<Article>"To-Bei" （Going to America） Boom in Late Meiji Era : American Ferer

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Other Title
  • <論説>明治後半期の渡米熱 : アメリカの流行
  • 明治後半期の渡米熱--アメリカの流行
  • メイジ コウハンキ ノ トベイ ネツ アメリカ ノ リュウコウ

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Description

From the latter half of the thirties to the forties of Meiji Era, many Japanese were interested in going abroad to America and many of them actually did so. A variety of books and leaflets were published to encourage their going to America, organizations promoting the trend such as Tobei-kyokai (渡米協会) or Rikiko-kai (力行会) were getting more active than ever and a considerable amount of information concerning America was on newspapers, and magazines. Such palatable phrases as "America ; the best country for emigrants!" or "there you can surely make money and study and would be called Yokogaeri (a prestigious title given to a returnee from the West)" were repeatedly on the lips of the people and attracted their attention. In the influx of success stories at that time, they made a hero of Roosebelt or Carnegie and the image of America as the land of equal opportunity, where anyone can hold success by means of his merits and abilities, prevailed. But the favorable image of America and the American Fever reflected in a perverted way the flustration felt by Japanese and the oppresive and stifling atmosphere of the Japanese society. From another point of view, it can be said that a sense of inferiority, humiliation and covert resentment against America were sealed up in the American Fever. It was the rise of the Anti-Japanese-Movement and the Yellow Peril after the Russo-Japanese War that disclosed the back side of the American Fever in Japan.

Journal

  • 史林

    史林 69 (3), 383-417, 1986-05-01

    THE SHIGAKU KENKYUKAI (The Society of Historical Research), Kyoto University

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