Turks in Japan
Encyclopedia
Turks in Japan are Turkish people
living in Japan
.
immigrated from Kazan
, Russia
, to Japan
. The leader of their community, Muhammed Gabdulhay Kurbangali, had fought on the side of the White movement
in the Russian Civil War
, and arrived in Japan in 1924; he then set up an organisation to bring together the Tatars living in Tokyo. Tatars in Japan founded their first mosque
and school in 1935 in Kobe
, and another in Tokyo in 1938, with support from Kurbangali's organisation. Another Tatar organisation, the Mohammedan Printing Office in Tokyo, printed the first Qur'an
in Japan as well as a a Tatar-language
magazine in Arabic script
, the Japan Intelligencer; it continued publication until the 1940s. Most of the Tatars emigrated after World War II
. Those remaining took up Turkish citizenship
in the 1950s.
Though the Turkish community has diminished in size, those remaining founded the Tokyo Camii and Turkish Cultural Center in 2000. In the following decade, there was a new wave of migration from Turkey, mostly consisting of people from the Fatsa
area.
The Turco - Tatar Diaspora in Japan and Tokyo Matbaa-i Islamiye
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ali Merthan DÜNDAR Ankara University, Faculty of Letters
Most of the work that has been done in Turkey having to do with Turkish-Japanese relations has dealt with the Ertuğrul disaster or comparisons between the Meiji restoration and modern Ottoman reforms; and stories of Japanese people who lived in Turkey during the Ottoman era. Unfortunately, the presence of Turks in Japan -and their cultural activities like establishment of a printing house in Tokyo- which is of at least as much importance, has not come under much study. We now attempt to bring this subject into the open through documents in various archives and conversations with those who know the period well.
I. The Presence Of Turco-Tatars in Far East and Japan.
Russia, which had begun a policy of expansion in the northeast around the middle of the 1450s, occupied Kazan in October of 1552, gradually seizing the Turkic lands of Asia (Rorlich 2000: 71). All of western Turkistan fell into Russian hands in the late 19th century (Hayit 1975: 118). Eastern Turkistan was entirely occupied by China in 1878, and all of Asia’s Turkic peoples had come under foreign domination (Saray 1998: 220). Though Turks under Russian domination rebelled from time to time, they did not succeed. Among the reasons for this was that there was no unity among themselves. These Turks, who had not been able to start a united action before, resolved to struggle. Understanding that they needed a plan, they began to hold meetings, albeit unofficially (Çağatay 1976: 9).
The architects of this new closeness among Russian Turks were undoubtedly the Volga-Ural (Idil-Ural) Turks. In particular, beginning in the 19th century, it is possible to see the leadership of Russian Turks in religious, economic and political matters among reformist
Tatar intellectuals. The intellectuals met to determine strategies for independence, but despite these efforts, the Russian Turks found themselves unprepared when the 1917 revolution broke out. As a natural consequence, the Turkic peoples found themselves between the two factions when civil war erupted. While some in the community joined the Bolshevik (Red) faction, others took the Tsarist (White) side. Ruined by the defeat of the Tsarists, Volga-Ural Turks in the armies battling in the Siberian region (under officers such as Admiral Kolçak, General Semenov and Captain Kalmukov) fled to Manchuria and to regions controlled by Japan in 1919. Another wave of migration took place during the great famine of 1920 – 1921. Many Volga-Ural Turks left their homelands and emigrated to China and Manchuria. Among the émigrés were manufacturers, rich merchants, imams, schoolteachers – in short, people from every walk of life. Many of these émigrés were forced to turn back due to desperate conditions and poverty. The greatest support to those who did not, without doubt, came from the Turks who had settled there before (Tahir 1971: 7).
In the last years of the 19th century, Russia gained the right to construct and operate the Chinese Eastern Railroad [part of the Trans-Siberian Railroad] from China. Thousands of Russians poured into the areas where construction was taking place (Bakich 2000: 51), among them many Turco-Tatars. Other Turco-Tatars opened and owned stored which supplied necessities for the families of the railroad workers. The Turco-Tatar population began to increase in 1904, especially in Harbin (Chernolutskaya 2000: 82). The émigrés opened a mosque there in 1906. They also used the mosque as a school. A new school was built between 1917 and 1918 in order to handle the increasing number of children (Baday 1976: 44). Harbin remained the social and cultural center of the Turks in the Far East until 1930, when Japan became the center. Harbin was the home of the first Turco-Tatar publishing house in the Far East. It published newspapers such as Yırak Sark, Miñ (Bin) Mescidi, Beyrem Nurı, Çatkı and many books, securing the flow of knowledge and news among the Turco-Tatar people (Tahir 1972: 47).
The Volga-Ural Turco- Tatars, trying to build new lives for themselves far from home, established associations not only in Harbin, but also in cities such as Haylar , Mukden [Shenyang] , Manchuria , Shanghai, Hun Hul Di , Dairen . These became stepping stones on the way to Japan. In particular, those who engaged in trade won an important place in Japan and the Japanese market, leveraging the network they established in their adopted lands.
Aside from the prospect of a better life and more profitable trade, there were political reasons for the immigration of the Volga-Ural Turks from China and Korea to Japan. These have to do with Japan’s policies in Asia.
With the beginning of the Meiji era in 1868, power in Japan passed from the feudal lords to the Emperor, resulting in a centralized administration (Mason 2001: 258). This was a bloody transition, but it gave birth to the opening of Japan to the outside world. This in turn allowed Japan to achieve levels akin to those of the advanced Western countries in science, technology, trade and the military and secured Japan a place as a new power. Advances in the economic sector created a demand for raw materials. This pitted Japan against the other powers in the area, namely Russia and China. Inevitably, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1894 - 1895, followed by the Russo-Japanese conflict in 1904 – 1905. Japan emerged victorious from both wars, drawing the attention and winning the good will of victimized peoples of Russia – Muslims and Turks (Esenbel 2003: 29). Further, with their victories, Japan gained new territories and economic privileges on the Asian continent.
Japan, which joined the U. S., England, Italy and France in sending troops to Siberia during the 1917 Russian revolution , established relations with the White Russian leaders of the area. By giving them military and economic aid, Japan attempted to establish a dependent puppet regime. Relations with the Muslim Turco-Tatar groups serving in the White Russian armies were also established during this time. This relationship endured even after the Japanese forces withdrew due to pressure from Western countries. It is during this period when the makers of Japan’s foreign policy came to understand the potential power of the Muslims.
Actually, the relationship between Japan and Russian Muslims extends from long before. Japan, which was becoming a powerful state in the area, sent many observers to the Asian mainland, and worked to understand events in the neighboring countries. Following the first travelers and observers, Japan established nominally cultural institutions, especially in China, to assure a continuous and healthy flow of intelligence. By thoroughly understanding the ethnic elements and their religious activities, she made Muslims her potential allies. This was because friction between the Chinese Muslims, that is, the Tungun and Turkish (Uygur, Kırgız, Kazak) Muslims, and the Chinese had existed for a long time. During the late 19th century, Japan began to organize its policies in these areas, naturally including the Russian Muslims. These fanatically nationalist Japanese institutions, which shaped the new Islam policy and in fact sponsored it, established unofficial contact with the Russian Muslims, and succeeded quite well in delivering Japanese propaganda to them.
The first Volga-Ural Turk to come in contact with the Japanese and effect the establishment of their relations with the Russian Muslims was Abdürreşit İbrahim Efendi. İbrahim, a truly controversial man who committed his life to the independence of the Muslim Turks, was not only important from the perspective of the Muslim Turkish struggle for independence, but also from that of Turkish history, due to his Ottoman citizenship. We are ever more aware of his importance when we take into account his place in the Turkish-Japanese relations. İbrahim sought assistance for his struggle through Russian publishers, thereby continuing to receive assistance from the Ottoman state. But due to the politics pursued by Ottoman Emperor Abdülhamid II, he was forced to seek other allies. Thus Japan, which was a rising force in Asia at this time, became a new hope for İbrahim for the deliverance of Russian Turks and Muslims.
Japan, which had made social, economic and military improvements during the Meiji Restoration, had quickly become powerful and therefore Russia’s rival. For this reason, Abdürreşit İbrahim established a relationship with Japan. Visiting Japan often beginning in 1902, he became friends with statesmen, the highest ranked military officers, and leaders of extremist nationalist groups, and secured support for his cause. Ibrahim’s belief in Japan increased after Japanese victory in the 1904-1905 Russian War. Japan, as the new non-Christian power in Asia, decided to enlist İbrahim’s assistance in establishing close relations with the Ottoman state, which was in the position of being the leader of Russian and world Muslims. İbrahim fashioned Japanese propaganda in the Turkish and Muslim worlds with his writings and speeches. Toyama Mitsuru is doubtlessly one of the most important people with whom Abdürreşit İbrahim formed friendships in Japan. Mitsuru was the father of Japanese nationalism and Asiaism. He founded the Genyousha society and was the spiritual leader of the Kokuryukai society. The aim of these societies was to cleanse all Asia, beginning with Manchuria, of Westerners and to unite Asia under Japanese leadership. In 1909, Abdürreşit İbrahim and Toyama Mitsuru founded a society called Ajiya Gikai with various Japanese persons who had the same aims.
Several upper class Japanese became Muslims and joined this society. The society took actions to guide the Asian Muslim independence movement. Due to İbrahim’s efforts, Japan’s rulers became a little closer to the Muslim Turks in Russia and became potential allies. Abdürreşit İbrahim, who was the first Turkish leader to come into social contact with Japan, went to Japan in 1933 at the invitation of his old friends and remained there until his death.
Other Volga-Ural Turks went to Japan and settled there, taking advantage of the door opened by Abdürreşit İbrahim. This brought about an aspect of Turkish-Japanese relations that is not well known. Some Volga-Ural Turks who were engaged in trade secured special permission from the authorities and went to Japan and Japanese controlled Korea with their families, beginning in 1920. Those who went to Japan settled in Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya. At first, there were larger numbers in Yokohama compared to other cities. Later, the Turco-Tatar population grew in Tokyo, Kobe and Nagoya.
The Turco-Tatar community in Tokyo began to take form in 1921. This group initially consisted mostly of bachelors. They rented rooms in hotels in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. There they lived and conducted their business. Once their businesses became established, they gradually had their families join them or got married, and moved to areas of Tokyo that had small populations of Muslim families. Some Turks in Japan became butchers or opened produce markets to cater to the needs of the growing number of Muslim families. Most of them sold fabric or clothing. Rich Turco-Tatar merchants had traveling salesmen, also Turco-Tatars, sell their wares. These salesmen brought the wares to the farthest villages. Some went by themselves, others with their wives. As the fabric and clothing trades began to show profit, the merchants found themselves with a shortage of personnel. They sought to bring in young Turco-Tatars from Manchuria and Korea to alleviate this problem. However, every Russian entering Japan was obliged to show that they possessed 1,500 yen, either in cash or in a note of guarantee. This became a great obstacle for the new arrivals. The amount was originally 400 yen, but it had been raised to 1,500 in a law passed in 1924 to stem the wave of Russian immigrants after the 1917 revolution. This problem was overcome with a scheme that relied on trust. The merchants who invited the young men to Japan gave them a check made out for the necessary amount, payable to the holder. The young men gave the checks back to the merchants after they arrived. As European style clothes and fabric picked up favor and their use became widespread in Japan, the role of the Turco-Tatar merchants grew.
The Turkish families in Tokyo collaborated and stuck together in order to overcome the hardships in their lives. In order to establish an identity for themselves they placed great importance in getting together for religious feasts and national holidays, as much as their financial situation allowed. For such gatherings, they would rent a hall in a Tokyo hotel in the Shinjuku district.
1924 was a turning point for the Turco-Tatars in Japan. Muhammed Abdülhay Kurbanali, from a prominent Başkurt Turkish family, arrived in Tokyo. During the civil wars, Kurbanali had joined with the White Russian armies. Later, he, together with these armies, had gone to the areas under Japanese control. There, Kurbanali had come into contact with the Japanese, and worked as a translator for the South Manchuria Railroad, operated by the Japanese. According to American intelligence reports, Kurbanali was an agent working for Japan and taught Russian and Turkish in the intelligence school in Manchuria. In 1924, Kurbanali amid a group of associates came to Tokyo. From the fact that his activities declined here, we can say that the Japanese used him as a vehicle to help them execute their Islam. The arrival of Kurbanali and his group added to the Turco-Tatar population in Japan, causing changes in the way that this community lived. The Tatars became more organized and made sure that they congregated at every opportunity. Regular Friday prayers were organized starting in January, 1925. That was also the year that Mahalle-i İslâmiye was founded. Mahalle-i İslâmiye was built in Shibuya, where the earlier arrivals to Tokyo lived. The district in which the Turco-Tatars and Muslims lived came to take this name. Kurbanali worked to bring all Turco-Tatars living in Japan and in lands controlled by Japan under systematic control, beginning with those living in Tokyo. He was quite successful at this, at least for a time .
With the increase in their numbers came the problem of educating their children. After several meeting, they decided to start a school. Upon receiving permission from the Japanese government, they rented a house at 273 Hyakumin-cho in Shin Okubo on October 2, 1927 and used it as a school, naming it Mekteb-i İslâmiye. It began as an elementary school. Students were taught not only reading and writing, but also religion and nationalism. The house was also used as a mosque and meeting hall. The Tokyo Muslim Association was established on October 3, 1928 with Kurbanali as president. By becoming principal and teacher at the school, as well as the religious leader by accepting the position of Imam, Kurbanali assumed great influence. When the school was closed later at the request of the landlord, it was moved first to Okubo, then to the Kashiwagi district. Having to move the school so frequently had a crippling effect not only on the children’s education, but also on the religious and community meetings. Families began saving money and, using this together with funds that were donated from the outside, the community in 1931 bought the building at the 1461 address in the Yoyogi-Tomigaya district and moved the school there. With help from Japanese authorities, the building was registered in Kurbanali’s name .
The new school building was located in one of Tokyo’s best districts, where top level government officials and rich personages lived. Many guests attended the opening ceremony, including several VIPs. The student body included not only children living in Tokyo, but also those from families living in other Japanese cities. Even Turco-Tatar children from Korea attended. The opening of Mekteb-i İslâmiye was announced to Muslims living in Russia and China through newspapers and magazines, and became a good propaganda tool for Japan’s Islam policy.
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
living in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
History
In the early 20th century, groups of Volga TatarsVolga Tatars
The Volga Tatars are the largest subgroup of the Tatars, native to the Volga region.They account for roughly six out of seven million Tatars worldwide....
immigrated from Kazan
Kazan
Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. The leader of their community, Muhammed Gabdulhay Kurbangali, had fought on the side of the White movement
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
in the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
, and arrived in Japan in 1924; he then set up an organisation to bring together the Tatars living in Tokyo. Tatars in Japan founded their first mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
and school in 1935 in Kobe
Kobe
, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
, and another in Tokyo in 1938, with support from Kurbangali's organisation. Another Tatar organisation, the Mohammedan Printing Office in Tokyo, printed the first Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
in Japan as well as a a Tatar-language
Tatar language
The Tatar language , or more specifically Kazan Tatar, is a Turkic language spoken by the Tatars of historical Kazan Khanate, including modern Tatarstan and Bashkiria...
magazine in Arabic script
Iske imlâ
İske imlâ is a variant of the Arabic script, used for the Tatar language before 1920 and the Old Tatar language. This alphabet can be referred to as old only to contrast it with Yaña imlâ....
, the Japan Intelligencer; it continued publication until the 1940s. Most of the Tatars emigrated after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Those remaining took up Turkish citizenship
Turkish nationality law
Turkish nationality law is based primarily on the principle of jus sanguinis. Children who are born to a Turkish mother and a Turkish father in Turkey are Turkish citizens from birth....
in the 1950s.
Though the Turkish community has diminished in size, those remaining founded the Tokyo Camii and Turkish Cultural Center in 2000. In the following decade, there was a new wave of migration from Turkey, mostly consisting of people from the Fatsa
Fatsa
Fatsa is a town and a large district of Ordu Province in the central Black Sea region of Turkey.-Etymology:The name Fatsa derives from Fanizan daughter of King Pharnaces II of Pontus and has since mutated through Fanise, Phadsane, Pytane, Facha and today's Fatsa. In the Ottoman Empire records the...
area.
The Turco - Tatar Diaspora in Japan and Tokyo Matbaa-i Islamiye
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ali Merthan DÜNDAR Ankara University, Faculty of Letters
Most of the work that has been done in Turkey having to do with Turkish-Japanese relations has dealt with the Ertuğrul disaster or comparisons between the Meiji restoration and modern Ottoman reforms; and stories of Japanese people who lived in Turkey during the Ottoman era. Unfortunately, the presence of Turks in Japan -and their cultural activities like establishment of a printing house in Tokyo- which is of at least as much importance, has not come under much study. We now attempt to bring this subject into the open through documents in various archives and conversations with those who know the period well.
I. The Presence Of Turco-Tatars in Far East and Japan.
Russia, which had begun a policy of expansion in the northeast around the middle of the 1450s, occupied Kazan in October of 1552, gradually seizing the Turkic lands of Asia (Rorlich 2000: 71). All of western Turkistan fell into Russian hands in the late 19th century (Hayit 1975: 118). Eastern Turkistan was entirely occupied by China in 1878, and all of Asia’s Turkic peoples had come under foreign domination (Saray 1998: 220). Though Turks under Russian domination rebelled from time to time, they did not succeed. Among the reasons for this was that there was no unity among themselves. These Turks, who had not been able to start a united action before, resolved to struggle. Understanding that they needed a plan, they began to hold meetings, albeit unofficially (Çağatay 1976: 9).
The architects of this new closeness among Russian Turks were undoubtedly the Volga-Ural (Idil-Ural) Turks. In particular, beginning in the 19th century, it is possible to see the leadership of Russian Turks in religious, economic and political matters among reformist
Tatar intellectuals. The intellectuals met to determine strategies for independence, but despite these efforts, the Russian Turks found themselves unprepared when the 1917 revolution broke out. As a natural consequence, the Turkic peoples found themselves between the two factions when civil war erupted. While some in the community joined the Bolshevik (Red) faction, others took the Tsarist (White) side. Ruined by the defeat of the Tsarists, Volga-Ural Turks in the armies battling in the Siberian region (under officers such as Admiral Kolçak, General Semenov and Captain Kalmukov) fled to Manchuria and to regions controlled by Japan in 1919. Another wave of migration took place during the great famine of 1920 – 1921. Many Volga-Ural Turks left their homelands and emigrated to China and Manchuria. Among the émigrés were manufacturers, rich merchants, imams, schoolteachers – in short, people from every walk of life. Many of these émigrés were forced to turn back due to desperate conditions and poverty. The greatest support to those who did not, without doubt, came from the Turks who had settled there before (Tahir 1971: 7).
In the last years of the 19th century, Russia gained the right to construct and operate the Chinese Eastern Railroad [part of the Trans-Siberian Railroad] from China. Thousands of Russians poured into the areas where construction was taking place (Bakich 2000: 51), among them many Turco-Tatars. Other Turco-Tatars opened and owned stored which supplied necessities for the families of the railroad workers. The Turco-Tatar population began to increase in 1904, especially in Harbin (Chernolutskaya 2000: 82). The émigrés opened a mosque there in 1906. They also used the mosque as a school. A new school was built between 1917 and 1918 in order to handle the increasing number of children (Baday 1976: 44). Harbin remained the social and cultural center of the Turks in the Far East until 1930, when Japan became the center. Harbin was the home of the first Turco-Tatar publishing house in the Far East. It published newspapers such as Yırak Sark, Miñ (Bin) Mescidi, Beyrem Nurı, Çatkı and many books, securing the flow of knowledge and news among the Turco-Tatar people (Tahir 1972: 47).
The Volga-Ural Turco- Tatars, trying to build new lives for themselves far from home, established associations not only in Harbin, but also in cities such as Haylar , Mukden [Shenyang] , Manchuria , Shanghai, Hun Hul Di , Dairen . These became stepping stones on the way to Japan. In particular, those who engaged in trade won an important place in Japan and the Japanese market, leveraging the network they established in their adopted lands.
Aside from the prospect of a better life and more profitable trade, there were political reasons for the immigration of the Volga-Ural Turks from China and Korea to Japan. These have to do with Japan’s policies in Asia.
With the beginning of the Meiji era in 1868, power in Japan passed from the feudal lords to the Emperor, resulting in a centralized administration (Mason 2001: 258). This was a bloody transition, but it gave birth to the opening of Japan to the outside world. This in turn allowed Japan to achieve levels akin to those of the advanced Western countries in science, technology, trade and the military and secured Japan a place as a new power. Advances in the economic sector created a demand for raw materials. This pitted Japan against the other powers in the area, namely Russia and China. Inevitably, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1894 - 1895, followed by the Russo-Japanese conflict in 1904 – 1905. Japan emerged victorious from both wars, drawing the attention and winning the good will of victimized peoples of Russia – Muslims and Turks (Esenbel 2003: 29). Further, with their victories, Japan gained new territories and economic privileges on the Asian continent.
Japan, which joined the U. S., England, Italy and France in sending troops to Siberia during the 1917 Russian revolution , established relations with the White Russian leaders of the area. By giving them military and economic aid, Japan attempted to establish a dependent puppet regime. Relations with the Muslim Turco-Tatar groups serving in the White Russian armies were also established during this time. This relationship endured even after the Japanese forces withdrew due to pressure from Western countries. It is during this period when the makers of Japan’s foreign policy came to understand the potential power of the Muslims.
Actually, the relationship between Japan and Russian Muslims extends from long before. Japan, which was becoming a powerful state in the area, sent many observers to the Asian mainland, and worked to understand events in the neighboring countries. Following the first travelers and observers, Japan established nominally cultural institutions, especially in China, to assure a continuous and healthy flow of intelligence. By thoroughly understanding the ethnic elements and their religious activities, she made Muslims her potential allies. This was because friction between the Chinese Muslims, that is, the Tungun and Turkish (Uygur, Kırgız, Kazak) Muslims, and the Chinese had existed for a long time. During the late 19th century, Japan began to organize its policies in these areas, naturally including the Russian Muslims. These fanatically nationalist Japanese institutions, which shaped the new Islam policy and in fact sponsored it, established unofficial contact with the Russian Muslims, and succeeded quite well in delivering Japanese propaganda to them.
The first Volga-Ural Turk to come in contact with the Japanese and effect the establishment of their relations with the Russian Muslims was Abdürreşit İbrahim Efendi. İbrahim, a truly controversial man who committed his life to the independence of the Muslim Turks, was not only important from the perspective of the Muslim Turkish struggle for independence, but also from that of Turkish history, due to his Ottoman citizenship. We are ever more aware of his importance when we take into account his place in the Turkish-Japanese relations. İbrahim sought assistance for his struggle through Russian publishers, thereby continuing to receive assistance from the Ottoman state. But due to the politics pursued by Ottoman Emperor Abdülhamid II, he was forced to seek other allies. Thus Japan, which was a rising force in Asia at this time, became a new hope for İbrahim for the deliverance of Russian Turks and Muslims.
Japan, which had made social, economic and military improvements during the Meiji Restoration, had quickly become powerful and therefore Russia’s rival. For this reason, Abdürreşit İbrahim established a relationship with Japan. Visiting Japan often beginning in 1902, he became friends with statesmen, the highest ranked military officers, and leaders of extremist nationalist groups, and secured support for his cause. Ibrahim’s belief in Japan increased after Japanese victory in the 1904-1905 Russian War. Japan, as the new non-Christian power in Asia, decided to enlist İbrahim’s assistance in establishing close relations with the Ottoman state, which was in the position of being the leader of Russian and world Muslims. İbrahim fashioned Japanese propaganda in the Turkish and Muslim worlds with his writings and speeches. Toyama Mitsuru is doubtlessly one of the most important people with whom Abdürreşit İbrahim formed friendships in Japan. Mitsuru was the father of Japanese nationalism and Asiaism. He founded the Genyousha society and was the spiritual leader of the Kokuryukai society. The aim of these societies was to cleanse all Asia, beginning with Manchuria, of Westerners and to unite Asia under Japanese leadership. In 1909, Abdürreşit İbrahim and Toyama Mitsuru founded a society called Ajiya Gikai with various Japanese persons who had the same aims.
Several upper class Japanese became Muslims and joined this society. The society took actions to guide the Asian Muslim independence movement. Due to İbrahim’s efforts, Japan’s rulers became a little closer to the Muslim Turks in Russia and became potential allies. Abdürreşit İbrahim, who was the first Turkish leader to come into social contact with Japan, went to Japan in 1933 at the invitation of his old friends and remained there until his death.
Other Volga-Ural Turks went to Japan and settled there, taking advantage of the door opened by Abdürreşit İbrahim. This brought about an aspect of Turkish-Japanese relations that is not well known. Some Volga-Ural Turks who were engaged in trade secured special permission from the authorities and went to Japan and Japanese controlled Korea with their families, beginning in 1920. Those who went to Japan settled in Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya. At first, there were larger numbers in Yokohama compared to other cities. Later, the Turco-Tatar population grew in Tokyo, Kobe and Nagoya.
The Turco-Tatar community in Tokyo began to take form in 1921. This group initially consisted mostly of bachelors. They rented rooms in hotels in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. There they lived and conducted their business. Once their businesses became established, they gradually had their families join them or got married, and moved to areas of Tokyo that had small populations of Muslim families. Some Turks in Japan became butchers or opened produce markets to cater to the needs of the growing number of Muslim families. Most of them sold fabric or clothing. Rich Turco-Tatar merchants had traveling salesmen, also Turco-Tatars, sell their wares. These salesmen brought the wares to the farthest villages. Some went by themselves, others with their wives. As the fabric and clothing trades began to show profit, the merchants found themselves with a shortage of personnel. They sought to bring in young Turco-Tatars from Manchuria and Korea to alleviate this problem. However, every Russian entering Japan was obliged to show that they possessed 1,500 yen, either in cash or in a note of guarantee. This became a great obstacle for the new arrivals. The amount was originally 400 yen, but it had been raised to 1,500 in a law passed in 1924 to stem the wave of Russian immigrants after the 1917 revolution. This problem was overcome with a scheme that relied on trust. The merchants who invited the young men to Japan gave them a check made out for the necessary amount, payable to the holder. The young men gave the checks back to the merchants after they arrived. As European style clothes and fabric picked up favor and their use became widespread in Japan, the role of the Turco-Tatar merchants grew.
The Turkish families in Tokyo collaborated and stuck together in order to overcome the hardships in their lives. In order to establish an identity for themselves they placed great importance in getting together for religious feasts and national holidays, as much as their financial situation allowed. For such gatherings, they would rent a hall in a Tokyo hotel in the Shinjuku district.
1924 was a turning point for the Turco-Tatars in Japan. Muhammed Abdülhay Kurbanali, from a prominent Başkurt Turkish family, arrived in Tokyo. During the civil wars, Kurbanali had joined with the White Russian armies. Later, he, together with these armies, had gone to the areas under Japanese control. There, Kurbanali had come into contact with the Japanese, and worked as a translator for the South Manchuria Railroad, operated by the Japanese. According to American intelligence reports, Kurbanali was an agent working for Japan and taught Russian and Turkish in the intelligence school in Manchuria. In 1924, Kurbanali amid a group of associates came to Tokyo. From the fact that his activities declined here, we can say that the Japanese used him as a vehicle to help them execute their Islam. The arrival of Kurbanali and his group added to the Turco-Tatar population in Japan, causing changes in the way that this community lived. The Tatars became more organized and made sure that they congregated at every opportunity. Regular Friday prayers were organized starting in January, 1925. That was also the year that Mahalle-i İslâmiye was founded. Mahalle-i İslâmiye was built in Shibuya, where the earlier arrivals to Tokyo lived. The district in which the Turco-Tatars and Muslims lived came to take this name. Kurbanali worked to bring all Turco-Tatars living in Japan and in lands controlled by Japan under systematic control, beginning with those living in Tokyo. He was quite successful at this, at least for a time .
With the increase in their numbers came the problem of educating their children. After several meeting, they decided to start a school. Upon receiving permission from the Japanese government, they rented a house at 273 Hyakumin-cho in Shin Okubo on October 2, 1927 and used it as a school, naming it Mekteb-i İslâmiye. It began as an elementary school. Students were taught not only reading and writing, but also religion and nationalism. The house was also used as a mosque and meeting hall. The Tokyo Muslim Association was established on October 3, 1928 with Kurbanali as president. By becoming principal and teacher at the school, as well as the religious leader by accepting the position of Imam, Kurbanali assumed great influence. When the school was closed later at the request of the landlord, it was moved first to Okubo, then to the Kashiwagi district. Having to move the school so frequently had a crippling effect not only on the children’s education, but also on the religious and community meetings. Families began saving money and, using this together with funds that were donated from the outside, the community in 1931 bought the building at the 1461 address in the Yoyogi-Tomigaya district and moved the school there. With help from Japanese authorities, the building was registered in Kurbanali’s name .
The new school building was located in one of Tokyo’s best districts, where top level government officials and rich personages lived. Many guests attended the opening ceremony, including several VIPs. The student body included not only children living in Tokyo, but also those from families living in other Japanese cities. Even Turco-Tatar children from Korea attended. The opening of Mekteb-i İslâmiye was announced to Muslims living in Russia and China through newspapers and magazines, and became a good propaganda tool for Japan’s Islam policy.