Meteorology on the Southern Frontier of Japan’s Empire: Ogasawara Kazuo at Taihoku Imperial University

Abstract

This paper outlines some characteristics of the academic activity in the Japanese colonial setting, with special reference to meteorology on the southern colonial frontier of Japan’s Empire, through the works of Ogasawara Kazuo at Taihoku Imperial University. We first review the establishment of Japan’s overseas meteorological network and the corresponding institutionalization of meteorology in that period. We will then consider Ogasawara’s academic works at Taihoku Imperial University, and analyse how a pure scientist shifted to colonial management and justified Japan’s expansion as far as Australia and New Zealand. We will examine his moral dilemma, how he wrote his work on tropical climate, and his interpretation of Huntingtonian environmental determinism. Through the analysis of Ogasawara’s works, we are able to see at least one aspect of Japan’s colonial science, its syncretic nature and pragmatism.