Kyori Sokin, Remittances to Hometowns in Japan from Yokohama Specie Bank 

Introduction

Among the most valuable records of the Yokohama Specie Bank included in the Seizo-Oka collection, JAHA, are the original forms of kyori sokin 郷里送金, remittances to hometowns. These remittance forms from the Yokohama Specie Bank, Los Angeles subbranch, are from 1938 and 1939. Although the available documents are partial and cover only a few months from one subbranch, more than 2,200 hand-written forms tell us a lot about the prewar Issei family networks and their social and economic connections to their hometowns in Japan and beyond. Who sent money to whom and to where in Japan? How much money was sent? Why were these remittances sent to Japan?

YSB remittance forms show how broadly Issei networks spread all over Japan and beyond through their family ties. Their monetary support reflects how much the Issei cared about their families and friends in their hometowns in a challenging period when all people in Japan were forced to be involved in the war against China and, later, the US. 

Who sent money to Japan?

Individual remittance forms contain a treasure trove of information showing the trans-Pacific networks of Issei in the prewar period. All remittance forms were handwritten by Issei remitters or bank officers and included their names, U.S. addresses, the names of recipients, their addresses in Japan, and the amount of money being remitted in U.S. dollars and Japanese yen. Although there was no description of the purposes or reasons for the remittances on the form, we can guess why Issei sent money to Japan from memos left in the margins and by researching the personal information of the remitters and recipients.  

There are  753  remittance forms  from the Yokohama Specie Bank, Los Angeles subbranch,  from August 1938 in the YSB Collection.  Of those 753 remittances, 721 (95.7%) were from residents living in California, mostly Greater Los Angeles, from urban areas to farming communities. Japanese living in nearby states like Arizona and Texas also sent money to Japan via the LA subbranch (seven from Arizona and two from Texas). Moreover, Issei living in Mexico (21 cases) also sent vast amounts of money via the LA subbranch to Japan, with an average of about twice that of California. The last names of remitters match with those of recipients in about half of all the remittances, meaning most Issei sent money to their families in Japan.

Explore the interactive map below to discover who sent money from the United States to Japan.

How much money?

The total amount of remittances from the LA subbranch in August 1938 was about $27,000, equivalent to 93,400 Japanese yen. This had considerable value for the recipients living in Japan at that time. For example, given that the starting salary for Japanese government officers in Japan was seventy-five yen (22 U.S. dollars) per month in 1937, which is about 200,000 yen (1,330 U.S. dollars) in 2023, the total amount of remittances from the LA subbranch in August 1938 alone is equivalent to over two hundred million yen (1.3 million U.S. dollars) today. When calculated annually, the amount of money from the remittances in 1938 made up one-quarter of the tax revenue of Wakayama prefecture, the home prefecture of the largest population of Japanese immigrants in Southern California in the 1930s. 

Explore the map below to see which regions received the most money. For instance, the coastal-hugging distribution of recipients in Wakayama Prefecture highlights the areas where Japanese Americans originally came from.

Collective Efforts

Not all Issei sent large sums of money to Japan. The amount of money remitted ranged from very small,  such as $1.40, to huge, like $900.00. Some of the large  remittances were  the product of collective efforts. One example was when Issei from Koshi village 合志村, Kumamoto, remitted over $150 to the Koshi village chief as “comfort money for families whose member went to the war front” 出征軍人遺家族慰問金. 

It is well known that Japanese immigrants in the U.S. mostly came from western Japan, such as Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Kumamoto, and Wakayama. Nevertheless, the money was remitted to almost all prefectures in Japan, which shows the width and diversity of the Issei’s trans-local networks between Los Angeles and Japan. Simply put, the Issei did not solely remit money to their hometowns, even though the forms were entitled  “remittances to hometowns.” 

Wakayama received the largest sum of money ($2,940/10,000 yen) with 72 remittances sent, which seems natural since the Wakayama Prefectural Association (kenjinkai) was one of the largest in Southern California at that time. Following Wakayama, the second largest amount of money went to Hiroshima ($2,600/9,000 yen), with 72, whose number of kenjinkai was also big. Other prefectures in western Japan, such as Fukuoka and Kagoshima, followed.