Childhood

In the years between 1916 and 1940, the Japanese Consulate received 312 birth registrations from 217 Japanese fathers (some fathers registering more than one birth). Eighty-seven men provide their wife’s name on the registration as the mother of the child. Of the 87 mothers’ names, 66 are non-Japanese. ¹ The number of births registered in the early years is small, suddenly increasing in 1922, peaking in 1925 with 27 births registered during the year, and decreasing again from the mid-1930s. From another source, we know that in 1930, of the 1500 or so Japanese in Britain, approximately 300, a fifth of the population, were children. ² Unfortunately, the existing statistical data does not tell us much more. We can only guess that of the 300 or so Japanese children in a given year, the majority were born in Japan, and that of the babies born and registered with the Japanese Consulate in London a good portion were babies born between Japanese fathers and non-Japanese mothers. Of the children who were born in Japan, one can assume that a good portion were children of the ‘expatriate elite’ as only the top echelons of Japanese companies were allowed to bring their families with them to Britain. It is also safe to assume that, in terms of total numbers, there were many more ‘Anglo-Japanese’ children in Britain in a given year because Anglo-Japanese mixed babies are likely never to have been registered with the Japanese authorities, just as many mixed marriages remained unregistered. Moreover, babies born between Japanese mothers and British fathers are not included in any of the Japanese statistical data as they were of British nationality.