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Abstract
In this paper, the authors analyze the formation of a network of Indonesian nuclear experts. Their investigation of Indonesia's major institutions of nuclear engineering—the National Nuclear Energy Agency (Badan Tenaga Nuklir Nasional, BATAN), the Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency (Badan Pengawas Tenaga Nuklir, BAPETEN), and the Bandung Institute of Technology (Institute of Technology in Bandung, ITB)—reveals a visible Japanese influence in Indonesia. Through extensive interviews with Indonesian nuclear experts, the authors demonstrate the close ties between the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the ITB. This analysis illustrates the firm relationship between the two institutions in an academic nexus, resulting in the formation of the Japan-Indonesia nuclear network. Further, the collective biographies of Indonesian nuclear physicists, including Zaki Su'ud and his followers, show that the tightly woven academic complex between Japan and Indonesia has pushed the transfer of nuclear research from Japan to Indonesia. This collection of ties has led to the establishment of a so-called science community of nuclear engineering in Indonesia by the Tokyo Institute of Technology. The authors argue that this science community forms a subsidiary of Japan's “nuclear village,” which has expanded beyond its national boundaries. The authors’ research on Japan's technopolitical expansion through the establishment of a science community in Indonesia reveals the manner in which close ties between Japanese and Indonesian academia have been built. The authors suggest that this Japan-Indonesia network should be understood within the context of Japan as a United States techno-imperial sub-system, forming an extension of the US-centered international structure of nuclear engineering in the framework of models proposed by Togo Tsukahara.
Acknowledgments
We would like to express our gratitude for all who helped supply necessary information and instructive comments for this article, especially those who were willing to be interviewed in Indonesia and Japan. Special thanks should be dedicated to Dr. Sulfikar Amir, who supervised Inuma's study at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, introduced most of the interviewees and institutions in Indonesia to her, and encouraged and inspired our research on Indonesian nuclear engineering. Also, we appreciate the kind help and most considerate advice from Dr. Lisa Onaga of Nanyang Technological University, and the always insightful discussion with Dr. Hiroki Ogasawara and our Kobe colleagues. Last but not least, we thank the two anonymous referees for detailed remarks.
Notes
1 Among others, recent work by CitationSuzuki (2015) covers this issue and is very comprehensive. About the Japan-US nuclear treaty and detailed conditions for Japan's exportation of American nuclear technology, see CitationOota 2014.
2 A new research work on the nuclear treaty between Japan and Vietnam has just been published by CitationIto and Yoshii (2015).
3 The industrial-academic community related to nuclear power is called “genshi-ryoku mura” 原子力村 in Japanese; a literal translation of genshi-ryoku is “nuclear power,” and mura, “village.” This is a metaphorical expression of those actors related to the nuclear industry who are helping and supporting each other like members of a small village. For the structure and history of the formation of this “village,” see CitationYoshioka 2011b.
4 Yoshioka once defined Japan's nuclear community—composed of four major actors—as “the structure of a tetrahedron” in Citation2011a. He then added four more actors to the eight, notably with the United States government as one of the obstacle to Japan's denuclearization (CitationYoshioka 2012).
5 Wisnubroto's wife, Geni Rina Sunaryo, also studied at Tokyo University between 1998 and 1994. She is currently working at BATAN as a head researcher (CitationWisnubroto 2013).
6 According to CitationIsmail (2013), twelve out of forty-one BAPETEN researchers obtained academic degrees in Japan.
7 Collective biography is often called “prosopography” and is a style of historiography employed by scholars of the Annales School and by history of science scholars.
8 At these institutions, interviews were carried out with Japan-educated Indonesian nuclear experts in March 2013, July 2013, and September 2014.
9 Indonesia has a long history of nuclear research and development (R&D). It began in 1954 to assess the health effects of the nuclear radioactive fallout caused by US thermonuclear weapons tests in the Pacific Ocean. Then Sukarno ordered the establishment of BATAN and sent Indonesian students abroad. In regard to funding a nuclear program, Sukarno had an agnostic attitude, for he depended both on the Soviet Union and the United States. He made an announcement in 1965 that Indonesia intended to have its own atomic bomb, but the plan failed with the collapse of his regime.
10 For an account of the early period of Indonesia's nuclear program, see CitationPoneman 1982. The US government promised $350,000 for an Atoms for Peace grant toward the cost of a research reactor at Bandung and $141,000 from the US Agency for International Development to assist Indonesia in developing its atomic research program. A TRIGA Mark II research reactor was built by General Atomics (GA), a US high-technology company. The Soviet Union also agreed to supply $5 million for nuclear-related equipment, but the project failed. ITB's nuclear physics students performed research inside this reactor until it was shut down in 2012.
11 On various occasions, he commented on the Fukushima nuclear disaster in the Indonesian media. In Kompas, a major newspaper in Indonesia, he asserted that “the Fukushima incident tells that we need the (new) Generation IV or III nuclear reactors” (Citation“Belajar dari Fukushima,” 2011).
12 Sutrisno is his full name. Some of the individuals mentioned in this article have a single name, following Indonesian custom.
13 GA was originally founded in 1955 as a division of General Dynamics. GA and its affiliated companies now constitute one of the world's leading resources for high-technology systems ranging from the nuclear fuel cycle to electromagnetic systems, remotely operated surveillance aircraft, airborne sensors, and advanced electronic, wireless, and laser technologies. See www.ga.com (accessed 27 February 2015).
14 Sutrisno and Sekimoto obtained their doctoral degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1971 and 1974, respectively (Su'ud 2013).
15 His PhD dissertation was entitled 鉛及び鉛ビスマス冷却長寿命小型高速炉の設計研究 (Studies on Design of Lead and Lead-Bismuth Cooled Long-Life Small Fast Reactor; English translation by author).
16 Obara obtained his master's and doctoral degrees under Sekimoto's supervision. After serving as Sekimoto's assistant, he began teaching at the Tokyo Institute of Technology as a professor in 2002.
17 STMDP (1985–94) was succeeded by similar programs: Professional Human Resources Development (PHRDP, 1991–98), PHRDP-II (1996–2004), and PHRDP-III (2007– ). These projects were financed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation Fund of Japan (OECF) and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). See CitationHamano 2013.
18 See also CitationBarker 2005. Barker pointed out that the so-called satellite project was constructed around a nationalist rhetoric that served the political ambitions of the Suharto regime.
19 He is the chief editor of the Indonesian Journal of Physics (IJP) and is a member of the board for the journal Sains dan Teknologi Nuklir Indonesia (Indonesian Nuclear Science and Technology).
20 For a critical discussion about ODA and Japan's postwar reparations, see CitationMurai 1999.
21 For instance, Permana received four scholarships: the MEXT international program for his master's term, Masuda Foundation (2004–6, 100,000 yen per month), Sato Foundation (2006, for six months, 180,000 yen per month) for his doctoral term, and a Center of Excellence (COE) salary for his postdoctoral term, which was financed by MEXT.
22 For instance, see Tanabe (JACSES), Simizu (Friend of the Earth Japan), July 2011(http://mekongwatch.org/PDF/NNAF2011NuclearExport.pdf, accessed 27 February 2015).
23 For language (English) dominance and technoscience in Japan during 1980s and 1990s, see CitationNakayama 2014: 36.
24 After he retired from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Sekimoto returned to the University of California, Berkeley, from 2011 to 2013 as a research scholar. He taught at Xiamen University in China as a professor from September 2013 to March 2014 and received a contract to give a special series of lectures there as a guest professor from January 2014 to 2016. At the same time, he has been teaching at Tokyo City University as a visiting professor since April 2014.
25 Information about Sekimoto is available on his website. http://www.nr.titech.ac.jp/∼hsekimot/ (accessed 13 December 2014).
26 This is an organization of an “all-Japan framework based on mutual beneficial relationship among nuclear- related organizations/ institutions from industries, academia and government,” according to the website of JN-HRD Net (jn-hrd-n.jaea.go.jp/objectives.php, accessed 24 December 2014).
27 Obara did field research in Indonesia in September 11 to 18 in 2011 as a member of the JN-HRD Net (jn-hrd-n.jaea.go.jp/pdf/international/chousa%20h22.pdf, accessed 26 December 2014).
28 He has been teaching at Tokyo City University since 2012 (http://www.nuc.tcu.ac.jp/ntakaki/english.html, accessed 23 December 2014).
29 The PNC had taken the initiative to develop Japan's nuclear equipment, especially the advanced thermal reactors (ATRs) and fast breeder reactors (FBR) for spent nuclear fuel reprocessing and uranium enrichment.
30 According to Sekimoto's webpage, a number of graduates of his laboratory are also working at nuclear industries or research institutions. Many professors at the Tokyo Institute of Technology belong to the American Nuclear Society, established in 1954 as a purported scientific and educational organization; it actually coordinates collusive pronuclear communities. See http://www.ans.org (accessed 14 December 2014).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Mutsumi Inuma
Mutsumi Inuma was born in Osaka in 1991 and studied international cultural studies at Kobe University between 2010 and 2015. While at Kobe University, she studied the sociology of science at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Since April 2015, she has been associated with Kyodo News as a reporter. Her fields of interests include post-3/11 Japan, the Japanese export of nuclear engineering, the third world and Japan's ODA, and Indonesian technology.
Togo Tsukahara
Togo Tsukahara was born in Tokyo in 1961 and studied chemistry, earning a PhD from Leiden University in 1993. He has served as postdoctoral fellow at Needham Research Institute, Cambridge, United Kingdom; associate professor at Tokai University 東海大学 during 1994–98; and professor of the graduate school of Kobe University 神戸大学 since 1999. His fields of interests include HPS and STS, especially Japanese and Dutch history of science, history of chemistry and meteorology, non-Western Sciences and technology, and post-3/11 Japan.