The History of Kamagasaki :After 1945

ARIMURA Sen

1945: Kamagasaki Just prior to the Japanese SurrenderThis year saw Osaka suddenly in ruins as US B29 bombers carried out air attacks inMarch and August. They say you could see Osaka Castle and Takashimaya Department
Store(in Namba), both of which escaped the bombings. Around Kamagasaki, everything
was burnt down except for some structures including the Club Cosmetics building on
the north side of Imamiya Station and the area around Imaike and Tobita. A statue ofJizo, the guardian deity of the common people (in the illustration on the right side in themiddle), complete with scars from an incendiary bomb, still remains to this day. This is
an illustration of what it might have looked like.

The 1950s: Kamagasaki's Shanty Town Era
In the 1950s, Kamagasaki was a typical slum, inhabited by many victims of WorldWar II. It might have looked something like the illustration below. The main street waslined with doya (cheap lodgings), behind which people built poor, wooden shanties thatoften extended onto the street. It was like a maze. The rows of shanties below theNankai train line overpass were dubbed the "Nankai Hotel." People frantically did
anything they could to make a living: they delivered packages, bought scraps of clothing,picked up garbage, shined shoes, sold cigarettes, or ran open-air baths. The cheap
drinking establishments were likely frequented by local laborers as well as workers
from the docks.

Ginza Street in Kamagasaki in the Early 1960s
Following World War II, the GHQ ordered the streets to be widened ( to eliminate themaze-like structure of small streets) and the wooden lodging houses (basic lodgings) tobe rebuilt. In 1961, there were 175 basic lodgings (with a capacity of 15,000 guests)(figures base on documents from the Osaka Prefectural Police). The population at thistime had swollen to 35,000, 60 to 70% of whom were day laborers. About 40% of thepopulation were people living alone, and the male-female ratio was about equal.

The Day Laborer Recruitment Site in the Early 1960s
During this period, the day laborer recruitment site was on the south side of the Nankai
train line. The Osaka Prefecture Labor Division, Nishinari Office (predecessor to thecurrent Nishinari Labor and Welfare Center) can be seen in the bottom left corner of theillustration (the white bus). This was a period of rapid economic growth for Japan, andmany farm workers and workers from mines that closed down flocked to Kamagasaki.
The population of single male day laborers suddenly swelled pas 10,000, a great many ofthem in their 20s and 30s. In addition to construction work, there were also many jobs
in transportation (related to dock work) and manufacturing. The Tsutenkaku tower (nthe top left of the illustration), was dismantled in 1943 and rebuilt in 1956.

The Day Laborer Recruitment Site in the Late 1960s
With the construction boom leading up to the 1970 World’s Fair in Osaka, daylaborers came to Kamagasaki from all over the country, and the Airin recruitment site
was a constant buzz of activity.

Ginza Street in Kamagasaki in the 1970s
The flophouses were built as four and five storey buildings (among these werebuildings that doubled their number of floors by adding several storeys and that usedveneer panels to split up larger rooms into “private rooms”). Kamagasaki thus becamealmost completely a town of single dwellers.
The flophouses charged between 600 and 700 yen a night. The gingko trees alongGinza Street were still small at this time.

Kamagasaki in the 1970s, the Day Laborer Recruitment Site, and a Healthy Economy
The current Airin Center opened in October 1970. The day laborer recruitment site,
along with the Nishinari labor and Welfare Center and The Osaka Socio-medical Center
Hospital, moved into the first floor of the building. The system of the abure techou(unemployment card) also began at this time. In the mid 1970s, Japan was severely hit
by the first oil crisis, and unlike the bustling economy hinted at by this illustration,
many people experienced extended periods of unemployment.

Ginza Street in Kamagasaki During Japan’s Bubble Economy From the Late 1980s to1990
Kamagasaki during this time saw employment hit a historic high, as companies inindustries like steel and shipbuilding rushed anew to the area in search of labor. Almost
all of the approximately 200 flophouses were rebuilt in the style of high-rise businesshotels. For the first time in 17 years, riots suddenly erupted (from October 2 to 7, 1990)
to protest the role in the area of the gangsters and the police who colluded with them. At
the same time, the riots were a statement of the objection by the common people (theworkers) to the way the entire country seemed to be living it up in the bubble economy.
(Courtesy of “The Hotel New Kamagasaki,” by Sen Arimura; originally appeared inYoung Champion Comics, Akita Shoten Publishing.)

The Bursting of the Bubble Economy: Kamagasaki Enters a Severe Recession
Despite an increasingly aging population in Kamagasaki, with an average age of 52,
there were no measure taken to deal with the agony experienced by the residents.
Sometimes, when local day laborer unions or Christian groups held free meal sessions,
700 to 800 people would show up at once. As well, in the late 1980s workers began tocome from other countries, and Kamagasaki developed stronger ties to the international
labor market. This was to be a major turning point for the area.