of this state law after its enforcement. However, a new land law was passed as a more strict measure in 1920 (called as "the Second Anti-Japanese Land Law") when the anti-Japanese movements expanded across the country. ［↑］

[note 3] The Northwest American Japanese Association headquartered in Seattle, consisted of delegates of Japanese associations in fifteen cities under the jurisdiction of the Japanese Consulate in Seattle including fourteen cities in the State of Washington such as Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue and Yakima. Havre in the State of Montana was also included under the jurisdiction. Similar organizations coordinating regional Japanese associations were established in the areas of the Japanese diplomatic missions: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver in North America and Canada (see Beikoku seihokubu zairyu nihonjin hatten ryakushi [The Brief History of Japanese Settlers in Northwest America], 1921). ［↑］

[note 4] Immigration from Japan into the United States was limited by the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 between those two governments, and then, was strictly prohibited by the Immigration Act of 1924. However, it should be noted that despite the name of the Japanese Exclusion Act, it excluded not only Japanese. ［↑］

[References]

Beikoku seihokubu renraku nihonjin kai [The Northwest American Japanese Association], ed., Beikoku seihokubu zairyu nihonjin hatten ryakushi [The Brief History of Japanese Settlers in Northwest America] (Seattle: Beikoku seihokubu renraku nihonjin kai [The Northwest American Japanese Association], 1921).

Funakoshi, Ryosuke, "Seattle nihon kokugo gakkou hatsu no shoto riyo nihongo kyokasho ni kansuru ichikosatsu" [A Study on the First Japanese Textbook Used in Elementary Class of the Japanese Language School in Seattle], Gakko kyoikugauku kenkyu ronshu [Journal of Educational Research], No. 32 (2015).

Hirobe, Izumi, Jinshu senso toiu guuwa: ouka ron to ajia shugi [Fables of Ethnic Warfare: Yellow Peril and Pan-Asianism] (Nagoya: The University of Nagoya Press, 2017).

Kachi, Teruko, "Nichibei tsusho kokai joyaku to California-shu tochi hou" [The Japan-US Treaty of Commerce and Navigation and the California Land Law, Kokusai seiji [International Relations], Vol. 17 (1961).

Kessler, J. B., and Kan, Ori, "Nichibei kankei no image to beikoku renpou seido: kashu hainichi tochiho ronso wo tsujite no ichikosatu" [Images in Japan-U.S. Relations as Affected by the Dynamics of American Federalism: Studies on Japan-U.S. Relations with Special Reference to Mutual Images], Kokusai seiji [International Relations], Vol. 34 (1967).

Kido, Yoshiyuki, America gasshukoku to chugokujin imin: rekishi no naka no "imin kokka" America [Chinese Immigrants in the United States: The Making of a "Nation of Immigrants"] (Nagoya: The University of Nagoya Press, 2012).

Kobayashi, Tohru, "Nikkei America jin shoshi" [Short History of Japanese American], Nagasaki kokusai daigaku ronso [Nagasaki International University Review], Vol. 2 (2002).

Kurokawa, Katsutoshi, Ryo-taisenkan no America seihokubu nikkei shakai: Seattle to sono shuhen chiiki ni okeru rodo, seikatsu, shimin undo [The Japanese Society in Northwestern America in the Interwar Period: The Movement for Labor, Life and Citizenship in Seattle and Its Neighboring Area] (Okayama: Daigaku Kyoiku Shuppan [University Education Press], 2011).

Kurokawa, Katsutoshi, "Seattle saisho-ki no nikkei shimin undo" [The Japanese American Citizens' Movement in Seattle, 1921-1928], Okayama daigaku keizaigakkai zasshi [Okayama Economic Review], Vol. 42, No. 2 (2010).

Kurokawa, Katsutoshi, America rodo undo to nihonjin imin: Seattle ni okeru haiseki to rentai [The Labor Movement in America and the Japanese Immigrants: Exclusion and Solidarity in Seattle] (Okayama: Daigaku Kyoiku Shuppan [University Education Press], 1998).

Minohara, Toshihiro, America no hainichi undo to nichibei kankei: "Hainichi imin hou" wa naze seiritsu shitaka [The Anti-Japanese Movements and Japan-US Relations: How "the Anti-Japanese Immigration Act" Was Passed] (Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun Shuppan, 2016).

Minohara, Toshihiro, Hainichi imin hou to nichibei kankei: "Hanihara shokan" no shinso to sono "judai naru kekka" [The Anti-Japanese Immigration Act and Japan-US Relations: The Truth about "the Hanihara Letter" and Its "Grave Consequence"] (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 2002).

Mizutani, Kenichi, "1942 nen iminhou ni okeru "nihonjin mondai"" ["Japanese Problems"　Associated with the U.S. Immigration Act of 1924], Doshisha America kenkyu [Doshisha American Studies], Vol. 33 (1997).

Sakaguchi, Mitsuhiro, "Nihonjin kai network: hokubei nihonjin kai no soshiki to katsudo wo chushin ni" [Japanese Association of North America and Network Relations], Shiso [Kyoto Women's University Journal of Historical Studies], Vol. 58 (2001).

Sugiura, Tadashi, "Ethnic town no seisei hatten model to beikoku nihonjin gai ni okeru kensho" [A Model of Ethnic Town Formation and Development Applied to Four Japantowns, or Concentrated Japanese Ethnic Business Communities, in America], Kikan chirigaku [Quarterly Journal of Geography], Vol. 63, No. 3 (2011).

Special web exhibition "Japan's Wartime and Postwar Periods Recorded : Transformation of Japan's Governance Structure"

How has Japanese culture today continued to be shaped by the Second World War? In what ways have Japanese stayed rooted in a prewar social structure while absorbing policies of the Allied Occupation? This web exhibition uses public records to explore how, in the pre- and postwar periods, Japan was politically transformed in areas of economics, society and culture.

[Publicity Work]

-Domestic

[Visitors]

The Condition of Japan Related Materials in Japan

JACAR Researcher Muneaki Hirano and Daisuke Hayashi visited the following three institutions to learn about their collections and digitization projects during a trip to Kyoto June 2016. Below is a report of the visits.

- Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University ( >> Website)

And as a result of changes in the year 2000, now it includes the following affiliated research centers, the Department of Humanities (3 divisions: Cultural Research Methodologies, Cultural Processes, and Cultural Interrelationships), the Department of Oriental Studies (2 divisions: Cultural Representation and Cultural Composition Division), the Center for Informatics in East Asian Studies (CIEAS) and the Research Center for Modern and Contemporary China (RCMCC: jointly established by Kyoto University and the National Institutes for the Humanities, which is part of the Inter-University Research Institute Corporation).

The collections of the former Occidental branch mainly include French books and materials of the 18th and the 19th centuries which consist of the "Saint-Simon and Fourier Collections." And as other categories, the Institute also has the collections of "Materials" including goods, books, references and pictures purchased and donated since the foundation of the Institute.

The entire collection of the Institute for Research in Humanities has been growing by purchases and donations of materials, but the institute currently does not accept donations in principle. Among the collections, the materials about labor unions and the National Levelers' Association (Suiheisha) of the former Japanese branch are not original documents but copied or microfilmed materials. And as the "Naito Collections" of the former Oriental branch are basically commercial books and materials collected by Dr. Torajiro "Konan" Naito, the collections do not have essential values as historical materials and are not frequently requested by users, except for the Manchuria-related materials such as the "Official Gazette of the Manchukuo Government" and the "Mukden Economic Quarterly."

CIEAS in the Institute for Research in Humanities stores a large volume of pictures from during the war. Among those images, CIEAS does not disclose the index of materials which have clear enough images of individuals who can be identified or contents that are difficult to be handled. CIEAS holds film recording the expedition to the Yungang Grottoes by the Institute of Oriental Studies in 1938 and has released the film as digitized materials on the Research Resource Archive of the Kyoto University Digital Archives System (KUDAS). KUDAS is a platform to release research and completed projects, sometimes by retired Kyoto University scholars. It operates by converting the contents of materials into a certain format, editing the data, and uploading the files as public contents on the platform.

→Digital Collections on the Kyoto University Digital Archives System (KUDAS), Research Resource Archive, Kyoto University

While CIEAS contains a multifaceted database, it has no specific division in charge of digitization. Staff members of CIEAS undertake the process of digitization and building online infrastructure for its research projects. One of the leading staff members for digitization and the online system construction is Dr. Koichi Yasuoka, professor of the Institute and coordinator of CIEAS. Prof. Yasuoka has joined several collaborative research projects, learning about them and helping to disseminate their findings by setting up online infrastructure. He generally uses JPEG or TIFF formats for digitization of images, and also adopts DjVu format for digitization of maps or for embedding texts in images (embedding text information in each letter on image files).

"The Stone Rubbing Character/Word (Takuhon) Database of the Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University" is the digital collections of stone rubbing characters (takuhon) from the ancient Han dynasty to the modern Republic of China period. This database presents digital images of rubbings not only in JPEG format but also in DjVu format for advanced functions. Those functions include displaying the letter of each character image on digital files and also calling different patterns of images of the same letter on other files in the database. Prof. Yasuoka designed those advanced functions by himself for embedding letters in each character on image files and calling different patterns of images by using DjVu interfaces (this database was created by the collaborative research project in which he served as a coordinator).

→The Stone Rubbing Character/Word (Takuhon) Database of the Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University (Japanese only)

Prof. Yasuoka has been constructing an online system of research principally in HTML for easy maintenance in the long term. Some of the research projects are shared online and linked to others within their search results and detailed index. It is possible to share and commonly use those resources via meta data in CSV format from each collaborative research unit which is in charge of meta data contents (and the meta data may be modified upon a request of the collaborative research unit). The financial resources for digitization or making database of those collaborative research came from the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Kakenhi) funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, although it is mainly financed today from the budget of the Institute itself as a collaborative research center. While digital contents are basically open to the public and can be used freely for secondary use, the institute requests users to cite sources of the digital contents for publication of books and articles. Particularly, "the Stone Rubbing Character/Word (Takuhon) Database" and the map database are most frequently accessed for secondary use. The Takuhon Database, essentially designed for scholars of Chinese area studies, is also frequently used among calligraphers in order to search for a various kind of styles of letters. It was totally unexpected, reported Prof. Yasuoka, that it would be used in that way but it caused different types of demands for potential users.

Prof. Yasuoka emphasized that it is quite important that digitized materials should be maintained and research institutes should bear responsibility for managing the contents and responding to various kinds of inquiries to the materials.

- The Maizuru Repatriation Memorial Museum ( >> Website)

In October 2015, a part of the museum's collections (570 items) were inscribed on the list of the UNESCO Memory of the World Register as the "Return to Maizuru Port—Documents Related to the Internment and Repatriation Experiences of Japanese (1945-1956)."

The items in the museum's holdings have been digitized and can be searched and displayed by thumbnail images from terminals in the exhibition rooms. Some items are also displayed as digital images in the gallery collections on the museum's official website. The museum has edited these images by masking personal information on image files in the digitization process.

The museum does not accept requests for specific materials out of personal interest, although it has accepted a large number of applications for secondary use of materials. Yet it does not open the boarding lists of repatriates on demobilization ships to the public because they include a lot of personal information. Some of the materials that include personal information can be accessed if the donors or the persons concerned provide permission for release. Unless the museum has obtained approval for the release of personal items, they will not be open to the public or will be edited with masking when accessed from terminals in the exhibition room.

The number of visitors has been increasing from less than 70,000 in 2012 to 130,000 in 2015 because the museum has been working on public relations by offering lectures at neighboring schools, inviting groups on tour via travel agents, offering quick responses to inquiries from local newspapers and the mass media, and the museum has also been appealing to tourists on school trips (particularly in the Kanto or the Tokai area to Kyoto). Recently there has been an uptick among visitors aged in their 20s to 50s, although the majority of visitors are aged over 60 and had directly experienced, or knew of those who had undergone, repatriation and internment in Siberia.

- The Kyoto Prefectural Library and Archives ( >> Website)

The Kyoto Prefectural Library and Archives also commissioned management of items of fine arts, crafts and folklore to the Kyoto Cultural Foundation. One of the major collections, "the Toji Hyakugo Monjo" [archives of Toji temple contained in one-hundred boxes], was inscribed on the List of the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in October 2015. The entire collections of the Kyoto Prefectural Library and Archives include approximately 380,000 books, 130,000 archival items, 90,000 public records, 70,000 pictorial materials and 20,000 modern literary works.

The organization has also occasionally accepted donations of materials, particularly administrative documents of the prewar days that were donated by some citizens. The staff also review primary records without a prior designation for permanent preservation periodically (5, 10 or 20 years) before disposing of documents or selecting some of them to be transferred for long term access in the Kyoto Prefectural Library and Archives. These total about 100 files a year and are sent after consultations with the departments or sections that originally created those records. The records are selected for archiving based on whether they can supplement the permanent preservation records or hold much social interest (e.g. human rights or environmental content, etc.).

The Kyoto Prefectural Library and Archives has not actively promoted digitization of files so far, because it has had no specific budgetary items for it. However, along with restoration of the important cultural properties that date prior to 1946 as funded by the Agency of Cultural Affairs, the Kyoto Prefectural Library and Archives also outsources digitization of properties for future release as the digitized materials. It is currently preparing for digitization with a budget of 100 million yen from 2014 to 2016 since digitization is one important objective for opening the new building. It prioritizes digitization of items from the Meiji period which are easy for capturing, as they remain generally in good condition and they are on specific topics such as disasters (particularly floods) or municipal mergers. The Kyoto Prefectural Library and Archives registers digitized materials and currently releases only its index at the Kyoto Memories Archive, which is a digital archives maintained by the Kyoto Prefectural Library and Archives. The Kyoto Memories Archive, which was launched in November 2015, also offers digital images and some major collections to the public. It is working to integrate its archival systems and combine them, so the Kyoto Kitayama Archives and the Kyoto Memories Library, which are currently closed, will be available online through the Kyoto Memories Archive.

→The Kyoto Prefectural Library and Archives, The Kyoto Memories Archive (Japanese only)

The majority of visitors to these archives are scholars interested in the Lake Biwa Canal or the railways, amateur researchers, undergraduate and graduate students researching educational history, park history and building evacuations. Not so many visitors research family history, presumably because there are not genealogical records or residential maps before about 1955. The most frequently used materials are cadastral maps of the Meiji period (marking the boundaries of land ownership and topographies) and records of construction projects. These materials can be used for secondary use in principle after a due process of applications, payment for commissions, and permission for use issued by the Kyoto Prefectural Library and Archives. Users can freely access the digitized items of the Kyoto Memories Archive for secondary use without submitting applications.

The Condition of Japan Related Materials in Europe

JACAR Senior Specialist for Archival Affairs Katsumasa Maruo and researcher Takeshi Sakuma visited the following four institutions to learn about their collections of Japan-related materials and digitization projects during a trip to Rumania and Germany September 2016. Below is a report of the visits.

- The National Archives of Romania (Arhivele Naționale ale României) ( >> Website)

- Freie Universität Berlin Campus Library (Campusbibliothek der Freie Universität Berlin) ( >> Website)

All materials are held and arranged according to the specifications of RVK (Regensburger Verbundklassifikation consisting of 33 scientific classification schemes). Visitors can use the online catalogue "Library Portal Primo" (Bibliotheksportal Primo) to search the holdings with computers near the library's entrance. Visitors can also search for Asian-related materials, either digital or printed ones, with the Latin alphabet letters and in original script. Faculty members or students can request the digitization of materials out of copyright (published more than 70 years ago) free of charge at the imaging service of the University Library.

→Library Portal Primo (German)

One of the precious materials of the Japanese collection is a handwritten memorandum by Tatsuo Amano, a defense lawyer of the League of Blood Incident and one of the nationalists who established the Patriotic Service Party, "the Summary of Defense (in the case against Akira Inoue and 13 other people of murders by the League of Blood)" (the provenance is unknown).

The League of Blood Incident is a series of terrorist murder cases which took place in February and March 1932. Junnosuke Inoue (Finance Minister) and Takuma Dan (President of Mitsui Partnership) were assassinated by Sho Onuma and Goro Hishinuma each of who were under the tutelage of a nationalist leader Akira "Nissho" Inoue. Inoue and his group also planned to assassinate genro (senior advisory authorities) and other senior politicians of the government. As Onuma and Hishinuma had ties of kinship as cousins, the suspects called each other as a "soul mate of the League of Blood." In the background of the incidents, Japanese went through unprecedented recessions in the rural areas in Tohoku, labor unrest, suppression by authorities, corruptions and scandals of party politics. Incidents took place in the midst of growing pressure for state reforms and progressive movements promoted by nationalists and military officers.

The trials began on June 28, 1933 but were adjourned at their twelfth session due to petitions from the defendants to recuse chief judge Teiichiro Sakamaki and associate judges from the case. The trials started again with Goichiro Fujii newly assigned as chief judge on March 27, 1934, and the court was closed at the 64th session on August 23. After the prosecutors recommended a sentence on August 28, the judgment was made on November 22. The case was reported as a story of "the spirit of self-sacrifice" in the media, since individuals attempted to sacrifice themselves for an uprising that could sweep away corrupted power. It was regarded as a revolutionary attempt to receive so much sympathy from the public, and the defense lawyers received a lot of petitions for reduction of sentences written in blood or the black hair of women from all over the country. This memorandum is an irreplaceable material that describes Japan's modern history, along with "the Statement of Petition and the Prison Diaries of the League of Blood Incident" and "the Stenographic Records of the League of Blood Incident Trial."

Later, Tatsuo Amano was arrested on charges of preparations and plots of insurrection as leader of the Shimpei-tai Incident, a coup d'état to overthrow the government, and they planned and initiated for state reform movements after the failed attempt by the May 15 Incident of 1932.

[References]

"Ketsumeidan Jiken" [The League of Blood Incident] (written by Masae Takahashi), Kokushi daijiten [The Great Dictionary of National History], Vol. 5, Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1985.

Makiyo Hori, "Ketsumeidan jiken no shinjuusha tachi: Onuma Sho, Hishinuma Goro, Yotsumoto Yoshitaka wo chushin ni" [The Followers of the League of Blood Incident: The Cases of Sho Onuma, Goro Hishinuma and Yoshitaka Yotsumoto], Waseda Daigaku Seiji Keizaigaku Zasshi [The Waseda Journal of Political Science and Economics], Vol. 329, 1997.

Ketsumeidan jiken kouhan kiroku kanko kai [The Publishers of the Stenographic Records of the League of Blood Incident Trial], Ketsumeidan jiken kouhan sokkiroku [The Stenographic Records of the League of Blood Incident Trial], Vol. 1-3, 1967-1968.

Ketsumeidan jiken kouhan kiroku kanko kai [The Publishers of the Stenographic Records of the League of Blood Incident Trial], Ketsumeidan jiken joshinsho gokuchu nikki [The Statement of Petition and the Prison Diaries of the League of Blood Incident], 1971.

Ref.A04010482200, Material of Special Service Police: Record of prosecutor speech and judgment of nationalistic threat cases.

- Political Archive of Federal Foreign Office (Politisches Archiv des Auswartiges Amts) ( >> Website)

The entire collection stretches to 27 linear kilometers in bookshelves; there are 36,000 files of treaties and conventions, for example. Although the Allied Powers had once seized some of the documents, the US and the UK returned most of them, aside from US files on the Nazi Party, between 1958 and 1960. Those documents were added to the Political Archive in the 1990s.

In collections pertaining to Japan, the archives has papers of Japan-German relations from the 19th century and papers on Japan-European relations. There are also files that examine developments between Japan and neighboring powers during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, relations between Germany and its belligerents in wartimes, the Siberian Expedition, and reports on Japan and its neighboring countries from Germany's overseas establishments.

The archive has released all the documents which had been captured by and returned from the Allied Powers based upon agreements for release with those countries. It has also released other documents that had been thirty years old according to the Federal Archives Act. It has also released files with personal information ten years after the death of the person concerned.

- Berlin State Library (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin) ( >> Website)

In the German governmental system, it is not the federal government but each state that administers educational and cultural policies. The German National Library, therefore, consists of two buildings in Frankfurt/Main and in Leipzig (formerly the Deutsche Bücherei in East Germany and the Deutsche Bibliothek in West Germany) and the German Music Archive in Berlin. Apart from the National Library several other state libraries exist, such as the Bavarian State Library in Munich, and the Berlin State Library (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – PK, (http://staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/de/). The German National Library is a deposit libraries which receives all the publications in Germany and creates bibliographical records by law. The Berlin State Library was founded by the Great Elector, Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg in 1661 and became the Prussian Royal Library in 1701. As the library building of 1913 was located in Unter den Linden within the territory of East Berlin after the Second World War, another building was constructed in West Berlin in 1978. After the German reunification of 1990, both the libraries were integrated and became the Historic Research Library Unter den Linden (Historische Forschungsbibliothek Unter den Linden) and the Research Library of the Modernity Potsdamer Straße (Forschungsbibliothek der Moderne Potsdamer Straße) respectively. The library is currently run under the budget of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation which is operated under the joint legal and financial responsibilities of the federal government and the sixteen states.

The Berlin State Library has exchange programs of governmental publications with the National Diet Library of Japan, the National Central Library of Taiwan, and the National Library of Korea. Among the entire collection of eleven million books and materials, the library has 700,000 items of East Asian-related materials. Most of the East Asia-related materials are in the stacks of Friedrichshagen in the suburbs of Berlin; children's books and newspapers are in Westhafen; maps and manuscripts are currently in Unter den Linden and Potsdamer Straße, but will move to Unter den Linden permanently once the renovation works there are finished. Depending on the time a request is made, it takes until the afternoon or until the next day to transfer materials to Unter den Linden or Potsdamer Straße. Users can also request books not stocked in the library with the general Inter-Library Loan services.

The East Asia Department (http://staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/en/about-the-library/abteilungen/ostasien/) was originally established in 1922 and is currently located in the building at Potsdamer Straße. Among the 22 staff members in the department, there are seven in charge of Japanese materials, including two Subject Specialists for Japan, nine are responsible for Chinese materials, and there are two members in charge of Korean and Central Asian materials each. The staff provides guidance and reference information services, purchases new publications, updates the catalogue (http://crossasia.stabikat.de), and receives donations of books and materials from scholars. In addition the East Asia Department is collaborating with the Jagiellonian University in Poland for the "Berlin-Krakow Project: The Digitisation of East Asian Berlinka,", a digitization project to integrate the East Asia related materials and collections of the pre-war era which were evacuated to Poland during WWII into virtual collections. This digitization projects includes among others the collection of Paul Georg von Moellendorff (1847-1901), advisor to Li Hongzhang of the Qing dynasty and King Gojong of the Joseon dynasty.

→Berlin-Krakow Project: The Digitisation of East Asian Berlinka

The current collection of premodern titles of the East Asia Department is available in open access on the website of the Berlin State Library (http://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/). Please click on "Japonica" to browse the Japanese collection including several handscrolls as well as manuscripts and printed books mainly from the Edo and Meiji period.

Books refering to JACAR or documents from its database donated in current year are as follows.