‘The one person in the world who has the peculiar knowledge and experience necessary …’: The Life and Career of Morishima Kakufusa

Abstract

During his lifetime Morishima Kakufusa was closely connected with Japanese expansionist schemes in Mongolia, as a monk, a trader, a lecturer, an author, an escort for academic explorers and a military intelligence officer. The specifics of Morishima's employers at various points throughout his long career are unclear, but an examination of his career provides some idea of the different groups and individuals in Japanese society who sought to implement either direct or indirect Japanese control over Mongolia during the first four decades of the twentieth century. Moreover, the promotion of Morishima's career by his hometown of Tokunoshima in the twenty-first century is an example of how some in Japan at the present time are presenting the imperial era in a more positive light.

Keywords:

• Morishima Kakufusa
• Mongolia
• imperialism
• military intelligence
• tokumu kikan