Health Disparities and Immigration Politics in Cold War Era Japan: The Case of Korean Diaspora Communities

FAIN: FO-50203-13

Tomomi Kinukawa
San Francisco State University (Stockton, CA 95211-0110)

"Health Disparities and Immigration Politics in Cold War Era Japan: The Case of Korean Diaspora Communities" is a pioneering historical and transnational study on the link between health disparities, racial projects, and immigration politics. My book examines: (1) biopolitics (the politics of health) as an ethno-racial project in Cold War era Japan, and (2) the ways in which various groups of Zainichi (resident) Koreans, including medical professionals, medical students, community leaders, and entrepreneurs articulated their critique of U.S.-Japanese neo-imperialism in East Asia by focusing on the issue of health. My study will reconstruct the social, cultural, and political history of Zainichi health movements, based on oral history interviews and original archival research. The Zainichi movements provide an innovative model for reducing health disparities that critiques the standard assumption that assimilation and citizenship is the only and the best measure for improving health.