Frontier spirit and the making of the Japanese pioneer

Abstract

Abstract This article analyses the origins of the so-called frontier spirit as the main feature of the Japanese pioneers who were the grass-roots agents of Japanese expansion into Asia. It argues that this narrative traces back to the government-sponsored cultivation program in Hokkaidō, where so-called tondenhei were employed as farmer-soldiers to open up the new frontier region as Japan’s first colony. After the termination of the tondenhei program, the frontier spirit took on a life of its own. It was embraced by advocates of Japanese settler colonialism on the Asian continent as a vital element of the quintessential Japanese pioneer, capable of overcoming any hardships that might arise. Consequently, the iconic Japanese pioneer in Manchuria, who eventually fell victim to Japan’s megalomanic migration machine in Northeast China, can be seen as the reincarnation of their equally unfortunate predecessor, the tondenhei soldier.