NORWEGIAN–JAPANESE WHALING RELATIONS IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Abstract

This article is concerned with the transfer of whaling technology – equipment and skills – from Norway to Japan from the late 19th century until the 1930s. This transfer contributed to the development of the modern Japanese whaling industry. There was considerable concern in Norway about the rise of Japan as a whaling power, and its challenge to the Norwegian whaling hegemony. The article discusses Norwegian reactions to the relocation of whaling technology.

Acknowledgements

I thank Professor Bjørn Basberg, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen, and Professor Helge Pharo, Univesity of Oslo, for valuable comments to early drafts of this article. I am very grateful to the staff at the Whaling Museum in Sandefjord for their kind assistance in locating archival material for this topic.

Notes

1. Tønnessen, Den moderne hvalfangsts historie. See, in particular, Vol. II 1967, part I, ch. 3 on East Asia, 173–225, and Vol. III 1969, part V, ch. 2 on Japan, 455–465. See also Tønnessen and Johnsen, The History of Modern Whaling, a one‐volume English edition of the whaling history, which has several references to Japanese whaling. Kalland and Moeran, Japanese Whaling, 75–84. Kalland, “Whaling and Whaling Communities”, 170–178.

2. Basberg, “Convergence or National Styles?” 259–283.

3. Hodne, “Transfer Patterns of Technology”, 181, Basberg, “Convergence or National Styles?” 259–283.

4. Archives and libraries: The Whaling museum in Sandefjord, the National Library in Oslo, the National Archives Riksarkivet, Oslo. Norwegian quotes have been translated to English by the author.

5. A point also made by Basberg, “Convergence or National Styles?” 259–283.

6. See a number of articles in Bruland, Technology Transfer, and Bruland and Berg, Technological Revolutions.

7. Mokyr, “The Political Economy of Technological Change”, 39–64.

8. Bruland and Berg, Technological Revolutions, 161–187.

9. Amdam, “Industrial Espionage”, 73–93.

10. Chang, Kicking Away the Ladder, and Chang, “Technology Transfer in Historical Perspective”.

11. One comprehensive account is Francis, The Great Chase.

12. For a history of Japanese whaling, see Kalland and Moeran, Japanese Whaling. See also Vestergaard, North Atlantic Studies. Whaling Communities, which includes a study by Kalland which compares Norwegian and Japanese whaling communities; Kalland, “Whaling and whaling communities”, 170–178.

13. Tønnessen and Johnsen, The History of Modern Whaling, 28–32.

14. Westney, Imitation and Innovation.

15. For Japan's turn to the West, see for instance Sukehiro, Japan's Turn to the West, 448–472.

16. For further literature on this, see for instance Westney, Imitation and Innovation and Inkster, Japanese Industrialisation.

17. He never met Svend Foyn, who died in 1895.

18. Juro Oka, Honpoo No Norway‐Shiki Hogeishi: Hvalfangst etter norsk metode i Japan. Toyo Hogei. Translated to Norwegian in 1962. Available in the library at the Biological Institute, University of Oslo.

19. Juro Oka, Honpoo No Norway‐Shiki Hogeishi: Hvalfangst etter norsk metode i Japan.

20. Much of the following is taken from Tønnessen Vol II, Den moderne hvalfangsts historie, 173–225 (Øst‐Asia).

21. According to the 1907 annual report of the Norwegian legation in Tokyo, almost all the Japanese whaling vessels had a Norwegian gunner; 22 Norwegians were thus employed. Box 1002 HF‐1, Riksarkivet, Oslo.

22. Tønnessen, Den moderne hvalfangsts historie, Vol II, 200–201. A Norwegian industrial worker earned less than half of this; around 1000 kroners a year.

23. Foreign companies were not allowed to establish business in Japan. The only foreigners granted concessions were the Russians.

24. Tønnessen, Den moderne hvalfangsts historie, Vol II, 205.

25. Norsk sjøfartstidende 30 October 1903.

26. Annual report 1907. Box 1002 HF‐1, Riksarkivet, Oslo.

27. Norsk Fiskeritidende 1906: 508.

28. Norsk Fiskeritidende 1906: 508–9.

29. Commentator from the Norwegian company Storm, Bull & Co, Morgenbladet 16 November 1907.

30. Norsk Hvalfangsttidende 31 July 1914

31. Annual Report, Box 1002 HF‐1, Riksarkivet, Oslo.

32. Tønnessen, Den moderne hvalfangsts historie, Vol. II, 211–12.

33. Tønnessen, The History of Modern Whaling, 329.

34. Tønnessen, Den moderne hvalfangsts historie Vol. III, 456–8.

35. Tønnessen, Den moderne hvalfangsts historie Vol. III, 459–60.

36. Tidsskrift for Hvalfangere, August 1935.

37. Tønnessen, Den moderne hvalfangsts historie Vol. III, 462.

38. Hvalfangstliv July 1937.

39. Tønnessen, Den moderne hvalfangsts historie Vol. III, 464.

40. Dispatch from the legation in Tokyo to the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, 2 July 1937, Box 839, Riksarkivet, Oslo.

41. Hvalfangstliv, October 1937.

42. Hvalfangstliv No 8, August 1938.

43. Tønnessen, Den moderne hvalfangsts historie Vol. III, 465

44. Norsk Sjøfartstidende, 28 May 1938.

45. Morgenbladet, 30 May 1938.

46. Dispatch from the legation in Tokyo to the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, 10 May 1938. UD 1906 H8, Box 839, Riksarkivet, Oslo.

47. Norsk Sjøfartstidende, 16 June 1937.

48. Dispatch from the legation in Tokyo to captain Larsen 27 October 1937. UD 1906 H8, Box 839, Riksarkivet, Oslo.

49. A range of literature can be cited. See, for instance, Benedict, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, Wilkinson Misunderstanding Europe vs. Japan, Reischauer, The Japanese Today, Kreiner, “National Approaches, Parallel Developments”, 37–61, Dale, “The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness”.

50. Also pointed out by Tønnessen and Johnsen, The History of Modern Whaling, 143.