Middlesbrough's ‘forgotten Japanese’: The Japanese community in middlesbrough during the inter‐war period

Abstract

The post‐war pattern of Japanese investment in Britain gave rise, first, to a substantial Japanese community in London followed, in the last few decades, by a regional presence associated with the influx of Japanese manufacturing firms. While the North‐East of England, and particularly the counties of Tyne and Wear, Durham and Cleveland, have played a part in this recent process, its industrial ties with Japan, chiefly through shipbuilding and trade, can be traced back to earlier times. The inauguration of NYK's European Line service in 1896, with Middlesbrough as the loading and coaling port for the eastbound route, created a particular dynamic that led to the growth of a community of Japanese seamen on Teesside in the inter‐war years. This article considers this group, ‘Middlesbrough's forgotten Japanese’, in the context of the history of Japanese emigration and the North‐East's past and present associations with Japan.