Seismicity Within and Beyond the Empire Japanese

Authors: Boumsoung Kim

Publish Date: 2008/03/27

Volume: 1, Issue: 2, Pages: 153-165

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Abstract

Taking the global deployment of scientific activities in the contexts of colonies and empires into consideration this essay discusses seismological practices on and in Taiwan circa 1900 During the early years of Taiwan’s colonization the Japanese empire had to cope with the natural and political hazards of earthquakes in the new colony Japanese knowledge regarding Taiwanese earthquakes was therefore a toolbox with which the empire could tame the formidable physical and political environment On the other hand as seismicity is simultaneously local and global seismological investigations also moved across borders interacting with local and global contexts과학 활동의 세계적인 전개 및 이와 관련된 제국주의라는 역사적 맥락을 고려하면서 이 글에서는1900년을 전후하여 타이완에서 전개된 지진 연구를 살펴보고자 한다 타이완을 식민지화한 일본 제국은 타이완의 지진활동이 지닌 자연재해로서의 리스크와 더불어 그 정치적인 위험성에도 대처해야만 했으며 이러한 의미에서 일본이 타이완에서 타이완에 대해 행한지진 조사는 제국이 식민지의 물리적/정치적 환경을 길들이는 수단의 하나였다고 할 수 있다 그러나 다른 한편으로 지구 반대편에서 발생한 지진파가 관측 가능하게 된 이 시기 지진에 대한 조사활동도 여러 경계선을 넘어서 전개되어 갔다 지진및 지진학은 지역성을 지니는 동시에 전지구적인 움직임도 내포하고 있었던 것이다The geographical deployment of science has been an important issue for historians of science The movement of a knowledge system stemming from Europe has been the subject of geopolitical accounts and the “centers” and “peripheries” of science have been reinterpreted in the context of imperialism1 The historiography of Japanese science previously filled with essentialistic stereotypes Low 1989 has also been reconsidered within a geopolitical framework noting the interaction between the Japanese empire and its science sectors Kato 1993 1998 2001 Tsukahara 1999 20012 On the other hand empirical studies on scientific practices in nonWestern areas have also problematized the denotations of the colonial historiography of science Harrison 2005 Historical diversities of the scientific knowledgemaking processes have blurred the geopolitical demarcations of “centers” and “peripheries” of scientific study and more plastic and interactive terms such as “polycentric communication networks” have been suggested Chambers and Gillespie 2000Seismology the science of earthquakes is considered an example that sheds some light on the local and global settings in which scientific practices are conducted This is related to the fact that seismicity in terms of its geographical distribution is a geophysical phenomenon that is simultaneously local and global On the one hand earthquakes can totally transform the material/political/psychological landscape in a limited area in the vicinity of an earthquake’s epicenter The intensity of any earthquake is a function of architectural styles and structures the political system’s response to disasters the culture of the local people as well as the physical energy radiated On the other hand seismic waves move quickly and globally transcending the borders of empires and colonies of centers and peripheries The waves can be detected on the seismographs at the antipodes and networked observatories throughout the earth can communicate their data with one anotherWhile earth sciences have been deployed globally however they have interacted with sociopolitical contexts Miller and Edwards 2001 Jasanoff and Martello 2004 Historical studies on seismology for instance have shown the religious/economic/political dimensions Geschwind 1998 2001 cultural/political discourse Clancey 2002a b 2006 and geophysical/geopolitical practices Kim 2007 of the earthquake science and technology The history of Japanese seismology illustrates the local and global arenas in which it has evolved during the age of empires and Japan’s seismological investigations in Taiwan a former colony of the Japanese empire could offer more detailed terrains of the scientific activities Gregory K Clancey has already referred to the Japanese seismological investigation in colonized Taiwan in the context of science and colonial discourse Clancey 2006 174–177 In this paper with the addition of more empirical details I will depict the Japanese investigation of seismicity in Formosa during the early years of the colonization against its global deployment observing the travel of waves knowledge and authority within and beyond the boundary of the empireJapanese scientific investigation of Taiwanese seismicity could be understood in the political context of the Japanese empire Earthquakes and the measures to control them were tools used by the Japanese empire to domesticate its new colony According to the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki Taiwanese inhabitants had the right to choose whether to emigrate from the island within two years of its signing During the first years of colonization therefore it was said to be a matter of vital importance for the colonizing governors to capture Taiwanese minds Ino 1905 63–713 Showcasing the positive aspects of Japanese “civilization” could be a means to illustrate to the Taiwanese why the Japanese newcomers should rule the territory4Taiwanese earthquakes were in reality political problems The earthquake of November 6 1904 which originated in Chiayi prefecture was a political hazard for the Japanese colonizers The first conspicuous earthquake in colonized Taiwan which killed 145 Taiwanese occurred during the international crisis of the Russo–Japanese War According to the official report of the colonial government a rumor circulated after the first shocks of the earthquake to the effect that “without the ceasefire the earthquakes will not stop” Department of Civil Administration 1907 Appendix Thus politicized this natural disaster blurring the dichotomy between the “natural” and the “human” could not be immediately resolved even by the power of science which represented the pinnacle of civilization A scientific report on the earthquake submitted by Omori Fusakichi a Japanese seismologist started with a section called “the superstition of the aborigines” In this section the seismologist lamented “the superstition” of the natives also called “the former Chinese” who had ascribed the natural disaster to the political calamities Omori 1906b 3–45 However for the Taiwanese inhabitants affected by the earthquake the disaster pointed to the politics of morality eg activities that had been conducted by the police to prevent epidemics such as disinfection practices were interpreted by the local people as treason against Heaven Omori 1906b 10–11 According to this interpretation it was the police and their actions that had caused the earthquake Furthermore political boundaries limited the realm of knowledge During his investigative trip in 1906 Omori could not get information from the territory of “the savages” Omori 1907b 60 The primitive landscape of Taiwanese seismicity seemed to be hostile to the Japanese administration to know and to control earthquakesNevertheless in spite of the politically dangerous “superstitions” of the colonized people the colonizing process was conducted through natural disasters Department of Civil Administration 1907 218–222 The official report about the far more severe earthquake of 1906 which killed 1249 people argued that it was a “new” experience for the people in Taiwan to have the Japanese authorities unlike the former Chinese government officials industriously attempting to save them The author of the report confidently added that using their “civilized” medicine had also been effective Department of Civil Administration 1907 414–416 The Japanese also contrasted images of the empire against the devastating power of nature Responding to the report from Kodama Gentaro the governorgeneral of Taiwan the Japanese emperor and empress bestowed donations to relief efforts and a military aide in the service of the Emperor was dispatched to the damaged regions of Taiwan Official ceremonies for distributing the financial support glorified the blessings from the imperial family and a Chinesestyle poem expressing the Taiwanese people’s great appreciation was dedicated to the “Son of Heaven” a traditional nickname for the Chinese emperor though the poem was already using the Japanese name for the era “Meiji” Department of Civil Administration 1907 315–320 333–334

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