Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Animals and Human Society in Asia pp 213–238Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Tuna as an Economic Resource and Symbolic Capital in Japan’s “Imperialism of the Sea”

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series ((PMAES))

Abstract

This contribution explores the role of migratory fish—tuna—and its materiality within the Japanese Empire. The historiography of Japanese imperialism features what could be called a terrestrial bias. Historians generally analyze Japan’s Empire and its expansion in terms of the occupation of landmasses and islands and the fight for natural sources, but the vast oceans and their living resources being part of the empire is a fact that is scarcely mentioned. Yet, this maritime dimension and living resources such as tuna, this chapter argues, were much more crucial for the Japanese Empire than generally assumed. Indeed, the very materiality of migrating tuna and its pathways through the oceans had steered human interaction with the fish. With this in mind, the chapter traces how it was used as a commodity, but also how it formed narratives of the Japanese as “ocean people” maintaining a specific relationship with tuna. It further seeks to show that it was tuna, in the form of both an economic resource and symbolic capital, that constituted not just the Japanese empire and its society, but also its global impact and power, to a barely acknowledged extent.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Naikaku Jōhōbu (1938).

  2. 2.

    Yamato (1941, 379).

  3. 3.

    Tsutsui (2013).

  4. 4.

    For the argument in general see: Mackenthun and Klein (2004, 1–12). For the Japanese case see: Tsutsui (2013).

  5. 5.

    Borgstrom (1964, 273).

  6. 6.

    Hamashita (1990).

  7. 7.

    See, for example, Kawakatsu (1997); see also Kojima, ed. Haneda (2013); For an exception, also integrating a contemporary historical perspective: Anthony (2010).

  8. 8.

    Ptak (2007), Kawakatsu (1997), and Kojima, ed. Haneda (2013): or Anthony (2010).

  9. 9.

    Fogel (2009).

  10. 10.

    Ogawa (2016).

  11. 11.

    For a claim to tackle the environmental dimension, and that of oceanic species in maritime history see Wigen (2006).

  12. 12.

    For a groundbreaking empirical study that dealt with marine animals and imperialism, see Jones (2013). Similarly, there are studies on land based animals, such as Miller (2013) and Skabelund (2011), and on fisheries, Muscolino (2009).

  13. 13.

    This argument was inspired by Franziska Torma who deals with German fishery experts in Cold War Thailand. See Torma (2014).

  14. 14.

    Tsutsui (2013).

  15. 15.

    For a study that deals with much earlier attempts around the Osagawara Islands see Rüegg (2017).

  16. 16.

    Smith (2003) and Borgstrom (1964).

  17. 17.

    Small (1971) and Peattie (1996).

  18. 18.

    Naikaku Jōhōbu (1938).

  19. 19.

    Kasahara (1972).

  20. 20.

    Wakabayashi (1930, 68).

  21. 21.

    Itō et al. (2016).

  22. 22.

    For an overview of Japan’sfisheries expansion as going hand in hand with its imperial expansion, see Finley (2011) and Tsutsui (2013, 23–28).

  23. 23.

    Hayashi (1788).

  24. 24.

    Kuwata (1942, 1f).

  25. 25.

    Nobu Asato (1942, 19).

  26. 26.

    Kuwata (1942).

  27. 27.

    Uda (1952, 120).

  28. 28.

    Tanabe (2010).

  29. 29.

    Albert Herre (1943, 99).

  30. 30.

    Finley (2011, 41f).

  31. 31.

    Nihon maguro kantsume yushutsu suisangyō kumiai (1982, 37–38).

  32. 32.

    For pictures of tinned tuna labels with Mount Fuji and other “typical” Japanese symbols see for instance Nihon kantsume kyōkai (1987, 21).

  33. 33.

    1932. In The Wall street Journal, 2.

  34. 34.

    1933. In The New York Times, 7.

  35. 35.

    Miyauchi and Fujibayashi (2013, 136).

  36. 36.

    1937. In The New York Times, 41.

  37. 37.

    Finley (2011, 104f).

  38. 38.

    Herre (1943, 100).

  39. 39.

    Nihon maguro kantsume yushutsu suisangyō kumiai (1982, 38).

  40. 40.

    Finley (2011).

  41. 41.

    See, for example, SCAP (1950) and Fish and Wildlife Service United States Department of the Interior (1947).

  42. 42.

    Shimada (1951).

  43. 43.

    Shapiro (1950).

  44. 44.

    Borgstrom (1964).

  45. 45.

    Rozdwadowski (2008).

  46. 46.

    Hamblin (2005).

  47. 47.

    Uda (1929).

  48. 48.

    Mazower (2009), Emmerij et al. (2006), and Büschel (2009).

  49. 49.

    File “Confidential.” “Designation of Manager for Singapore Fisheries Training Centre Project.” In Folder “Roy I. Jackson, PERSONAL 21” (Archival number: 14 FI 150 in Food and Agriculture Organization Archives, Rome).

  50. 50.

    Ibid.

  51. 51.

    Ochi and Bell (1966, 11).

  52. 52.

    Chen (2014).

  53. 53.

    Gillett (2007).

  54. 54.

    Tarte (1998).

  55. 55.

    Kaigai Gyogyō Kyōryoku Zaidan (1985, 1993).

  56. 56.

    Barclay (2008).

  57. 57.

    Tarte (1998, 124).

  58. 58.

    For a detailed anthropological account of Solomon Taiyo in the late 1990s, see Barclay (2008).

  59. 59.

    Miyauchi and Fujibayashi (2013, 137–138).

  60. 60.

    NBK Corporation (2007).

  61. 61.

    http://www.japantuna.net/dic_09. Accessed June 15, 2017.

  62. 62.

    Kuwata (1942, 1f).

  63. 63.

    Kadogawa kōtō dai jiten, digitized.

  64. 64.

    Zimmermann (1933, 216).

  65. 65.

    Tanabe (2010).

References

  • Anthony, Robert. 2010. Elusive Pirates, Pervasive Smugglers: Violence and Clandestine Trade in the Greater China Seas. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Asato, Nobu 安里, 延. 1942. Okinawakenjin nanpō hatten shi yōkō 沖縄縣人南方發展史要綱 [Outline of the History of Development of the Southern Islands by People of Okinawa Prefecture]. Tokyo: Nanyō keizai kenkyūjo shuppanbu.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barclay, Kate. 2008. A Japanese Joint Venture in the Pacific: Foreign Bodies in Tinned Tuna. New York and London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Borgstrom, Georg. 1964. Japan’s World Success in Fishing. London: Fishing News.

    Google Scholar 

  • Büschel, Hubertus. 2009. Entwicklungswelten: Globalgeschichte Der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit [Worlds of Development. A Global History of Development Work]. Frankfurt and New York, NY: Campus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, Ta-Yuan. 2014. “Evolution and Development of the Taiwanese Offshore Tuna Fishery.” In Historical Perspectives of Fisheries Exploitation in the Indo-Pacific, edited by Joseph Christensen and Malcolm Tull, 133–152. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emmerij, Louis, Dharam Ghai, Richard Jolly, and Frédéric Lapeyre. 2006. UN Contributions to Development Thinking and Practice. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finley, Carmel. 2011. All the Fish in the Sea: Maximum Sustainable Yield and the Failure of Fisheries Management. Chicago and London: Chicago University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fish and Wildlife Service United States Department of the Interior, ed. 1947. Japan’s Big Fishing Companies. Washington: Fish and Wildlife Service United States Department of the Interior.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fogel, Joshua A. 2009. Articulating the Sinosphere: Sino-Japanese Relations in Space and Time. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillett, Robert. 2007. A Short History of Industrial Fishing in the Pacific Islands. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamashita, Takeshi 浜下武志. 1990. Kindai chūgoku no kokusaiteki keiki: chōkō bōeki shisutemu to kindai ajia 近代中国の国際的契機: 朝貢貿易システムと近代アジア [International Tendencies of Modern China: Tributary Trade System and Modern Asia]. Tokyo: Tokyo University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamblin, Jacob Darwin. 2005. Oceanographers and the Cold War: Disciples of Marine Science. Seattle: Washington University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayashi, Shihei 林子平. 1788. Kaikoku heidan 海国兵談 [Military Strategies in Sea Battles and Weaponry]. Manuscript copied by Fujiwara Asataka.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herre, Albert W. C. T. 1943. “Japanese Fisheries and Fish Supplies.” Far Eastern Survey 12 (10): 99–101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Itō, Yasuhiro, et al. 2016. Teikoku nihon no gyogyō to gyogyō seisaku 帝国日本の漁業と漁業政策 [Fishery and Fishery Policies of the Japanese Empire]. Tokyo: Hokuto shobo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, Ryan T. 2013. “Running into Whales: The History of the North Pacific from Below the Waves.” The American Historical Review 118 (2): 349–377.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaigai gyogyō kyōryoku zaidan 海外漁業協力財団. 1985. Kaigai gyogyō hattenshi nenpyō 海外漁業発展史年表 [History of Overseas Fishery Development]. Tokyo: Kaigai gyogyō kyōryoku zaidan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaigai gyogyō kyōryoku zaidan 海外漁業協力財団. 1993. Kaigai gyogyō kyōryoku zaidan nijunen no ayumi 海外漁業協力財団20年の歩み [Twenty Years of Overseas Fishery Cooperation Foundation of Japan]. Tokyo: Kaigai gyogyō kyōryoku zaidan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kasahara, Hiroshi. 1972. “Japan’s Distant Water Fisheries: A Review.” Fishery Bulletin 70 (2): 227–282.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kawakatsu, Heita 川勝平太. 1997. Bunmei no kaiyō shikan 文明の海洋史観 [An Oceanic Interpretation of Civilization]. Tokyo: Chūō Kōron Shinsha.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kojima, Tsuyoshi 小島毅. 2013. Umi kara mita rekishi 海から見た歴史 [East Asian History Viewed from the Sea]. Edited by Haneda, Masashi 羽田正. Tokyo: Tōkyō daigaku shuppankai.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuwata, Tōichi 桑田透一. 1942. Suisan Nihon 水産日本 [Fisheries of Japan]. Tokyo: Dai Nihon Yubenkai Kodansha.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackenthun, Gesa, and Bernhard Klein. 2004. “The Sea Is History.” In Sea Changes: Historicizing the Ocean, edited by Bernhard Klein and Gesa Mackenthun, 1–12. New York: London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mazower, Mark. 2009. No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, Ian Jared. 2013. The Nature of the Beasts: Empire and Exhibition at the Tokyo Imperial Zoo. Asia—Local Studies/Global Themes. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miyauchi, Daisuke 宮内泰介, and Yasushi Fujibayashi 藤林泰. 2013. Katsuobushi to Nihonjin かつお節と日本人 [Skipjack Tuna Flakes and Japanese People]. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muscolino, Micah S. 2009. Fishing Wars and Environmental Change in Late Imperial and Modern China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Naikaku Jōhōbu 内閣情報部. 1938. “Suisan Nihon 水産日本” [The Japan of Fisheries]. Shashin shūhō 写真週報, April 13.

    Google Scholar 

  • NBK Corporation. 2007. Website Homepage. http://www.nbk.co.jp/message/. Accessed June 14, 2017.

  • Nihon kantsume kyōkai 日本缶詰協会. 1987. Me de miru nihon kantsume shi 目で見る日本缶詰史 [A Visual History of Japanese Cans]. Tokyo: Nihon kantsume kyōkai.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nihon maguro kantsume yushutsu suisangyō kumiai 日本鮪缶詰輸出水産業組合. 1982. Maguro kantsume shi まぐろ缶詰史 [A History of Japanese Tuna Cans]. Tokyo: Nihon maguro kantsume yushutsu suisangyō kumiai.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ochi, Takenao, and Robert Bell. 1966. Kenya—Survey of Longline Fishing Resources in East African Waters—Report to the Government. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organisation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ogawa, Manako. 2016. Sea of Opportunity: The Japanese Pioneers of the Fishing Industry in Hawai’i. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peattie, Mark R. 1996. “Nanshin: The Southern Advance, 1931–1942, as a Prelude to the Japanese Occupation of Southeast Asia.” In The Japanese Wartime Empire, 1931–1945, edited by Peter Duus, Ramon Hawley Myers, Mark R. Peattie, and Wanyao Zhou, 189–242. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ptak, Roderich. 2007. Die Maritime Seidenstrasse: Küstenräume, Seefahrt und Handel in Vorkolonialer Zeit [The Maritime Silkroad: Coastal Space, Seafaring and Trade in Pre-colonial Times]. Munich: Beck.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rozdwadowski, Helen M. 2008. Fathoming the Ocean: The Discovery and Exploration of the Deep Sea. Cambridge, MA: Belknap.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rüegg, Jonas. 2017. “Mapping the Forgotten Colony: The Ogasawara Islands and the Tokugawa Pivot to the Pacific.” Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review 23: 108–157.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shapiro, Sidney. 1950. “The Japanese Long-Line Fishery for Tunas.” In Fishery Bulletin of the Fish and Wildlife Service, edited by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 317. Washington, DC: Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shimada, Bell. 1951. Fishery Bulletin of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Edited by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Washington, DC: United States Government Publishing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skabelund, Aaron Herald. 2011. Empire of Dogs: Canines, Japan, and the Making of the Modern Imperial World. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Small, George L. 1971. The Blue Whale. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Roger. 2003. “Japan’s High Seas Fisheries in the North Pacific Ocean: Food Security and Foreign Policy.” In Japan at the Millennium Joining Past and Future, edited by David W. Edgington, 67–90. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanabe, Satoru 田辺悟. 2010. Maguro no Bunkashi マグロの文化誌 [A Cultural Record of Tuna]. Tokyo: Keiyusha.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tarte, Sandra. 1998. Japan’s Aid Diplomacy and the Pacific Islands. Canberra and Suva: National Centre for Development Studies, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University and Institute of Pacific Studies, South Pacific University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • The New York Times. 1933. “Tuna Fish Industry Is Passing to Japan.” December 24, 7.

    Google Scholar 

  • The New York Times. 1937. “Japanese Tuna Imports Jumped.” June 25, 41.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP). 1946. Summation of Non-Military Activities in Japan and Korea. Tokyo: General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP). 1950. Japanese Fisheries Before 1945. Edited by Department of Natural Resources.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Wall Street Journal. 1932. “Cheap Imports Hurt U.S. Trade.” November 5, 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Torma, Franziska. 2014. “Lebende Ressourcen und symbolisches Kapital: Westdeutsche Fischereiexperten am Golf von Thailand (1959–1974).” Geschichte und Gesellschaft 40 (3): 354–381.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsutsui, William M. 2013. “The Pelagic Empire: Reconsidering the Japanese Expansion.” In Japan at Nature’s Edge: The Environmental Context of a Global Power, edited by Ian Jared Miller, Brett L. Walker and Julia Adeney Thomas, 21–38. Honolulu: Hawaii University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Uda, Michitaka 宇田道隆. 1929. “Kuroshio no ryūikika ni okeru kaisuisō no sōjū jōtai ni tsuite” 黒潮の流域下に於ける海水層の層重状態に就て [On the Layered State of Sea Aquifer in the Kuroshio Current Region]. Umi to sora 海と空 [Sea and Sky] 9 (11): 175–182.

    Google Scholar 

  • Uda, Michitaka 宇田道隆. 1952. Umi to sakana 海と魚 [Sea and Fish]. Shiome no hanashi 潮見の話 [On Tide]. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wakabayashi, Han 若林半. 1930. Suisan rikkoku ron. Kaiyō keizai to nanyō no suisan 水産立国論: 海洋経済と南洋水産 [Marine Economy and South Sea Fisheries]. Tōkyō Seiji keizai tsūshinsha.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wigen, Kären. 2006. “Introduction.” The American Historical Review 111 (3): 717–721.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yamato, Mensile Italo-Giapponese. 1941. “Katuo. Il pesce delle vittoria” [Skipjack Tuna. The Victory Fish]. 1 (12): 379f.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmermann, Erich W. 1933. “Resources of the South.” The South Atlantic Quarterly 32 (3): 213–226.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Free University Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Nadin Heé

  2. Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany

    Nadin Heé

Authors
  1. Nadin Heé
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nadin Heé .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Asian Studies, The University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Rotem Kowner

  2. Zinman Institute of Archaeology, The University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Guy Bar-Oz

  3. Institute of Asian and African Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Michal Biran

  4. Department of East Asian Studies, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Meir Shahar

  5. Department of Asian Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Gideon Shelach-Lavi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Heé, N. (2019). Tuna as an Economic Resource and Symbolic Capital in Japan’s “Imperialism of the Sea”. In: Kowner, R., Bar-Oz, G., Biran, M., Shahar, M., Shelach-Lavi, G. (eds) Animals and Human Society in Asia. The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24363-0_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation