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Abstract
Over the past quarter of a century, research on the connection between empire and environment has flourished worldwide. Most writings, though, have focused on the history of European empire-building or American westward expansion; few have anything significant to say about the Japanese empire. The present essay aims to address this lacuna by exploring interrelated changes to the forest landscape in imperial Japan’s colonies of Korea, Taiwan and Karafuto and in peripheral areas of ‘Japan proper’ (naichi). This exploration provides a basis for addressing the questions: How might our images of the Japanese imperial expansion be challenged if we consider its history from the vantage point of forests? What light does the natural and cultural history of forests in the Japanese empire shed on wider debates about imperialism, environmentalism and modernity?
Acknowledgements
The author expresses her gratitude to the Australian Research Council for support of the research in which this paper is based.
Notes
1. 1Crosby, Ecological Imperialism; Griffiths and Robin, Ecology and Empire; Beinart and Hughes, Environment and Empire.
2. 2Barton, Empire Forestry, 6.
3. 3Anker, Imperial Ecology; Grove, Green Imperialism.
4. 4Barton, Empire Forestry, 6, 9; see also Mizuno, Igirisu teikoku kara miru kankyōshi.
5. 5For example, Barton, Empire Forestry; Beinart and Hughes, Environment and Empire, 116–119.
6. 6Examples of specific studies include Komeie, ‘Colonial Environmentalism and Shifting Cultivation’, and Setoguchi, ‘Control of Insect Vectors’.
7. 7Totman, Green Archipelago, and Pre-industrial Korea and Japan.
8. 8Ibid., 184.
9. 9Morris-Suzuki, ‘Sustainability and Ecological Colonialism’.
10. 10Ushiomi, Forestry and Mountain Village Communities, 16–18.
11. 11Matsushita and Hirata, ‘Forest Owners’ Associations’.
12. 12Nōshōmushō Sanrinkyoku, Nihon no shinrin, 15; Karafuto Chō, Karafuto chō shisei sanjūnenshi.
13. 13See Deriha, ‘Ainu to mori’.
14. 14For Mollison’s idea of tree systems as lakes, see for example the webpage http://permaculture.tv/the-forest-as-rain-maker/.
15. 15Bureau of Forestry, Forestry of Japan, 1.
16. 16Bank of Chosen, Economic History of Chosen, 90–100.
17. 17Andō, Tsūzoku kyōiku airin shisō, 68–69; Barton, Empire Forestry, 97.
18. 18Andō, Tsūzoku kyōiku airin shisō, 25–26.
19. 19Taiwan Ringyōkai, Taiwan no ringyō, 18–19.
20. 20Bureau of Forestry, Forestry of Japan, 54.
21. 21Ibid., 49.
22. 22Bank of Chosen, Economic History of Chosen, 91.
23. 23Totman, Green Archipelago.
24. 24Bank of Chosen, Economic History of Chosen, 91.
25. 25Miyake, Chōsen hantō no rinya, 2.
26. 26Nōrinshō Sanrinkyoku, Sanrin yōran 1931, 5–6.
27. 27Ibid., 5–8.
28. 28Nōrinshō Sanrinkyoku, Sanrin yōran 1944, 8–9.
29. 29Beinart and Hughes, Environment and Empire, 119–121.
30. 30Cleghorn, cited in Beinart and Hughes, Environment and Empire, 120.
31. 31Koh, ‘Nihon no Chōsen kadenmin seisaku’, 53; also Koh, ‘Chōsen no kadenmin’.
32. 32Nakamura, Taiwan, Chōsen, Karafuto no ringyō, 9; Komeie, ‘Colonial Environmentalism and Shifting Cultivation’, 669.
33. 33Grajdanzev, Modern Korea, 136.
34. 34Koh, ‘Nihon no Chōsen kadenmin seisaku’, 55.
35. 35Ibid., 57.
36. 36Kim, Nongmin undong, 147–150.
37. 37Cited in Komeie, ‘Colonial Environmentalism and Shifting Cultivation’, 671–673.
38. 38Grajdanzev, Modern Korea, 126.
39. 39Nakamura, Taiwan, Chōsen, Karafuto no ringyō, 8.
40. 40Hokkaido Sanrin Shubyō Dōgyō Kumiai, Mansen no ringyō.
41. 41Nakamura, Taiwan, Chōsen, Karafuto no ringyō, 8–9.
42. 42Ibid., 9–10; Hokkaidō Sanrin Shubyō Dōgyō Kumiai, Mansen no ringyō.
43. 43Nōrinshō Sanrinkyoku, Sanrin yōran 1931, 5; Nōrinshō Sanrinkyoku, Sanrin yōran 1944, 7.
44. 44Shin, ‘A Study on the Hwajeon’, 1110.
45. 45Yamaguchi, Tōhoku no yakibata kankō, 222–223.
46. 46Ibid., 8–9, 184.
47. 47Nōrinshō Sanrinkyoku, Sanrin yōran 1929, 47; Nōrinshō Sanrinkyoku, Sanrin yōran 1935, 170.
48. 48Yamaguchi, Tōhoku no yakibata kankō, 219–220.
49. 49Roy, Taiwan, 50–51; Simon, ‘Formosa’s First Nations’.
50. 50Simon, ‘Formosa’s First Nations’.
51. 51Ibid.
52. 52Hawes, In the Uttermost East, 105.
53. 53Takahashi, ‘Ringyō oyobi kōgyō’, 113–114.
54. 54Karafuto Chō, Karafuto chō shisei sanjūnenshi, 461–462.
55. 55Nakamura, Taiwan, Chōsen, Karafuto no ringyō, 18–19.
56. 56Nōrinshō Sanrinkyoku, Sanrin yōran 1929, 4; Nōrinshō Sanrinkyoku, Sanrin yōran 1935, 10–11.
57. 57Karafuto Chō, Karafuto chō shisei sanjūnenshi, 432–433, 450–455.
58. 58Ibid., 501.
59. 59Tanaka and Gendānu, Gendānu; Kitagawa Watashi no oitachi; Hokkaidōritsu Hoppō Minzoku Hakubutsukan, Karafuto 1905–1945.
60. 60Barlow, ‘Introduction: On Colonial Modernity’, 6.
61. 61Chang and Chiang, ‘From Colonial Site to Cultural Heritage’.
62. 62Xu et al., ‘Participatory Agroforestry Development’.