1.
repatriate; person evacuated home from overseas
A Japanese national who returned to Japan from overseas, especially from the former colonies and occupied territories (Korea, Taiwan, Manchuria, Sakhalin, etc.) at the end of World War II. The term most commonly refers to the roughly six million civilians and demobilized soldiers repatriated between 1945 and the early 1950s.
祖父は引き揚げ者だった。
My grandfather was a repatriate.
満州からの引き揚げ者が多く暮らしていた。
Many repatriates from Manchuria lived there.
引き揚げ者たちは戦後の混乱期に苦しい生活を強いられた。
Repatriates were forced to live difficult lives during the chaotic postwar period.
舞鶴港は戦後、大陸からの引き揚げ者を受け入れる主要な港の一つだった。
After the war, Maizuru Port was one of the main harbors that received repatriates from the continent.
Composed of the verb 引き揚げる (to withdraw; to pull back; to repatriate) plus the suffix 者 (person). The verb is the same one used for military or civilian withdrawal from a foreign territory, and as a historical noun it has come to refer almost exclusively to the postwar repatriates.
USAGE:
A historically charged term most often associated with the mass repatriation of Japanese nationals after the end of World War II in 1945. In modern Japanese it is rarely used outside of this historical context — for present-day returnees the more neutral 帰国者 is preferred. Frequently encountered in history textbooks, museum exhibits, family memoirs, and discussions of postwar social policy.
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- 満州からの引き揚げ者: repatriate from Manchuria
- 引き揚げ者援護: aid for repatriates
- 引き揚げ者住宅: housing built for repatriates
- 残留孤児と引き揚げ者: war-orphans left behind and the repatriates (postwar topic)
SIMILAR WORDS:
- 帰国者: returnee — neutral, present-day term for any Japanese citizen returning from abroad
- 残留邦人: Japanese national left behind overseas — the counterpart who could not be repatriated
- 引揚げ: the act of withdrawal/repatriation itself (without the 者 suffix)
- 復員兵: demobilized soldier — specifically refers to repatriated military personnel rather than civilians