| Summary/Abstract |
From the summer of 1944 to the autumn of 1945, Japan’s government evacuated over 400,000 urban primary school pupils. They were sent in the custody of their teachers to rural areas away from the increasing threat of air raids. The children lived and were schooled with classmates in Buddhist temples, inns, and other facilities. Officials couched the policy in terms of a training exercise, placating military and political opponents to the removal of children from their families. Furthermore, the government offered images of nurturing teachers as surrogate guardians to assuage parental concerns. Local environments strongly influenced how comfortable or severe living conditions were, but food supplies dwindled throughout Japan. Evacuees largely avoided air raids but experienced health problems from insufficient nutrition and crowded residential quarters. This article explores the ideological underpinnings and implementation of Japan’s wartime school evacuation, finding evidence of contradictory principles, unauthorized motives, and illicit improvisations.
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