Japan and the Antarctic Treaty after World War II

Abstract

n behalf of my friends, colleagues, and predecessors, please allow me to share my sincere gratitude on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty that was signed in Washington, D.C., on 1 December 1959. The government of Japan decided in 1955 to participate in the cooperative Antarctic investigations organized during the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Among the 12 nations who were conducting Antarctic research at that time, Japan was the only one who had been defeated during World War II. We also were the only Asian nation with a history of active interest in Antarctica, going back to the 1910–1912 expeditions of Nobu Shirase (Shirase, 2011). The international scientific community and victorious governments warmly accepted Japanese collaboration in Antarctic research during the IGY. The station for the first Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE) was established in January 1957 at 69°00S, 39°35E on East Ongul Island, LutzowHolm Bay, East Antarctica, and has been occupied ever since. I was on the replacement team (JARE2) on February 1958, and our team was forced to abandon 15 Sakhalin sled dogs at the unmanned Syowa Station because of the poor sea ice conditions. Upon their 14 January 1959 arrival, the JARE3 team was surprisingly greeted by two of the huskies— Taro and Jiro— who had survived on their own for 11 months, possibly living on seal dung and penguins. I then served as the geomorphologist and dog handler during the 1960/1961 seasons, working with Taro and Jiro along with the 11 other dogs that we brought to Syowa for the winter. Over the years, it has been amazing to watch these two sled dogs became heroes in the hearts of the Japanese people as symbols of courage and survival, with museum statues and feature movies to their credit, awakening a national sense of pride in Antarctic research. Japan formally abandoned all territorial rights in Antarctica (based on the early twentieth century exploration of Shirase) on the occasion of signing the Treaty of Peace with Japan on 8 September 1951 in San Francisco. Thus, as a nonclaimant nation, Japan contributed to the Antarctic Treaty negotiations in Washington, D.C., with Minister T. Shimoda as the first secretary of the Japanese Embassy (Sugihara, 1988). In 2008–2009, an international team of scientists led by the National Institute of Polar Research participated in JARE50. Throughout, Japan has been a Japan and the Antarctic Treaty after World War II