South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

29

Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seasand its Relations with Japanese Settlers in
Papua and New Guinea, 1919-1940
Hiromitsu IWAMOTO

1)

Abstract

Japanese policies toward nan’yo (the South Seas) developed rapidly in the inter-war period (1919-1940). Afterthe invasion in China in the early 1930s, trade-oriented nanshin (southward advancement) policies gradually
gained aggressiveness, as the military began to influence making foreign policies. Behind this change, nanshin-ron(southward advancement theory) advocates provided ideological justification for the Japanese territorial expansion
in the South Seas. In these circumstances, Japanese settlers in Papua and New Guinea were put in a peculiar
position: the emergence of militaristic Japan probably stimulated their patriotism but it also endangered theirpresence because they were in the colony of Australia−the nation that traditionally feared invasion from the north.
However, as the Australian government continued to restrict Japanese migration, numerically their presence
became marginal. But, unproportional to their population, economically they prospered and consolidated theirstatus as ’masters’(although not quite equal to their white counterparts) in the Australian colonial apparatus. In thispaper, I shall analyse how this unique presence of the Japanese settlers developed, examining its relations with theJapanese expansion in the South Seas and the Australian policies that tried to counter the expansion.
Key words: inter-war period, Japanese settlers, Papua and New Guinea, nanshin, Australia

Introduction
The Australian civil administration was established in 1921 and inherited policies established during the military period. The administration continued to restrict Japanese migration to New Guinea and also trading for several years. Consequently Japanese influence
became marginal: by 1940 their population had shrunk to about 40. Besides, Komine
Isokichi (the leader of the Japanese community in New Guinea)(1) died in 1934. The natureof the community also changed. They were mostly businessmen, unlike the earlier period
when most Japanese were artisans or labourers.

1) Collaborative researcher. Kagoshima University Research Center for the South Pacific, Kagoshima 890, Japan

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South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

1. Japan, Australia and New Guinea in international politics
The international situation changed rapidly in the interwar period. Bargaining and appeasement were arrayed in the process of constructing and de-constructing the international
collective security systems. Imperial powers’ struggle continued to secure their colonies.
Australia recognised the increasing strategic value of New Guinea, while Japan was
Japanising Micronesia.
At the Paris Peace Conference (1919-1921), the victors of World War I bargained todivide German colonies, and tried to secure their spoils through the League of Nations. A
new colonial map was drawn in the Pacific-Asia region−German colonies vanished but
more colonies accrued to Japan and Australia.
To Japan, the Conference was a milestone, in that the western powers accepted her as amajor colonial power: she was counted as one of the Five Powers (with Britain, France, theUS and Italy). In Japan newspapers reported daily discussions of Japanese delegates with
their western counterparts and excited the public. Similarly, the Conference was significant
to Australia: her representation as a Dominion represented the acknowledgment of nationhood.(2) As a result, discussions concerning Japan and Australia were affected by the prideand prestige as young modern nations. This reinforced their mutual perceptions: the imageof racist Australians was imprinted on Japanese memories, while Australians increased theirsuspicion of expansionist Japanese looking at every opportunity to take white men’s lands.
Although silent on European affairs, the Japanese were vocal on Pacific-Asia matters:
especially the cession of German rights in Shantung Province, their claim to German
Micronesia and the abolition of racial discrimination. Of those three, the Shantung Province
was the issue of which they were most determined not to compromise. The province wasa gateway to Japanese expansion in East Asia and a shield against the Russian southward
expansion. The government instructed its delegates not to sign the treaty if their claim was
rejected.(3) The Japanese also had a strong claim to German colonies north of the equator,
reinforced by a secret treaty made with Britain during the war. The Japanese insistence on
the insertion of a racial equality clause in the charter of the League of Nations was weaker
than those two claims. It was a matter of prestige that: they saw the discriminatory treatment
of Japanese in the US, Canada and Australia as a disgrace; and that they should be treatedequally as their western counterparts, as citizens of a modern independent nation, not likeother Asians colonised by western powers.(4)Against those claims, the leading Australian delegate, William Hughes, strongly opposed
the last two, because both challenged the essence of Australian defence and foreign policy−the White Australia Policy. However, his main opponent in the German territory issue
was not the Japanese but the US President, Woodrow Wilson, who proposed the mandatory
system in which all countries should have the same right of access. Wilson’s proposal was
based on his idealistic Fourteen Points, but in effect it was also aimed at countering othercolonial powers’ expansion in the Pacific. Hughes thought that this proposal would threaten
Australia’s exclusive right to German New Guinea, as it would allow Japanese access. To

Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

31

Hughes, New Guinea was a buffer against Japan’s southward expansion: ’The ring of theseSouth Pacific islands encompasses Australia like a chain of fortresses..... and any Power
which controls New Guinea, controls Australia.(5)’ He vigorously resisted Wilson’s proposal.
The Japanese also objected, although less vigorously, being concerned about their commercial rights in New Guinea. After lengthy discussions and compromise, agreement wasreached finally: Class ’C’ Mandates−virtually exclusive colonies−were applied to allGerman Pacific territories.
In the eyes of Hughes, the Japanese proposal of racial equality was closely associatedwith the mandate issue. He thought that the Japanese were trying to manipulate in order tosend migrants to New Guinea as well as to Australia.(6) Hughes frantically opposed it,
because he thought that ’to allow coloured immigration was to risk social suicide, tojeopardise a society.’(7) Although the Japanese ’had no wish to dispatch immigrants’ toAustralia and their proposal was ’essentially a matter of prestige’,(8) Hughes was relentlessdespite the objection of Edmund Piesse, the Director of the Pacific Branch in the Prime
Minister’s Department. Piesse suggested that:
But even if there are reasons for maintaining racial discriminations against Asiatics, wemust face the facts that these discriminations give great offence in Japan, and to a lessextent in other Asiatic countries, that they contribute to the maintenance of strained
relations between Japan and the white races, and they are used in Japan as a justification for armaments−the existence of which contribute in turn to the maintenance ofarmaments in Australia and other white countries. Are racial discriminations so vitalto us that it is worthwhile to maintain them when they produce these results? Surely
the answer is that they are not.(9)However, the White Australia Policy was a sacred cow which most Australians would notsacrifice for anything. John Latham, one of the delegates, wrote:
The principle of White Australia is almost a religion in Australia. Upon it depends thepossibility of the continuance of white democracy−indeed, of any democracy, in areal sense−in this continent. Any surrender of the policy is inconceivable−it rests
upon the right of every self-governing community to determine the ingredients of its
own population. If that right is surrendered, the essence of self-government
disappears.(10)It was a ’moral imperative’ for Hughes to scrap the Japanese proposal, even if it was watereddown eliminating any reference to migration.(11) Finally, the Japanese gave up their proposal, and used it only as a bargaining chip for western acknowledgment of Japanese rights
in Shantung.(12) Thus the Australian objection facilitated the Japanese expansion in China.
Similarly, the Australian objection consolidated Japanese exclusive control of Micronesia,
as the Japanese could use the same argument to prevent non-Japanese from entering. As

32South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

Nelson rightly argues, it was a dilemma for Australians that ’every time they asserted theright to keep what they held and to impose their unfettered right on their new possessions,they were by implication strengthening the case of the Japanese to have their way in
Micronesia.’(13)The Paris Conference led to the establishment of the so-called ’Washington System’ inwhich major western powers and Japan concluded several treaties at Washington in 1921
and 1922. It reinforced the ’Pax Anglo-Saxonica’, establishing a collective security system
to maintain the status quo set at the Paris Conference.(14) Limitations on naval armaments
were agreed, although they in reality gave Japan naval superiority against the US in the
Pacific. And the Four-Power Pact was concluded among the US, Britain, France and Japan,
replacing the Anglo-Japanese Alliance which had been antagonising the US.
In concluding the treaties, Japan was obliged to cooperate with the western powers
because of the ’dual’ nature of the development of her imperialism: militarily Japan wascatching up with the west but economically she was still heavily dependent on the US andBritain for raw materials and markets.(15) At this stage Japan needed to avoid conflict withthe western powers in order to develop its economy.
On the abolition of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, Australia (although not represented at
the Conference) initially objected, fearing that Britain would not be able to restrain
Japanese from expanding in the Pacific. However, seeing the collective security systemestablished, Hughes (then the Prime Minister) ratified the treaties, saying,
This Treaty establishes an equilibrium in the Pacific. As far as any action of man can
do so, it insures peace for the next ten years for Australia.(16)
Hughes’s optimism proved right. In the 1920s Japan and Australia enjoyed relatively
relaxed relations. Their trade steadily grew and the shift of the destination of Japaneseemigration to South America mitigated the Australian fear of the ’Yellow Peril’. Piesse
observed that ’the danger to Australia from an increase of population in Japan seems remote,and should not affect Australia’s attitude toward her’.(17) Indeed the mid-1920s was a temporary ’golden period’ in Japan-Australia relations.(18)
However, the Great Depression of 1929 initiated the collapse of the Washington System.
’Have not’ nations such as Japan, Germany and Italy began to challenge the System set up
by ’have’ nations such as Britain, the US and France. Those ’have not’ nations sought
opportunities to expand their colonies in order to overcome their economic stagnation. In
the 1930s, Japan sent troops to Manchuria. So did Germany to the Rhineland. And Italy
invaded Ethiopia. But until the end of the decade, Britain, the US and France exercised’appeasement’ policies against those aggressive actions, attempting to maintain the colonial
map drawn in Paris.
The London Naval Treaty of 1930, which aimed at balancing the naval strength of major
powers (including Japan), resulted in a vain attempt to keep international peace. In thefollowing year, Japan began to invade Manchuria and set up a puppet government. The

Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

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League of Nations, which was supposed to assure collective security, was useless to stop
Japanese aggression: it did not take any concrete measures except condemning the action
and recommending withdrawal from China. In Japan, some navy and army staff and rightwingers expressed their indignation against the western objection to Japanese rule in
Manchuria. They began to gain public support and gradually influenced foreign policy.
Consequently Japan left the League of Nations in 1933 and the London Naval Treaty in
1936, demonstrating her apparent denial of the Pax Anglo-Saxonica.
In Australia, fear of Japan increased and was manifested in her foreign policies. First,
Australians followed Britain’s appeasement policy toward German aggression in Europe,
presuming that open hostility, which might result in a British pact with Russia against
German aggression in Poland, would make Japan cooperate closely with Germany, because
Japan had been perceiving Russia as her most likely enemy in northeast Asia. In theAustralian view, appeasement would prevent ’a war in the Pacific simultaneously with one
in Europe−a situation in which Britain could not send sufficient strength to Singapore, andAustralia would be left to defend itself.’(19)Australians applied a similar appeasement policy against Japanese aggression in China,
based on the optimistic assumption that so long as Japan was occupied in China, she would
not advance south and would not threaten Australian security.(20) But the situation changed
when the Washington System collapsed in 1936 by the Japanese abrogation of the London
Naval Treaty. Then Australians attempted to neutralise the Japanese threat by establishinga collective security pact in the Pacific.(21) They proposed the ’Pacific Pact’ in 1937 andlobbied Russian, Chinese, French, Dutch, American and Japanese ambassadors in London
and their governments to no avail.
In the late 1930s, the Australians desperately began to pressure Britain to reinforce thegarrison at Singapore, seeing her defence capability as insufficient against possible Japaneseinvasion in the South Pacific. The government also adopted the ’trade diversion policy’
which favoured British textile manufacturers and impeded Australia-Japan trade in wool
and textiles. It was in an attempt to cajole Britain into diverting its military strength to the
Pacific. But the policy was an ’irrational exercise in economic nationalism’, as AustraliaJapan trade was growing and was substantially in Australia’s favour.(22) More significantly,
the policy undermined Japanese good feelings towards Australia and ’revived antiAustralian sentiment in Japan where feelings bred of hostility to Hughes had apparently
been softening.’(23)In 1938 the Japanese government declared the Toa shin chitsujo [New Order in EastAsia] to find a solution to the prolonged war in China, but the declaration failed to alleviate
Chinese resistance and invited US economic sanctions. And Japanese isolation intensified.
Then the government concluded the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy in 1940. The
pact was aimed at facilitating southward aggression in Southeast Asia, presuming that the
US would diminish her desire to be involved in Asian affairs and thereby Japan could avoid
a head-on collision with the US.(24) The Japanese military also predicted that German
victories in Europe would prevent Britain, France and Netherlands from being involved in34South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

conflicts in Pacific-Asia if Japan invaded their colonies.
Micronesia was another reason for Japan to conclude the Tripartite Pact. Germany in thelate 1930s, under Hitler’s dictatorship, began to reclaim territorial rights in former colonies.
At that time the strategic importance of Micronesia to Japan was increasing because of thepossibility of naval operations in the south-west Pacific: Japan was building bases on theislands. The Japanese secretly negotiated with the Germans on a ’scheme for a public
Japanese acknowledgment of the right of Germany to her former colonies accompanied byan agreement on Germany’s part to sell her former Pacific islands mandated to Japan to thelatter power.(25)’ In later negotiations, the Japanese insisted upon their exclusive control of
the South Seas and even proposed the division of Australian territories−Papua to Japan and
New Guinea to Germany.(26) In the end, although excluded from the clauses of the Pact,verbal agreement was made: Japan would retain Micronesia; other former German Pacificterritories would be returned to Germany after the war; and then Germany would sell someterritories to Japan.(27)
Meanwhile the Australians rebuffed the German claim. Pearce, then the Minister for
External Affairs, said:
British policy, including Australian policy, is based on peace and international law andorder, for which the League [of Nations] offers the only safe foundation. Therefore,
any re-adjustment or general settlement in the interests of world peace must be within
the framework of international justice and order, and not the result of a demand ofright......In effect, it [re-adjustment] amounts to a submission to blackmail−the temporary buying-off of any aggressive nation. For this reason alone, it is unthinkable that
Australia should even consider the handing over of any territory.(28)The Australians faithfully adhered to the non-militarisation clause set to the mandate
territory.
By contrast, the Japanese military was planning operations from Southeast Asia to theSouth Pacific. In Micronesia they secretly built bases. At the same time the government was
making last ditch efforts to derive US concessions over China. However, the Tripartite Pact
hardened US attitudes contrary to Japanese expectation, and the US reinforced its embargoon oil and froze Japanese assets. That was a severe blow to Japan which was heavily
dependent on the US for oil supplies−essential fuel for naval operations. Thus, Japan had
to find alternative sources of oil and other raw materials. Resource-rich Southeast Asia
became a primary target. Consequently, shortly after the declaration of the Dai toa kyoei
ken (Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere), Japan launched her attack against Pearl
Harbour.

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2. Maturation of nanshin
The acquisition of German Micronesia made nanshin no longer a mere theory and it gave
a new concept to intellectuals, policy makers and businessmen: ’Micronesia and Taiwan
would function as bases for the advance to Southeast Asia.’(29) A new geographical conce
pt−’Southeast’(30)−also appeared in a school text book in 1919, reflecting increased attention to Southeast Asia. Similarly new terms−uchi or ura-nan’yo (inner or back south Seas:
Taiwan and Micronesia) and soto or omote-nan’yo (outer or front South Seas: India,
Southeast Asia, Australia, Melanesia and Polynesia)−emerged around this time, showing
the development of the Japanese conception of the South Seas that placed Japan in thecentre of the south-west Pacific.
Numerous intellectuals advocated Japan’s southward advance and the military joined
their advocacy in the late 1930s. The military had to gain natural resources in Southeast
Asia (particularly oil in Dutch East Indies) in order to continue their war in China, as the
US and Britain imposed embargoes, responding to the Japanese aggression in China. At thesame time the government introduced policies to facilitate Japanese trade with Southeast
Asia, and included nanshin in the national policy in the late 1930s. Private companies andmigrants followed this southward tide. The public was agitated by the bombardment of
nan’yo literature, which increased drastically: even for general references, the number
increased fourfold from 99 in 1920-29 to 405 in 1930-39.(31)The main reason for the upsurge of Japanese interest in nan’yo, particularly Southeast
Asia, was economic: new sources of raw materials and markets were needed for the development of heavy industry in order to catch up with western economies, and to diversify
export markets to rectify heavy dependence on US and Chinese markets.(32) The government
led the commercial promotion, which was demonstrated in the number of government
publications. Taiwan sotoku kanbo chosa ka (Research Section of the Chief Secretary of
Taiwan Governor-General), the leading government research institution of the South Seas,
published about a hundred reports (Minami-shina oyobi nan’yo cho sa [Survey of South
China and the South Seas] series) on trading, investment, management of plantations,fishery, mining and so on.
In the mid-1920s the Department of Foreign Affairs took an initiative. In 1926 theDepartment held the Nan’yo Boeki Kaigi (South Seas Trade Conference), inviting officialsof other departments and representatives of various industries, to promote South Seas trade.
The main items on the agenda at the Conference were investment, trade, transport, customs
and commercial treaties. It was a significant milestone showing the beginning of the government’s involvement in that it was the Department of Foreign Affairs not privateorganisations such as the South Seas Society or the Chamber of Commerce and Industry
that took the lead.(33)
In 1928 the Department of Foreign Affairs presented a report entitled Boeki, kigyo oyobi
imin yori mitaru nan’yo [The South Seas in view of trade, companies andemigration], in which the Department proposed policies to promote trade, establish

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South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

organisations to facilitate export and investment, and a special fund to assist
emigration. Although none of the proposals were put into practice, the report was significant.(34) The necessity for national commitment was acknowledged, as the Department used
the term ’nan’yo kokusaku’ (national policy towards the South Seas) for the first time inofficial reports.(35)Nanshin-ron advocates raised their voices in the early 1930s, responding to the collapseof the Washington System. They began to focus on the strategic argument, that nan’yo was
Japan’s life line, although carefully emphasising the necessity to avoid conflict with westerncolonial powers. Fujiyama Raita, Vice-President of the Nan’yo Kyokai (South Seas
Society), argued:
Nan’yo is our life line. It is at the forefront of our national defence. We should always
consider this concept in our southward advance. However, we should not misunderstand. The Omote-nan’yo is all western colonies.....The western rule of Southeast Asia
assures our national defence, and the development of their economies and relations
with us facilitates the security of our life line and thereby our national defence.(36)The mid-1930s was the most significant period for the development of nanshin-ron. It
began to turn militaristic, as the navy set out with a concrete nanshin plan. In 1935 theaggressive group, ’han-joyaku ha’ (anti-[London] Treaty faction), set up the Tai Nan’yo Hosaku Kenkyu-kai (Study Committee for Policies towards the South Seas). The Committeestudied both economic and military expansion; it advocated the promotion of trade andemigration through the Takumu sho (Department of Colonial Affairs) and the Nan’yo Ko
hatsu Kaisha (South Seas Development Company) and emphasised the military role of
Taiwan and Micronesia as advance bases.(37)
The navy was already militarising Micronesia. In the early 1930s, after the western
powers restricted Japanese naval capability at the London Treaty of 1930, the navy secretly
started building bases in Palau, Tinian and Saipan. In order to evade the western powers’
monitoring, they were camouflaged as places to dry fishing nets or farms, and the South
Seas Development Company assumed the responsibility for construction.(38) Although the
Study Committee at this stage avoided to express outright hostility against western powers,
it strongly argued for the opening of markets and natural resources in Southeast Asia,
particularly in the oil-rich Netherlands East Indies.(39)
In 1936 the government took a crucial step. It integrated the nanshin in the national
policy. After abrogating the London Naval Treaty in January, the government held the Five
Ministers Conference (attended by the ministers of the departments of Prime Minister,Foreign Affairs, Finance, Navy and Army) in August and announced ’the Guidelines for
National Policy’ that included resolution to advance south ’peacefully’:
The government will pursue national and economic development in the South Seas,Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

37

particularly in the outer South Seas, avoiding threats to other nations, and will expand
our influence progressively by peaceful measures in order to reinforce national
strength with the construction of Manchukuo.(40)
In November the policy was executed. The Nan’yo Takushoku Kabushiki Kaisha (South
Seas Colonisation Company), a giant national company comparable to the Taiwan
Colonisation Company, was established. The company’s main venture was the developmentof phosphate mining on Angaur and Fais.
Coinciding with the government declaration, some intellectuals began to focus on Japan’slong historical connection with nan’yo, starting from the 17th century’s trading, called
Goshuinsen bo eki,(41) to the Meiji explorer-traders. Iwao Seiichi, a historian and professorof the Taipei University (the leading academic institution in South Seas studies), played acentral role. In 1936, he wrote Kinsei shoki nihonjin nan’yo
hattenno rekishi [History of Japanese development in the South Seas in early modern
times].(42) In 1939, he published an article ’Nan’yo ni okeru nichi-o kankei no suii [Thechange of Japan-European relations in the South Seas]’ in which he contrasted westerncolonisation, which was strongly backed up by their governments, with Japanese emigration
which had no government support.(43) Then in 1940, Iwao published the best-known bookin the study of Japan-South Seas relations, Nan’yo nihon machi no kenkyu [Study on
Japanese towns in the South Seas]. He wrote in the introduction:
Japanese development in the South Seas, which started in early modern times, is anepochal phenomenon in our national history.....It is a topic to be examined thoroughly
to understand the current international relations in the South Seas where Occidentals
and Orientals are in conflict.(44)
Other historian-writers are Irie Toraji and Kakei Kiyosumi. Irie, a former archivist of theForeign Ministry, wrote two volumes of Hojin kaigai hatten shi [History of Japanese
overseas development] about Japanese emigration since 1868, in which he devoted aconsiderable section to the South Seas.(45) Kakei, although not a well-known writer, wrote
Nanpo shoho ni okeru o seki nihon jin no katsuyaku [Japanese activities in the southernarea in old times].(46) Although all those pieces are purely academic and have few references to government policies, the timing of their publication precisely coincides with the
beginning of Japanese military actions in the late 1930s.
The navy initiated the military nanshin. In February 1939, naval forces occupied Hainan
Island, an iron ore-rich island, on the pretext to cut off the southern support route to ChiangKai-shek, then in March the Spratly Islands. Both islands were strategic bases for theadvance to Southeast Asia. The navy’s actions were quickly followed by the cabinet’s policy
statement: the Konoe cabinet expressed ’the Outline of the Basic National Policy’, declaring’the construction of the New Order in Greater East Asia based on the solid consolidation ofJapan, Manchuria and China’ on 26 July in 1940.(47) This ’New Order’, being modified from38

South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

the ’New Order in East Asia’ of 1938, included the South Seas.(48)
Shortly after the cabinet decision, the Imperial Headquarters announced nanshin by force.
On 27 July, it produced ’the outline of measures taken in response to changing internationalsituation.’ Under the clause of ’the use of force against southern area’, it stipulated that ’incase China problem cannot be solved, .....the use of force is possible in order to solve theproblem in the southern area.’(49) The outline was the unambiguous endorsement of themilitary invasion of Southeast Asia.
The army saw its best opportunity when Germany defeated France and Netherlands in
Europe in mid-1940. In September the army quickly sent forces to occupy the northern
French Indochina in order to secure the naval base in Camranh Bay and the airfield at
Pnompenh. Thus the army, the traditional advocate of the northward advance, finally joined
nanshin.
In the last year before the outbreak of the war, intellectuals completed the justification for
nanshin on three main grounds: independence from the western economies, national
defence and nationalism. Iizawa Shoji explained in Nanpokyo ei ken [South Co-Prosperity
Sphere] in 1940 on the economic independence:
Because there are correlations and interdependency between the continental policy andsouthward advancement policy, it would be impossible to implement both policies
simultaneously if we attempted to achieve each policy individually. Japan has been
deploying forces on the continent and their military supplies come from Japan: they are
not available locally as expected initially. And most supplies are dependent on imports
from the US and Britain. We have been clearly shown that this is a grave obstacle to
our war efforts. If we were freed from this dependency, we would be able to complete
our continental policy. The reason why people look at the south is that the region isrich in the resources which are in short supply on the continent. Therefore, the policy
to gain those resource must be considered an essential matter to implementing thecontinental policy.(50)
The Nihon Keizai KenkyuKai (Japanese Society of Economic Studies) emphasised national defence:
Colonisation by western countries was motivated mainly by territorial desire or by thedesire to acquire precious metals and pepper. They did not hesitate to go to war to gain
territories. On the contrary, Japanese expansionism was based entirely on national
defence not on such purposes as territorial expansion or acquisition of economic
interests. Japanese southward advancement was indeed the manifestation of this kindof [defensive] expansionist policy. (51)Some nationalists stimulated anti-western feelings in their publications. Goto wrote in the
introduction titled ’For the freedom of the South Seas’:Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

39

A new stage of the century is set up on the land of the South Seas, being spotlighted
from the East. The stage that the Western Imperialists tried to achieve world hegemony
is now going to show their fall. This is nothing but historical inevitability.(52)
In Goto’s view, the liberator from the western imperialism would, of course, be theJapanese. Thus nanshin-ron matured ideologically, integrating a basic premise−economic
development−to nationalism. However, it was a different form of nanshin-ron from theone that Enomoto and other Meiji nanshin-ron advocates asserted about half a century
earlier: they were fundamentally non-militaristic free-trade advocates. But those Meiji
nanshin-ron advocates were exploited by their later counterparts. The new nanshin-ron
advocates ’deformed’ the Meiji nanshin-ron, by exalting the Meiji advocates as national
heroes despite the fact that the nanshin-ron had attracted far less attention in the Meiji
period, and created the image that the Japanese had had long-term interaction with theSouth Seas.(53)
Meanwhile, Japan’s economic relations with the South Seas developed steadily. The
growth of the overall Japanese economy, government promotion of South Seas trade and theinternational situation facilitated Japanese investment in the South Seas. As Table 1 shows,
between 1919 and 1941, 78 companies were established. It was a remarkable increase,
compared to only 32 companies established between 1870 and 1918. Most companies werein Southeast Asia and directed toward resource-development such as minerals, oil, rubber,lumber, jute, cotton, copra and fishery, reflecting the general focus of interest of nanshinron advocates and the government.
The timing of the investment, which concentrated in the 1930s, shows the association
with the international situation: the US and Britain raised tariffs against Japanese productsin the early 1930s; China, the second largest trading partner after the US, began to boycott
Japanese products after the Japanese invasion in 1931; and the prolonged war in China
forced Japan to find alternative sources of raw materials to meet increasing military demands.
Consequently Japan-South Seas trade increased dramatically. As Table 2 shows, totalexports increased from 252.5 million yen in 1920 to 474.2 million yen in 1937 and imports
from 188.3 million to 540.4 million. Southeast Asia was the largest trading area, followed
Table 1. The number of Japanese companies established in the South Seas, 1919-1941
Micronesia

Southeast Asia

South PacificTaiwanunknown

total

1919

1

4

0

1

−

6

1920-29

2

11

−

−

1

14

1930-39

21

23

3

3

3

53

1940-41

−

5

−

−

−

5

total

24

43

3

4

4

78

Source: 南洋団体連合会 1942. 大南洋年鑑 . 797〜828頁, 東京. [The Federation of South
Seas Organisations (ed.) 1942. Year book of the South Seas. p.p.797-828 , Tokyo.］40South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

Table 2. Japanese trade with the South Seas from 1920 to 1937 (million yen)
Micronesia

Southeast Asia＊

Australia & New Zealand

totalexportimportexportimportexportimportexportimport

1920

0.03

0.09

184.8

125.9

67.7

62.4

252.5

188.3

1930

0.06

0.2

133.0

130.4

28.6

94.6

161.6

225.2

1937

0.3

1.2

382.6

325.4

91.3

213.8

474.2

540.4

n.a. no data available＊
The countries of Southeast Asia varied by year due to the availability of statistics:
1920: British Malaya, Dutch East Indies, French Indochina, the Philippines and Thailand
1930, 1937: British Malaya and Borneo, Dutch East Indies, French Indochina, the Philippines andThailandSource: data from 内閣統計局 1931. 大日本帝国統計年鑑 . 168頁, 東京；1938, 204〜
209頁. Naikakuotkei-kyoku 1931 : 168, 1938 : 204-209, Kokusei-in 1921 : 142 [Statistical Bureauof the Cabinet 1931. Statistical yearbook of the Great Japan Empire. p.168; 1938. p.p.204-209]
国勢院 1921. 大日本帝国統計年鑑 . 142頁, 東京. [Statistical Bureau 1921. Statistical
yearbook of the Great Japan Empire. p.142]

Table 3. Japanese population in the South Seas, 1919 to 1941
Southeast Asia＊ Micronesia

Australia, New Zealand& South Pacific Islands

Total

1919

23,740

1,791

6,280

31,811

1925

21,359

7,331

3,883

32,573

1930

35,24019,835

3,984

59,0591936

36,37555,9483,205

95,528＊Southeast Asia includes British Malaya, Borneo, Sarawak, India, Burma, Sri Lanka, Netherlands
East Indies, the Philippines, and Guam
Source: 1919-1925: 石川 友紀 1972. ｢統計よりみた日本出移民史 3｣ 地理科学 . 27〜28
頁, 地理科学学会, 広島. [Data from ISHIKAWA T. 1972. ’Emigration history in the view fromstatistics’, Geographic Science. p.p.27-28, Vol.16, Chiri kagaku gakkai, Hiroshima.]

by Australia and New Zealand, while Micronesia remained marginal. However, the proportion of the South Seas trade in the total Japanese trade remained small; it only increased
from 10.2 percent in 1920 to 14.5 percent in 1937.(54)Similarly, the position of Japan in the total South Seas economy remained marginal. In
1939, the proportion of the trade with Japan was only 6.7 percent, while the US, Britain,
China, and Netherlands occupied about 90 percent.(55) The Mitsubishi Research Institute of
Economies admitted: ’the fundamental reason [for the low profile in South Seas economy]
is.....the result of our [underdeveloped] industrial strength’ compared to western
economies.(56)
Emigration to the South Seas increased more than threefold from 31,811 in 1919 to
95,528 in 1936 (Table 3), although the proportion in the total Japanese emigration

Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

41

remained marginal: it was only 8 percent in 1936.(57) The increase was mainly due toemigration to Micronesia that drastically increased in the 1930s. The government assisted
the emigration: the Nan’yo cho (South Seas Government), the Japanese colonial administration in Micronesia, leased land and the Nan’yo Kohatsu Kaisha (South Seas
Development Company), the private company part-funded by the government, recruited
thousands of labourers for its sugar plantations. Emigration increased especially after Japan
resigned from the League of Nations in 1933.
Emigration to Southeast Asia remained largely static in the 1920s, because the government adopted a foreign policy to cooperate with other powers in the framework of the
Washington System and discouraged emigration to Southeast Asia, which might cause
friction with the western powers. This attitude was articulated in the statement of theForeign Minister, Shidehara Kijuro, at the South Seas Trade Conference of 1926. He stated,’the agenda of this conference does not include immigration issues.’(58) Although emigration
began to increase in the 1930s, the increase was far less dramatic than in Micronesia. The
main reason was that there was little demand for Japanese labourers unlike in Micronesia,
as cheap labour was locally available. As a result, migrants were mainly company employees and their numbers were subject to fluctuations of economy.(59) Also the Dutch administration applied restrictions on foreign labourers from 1935. The Japanese population inAustralia, New Zealand and South Pacific islands declined, as Australia continued to restrict
Asian migration and this affected most Japanese in this region.

3. Japanese perceptions of Papua and New Guinea
Corresponding to the rise of the militaristic nanshin-ron, Japanese interest in Papua and
New Guinea increased in the late 1930s. The number of publications demonstrates this. As
Table 4 shows, most publications appeared in the same period. Only one book was published before 1923, according to Zoho nanpo bunken mokuroku [Biography of the South
Table 4. The number of South Seas publications, 1923 to 1941
numbernumber

1923

3

1938

10

1924

1

1939

7

1932

1

1940

4

1933

3

1941

9

1937

4

total

42

Source: 日本拓殖協会編 1944. 増補南方文献目録 . p.p.233-235,
大同書院, 東京. [Japan Colonisation Society (ed.) 1944. Bibliographyof the South Literature, revised edition. p.p.233-235, Daido-shoin, Tokyo]

42South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

Literature, revised edition]. However, interest in Papua and New Guinea was merely atrickle compared to Southeast Asia. In Zoho nanpo bunken mokuroku, the list of publications on Southeast Asia occupies 144 pages, while that of Papua and New Guinea occupies
only 3.
Although marginal, the increase of the information on Papua and New Guinea was
dramatic. The government was the initiator. In 1938 the Department of Foreign Affairs
published Eiryo papua [British Territory of Papua] and Goshu inin tochi ryo nyuginia[Australian Mandated Territory New Guinea], and the Department of Colonisation published a book with the same title.(60) Then in 1939 the administration in Micronesia published two massive volumes−400-pages long Nyuginia jijo (goshu inin tochi ryo) [Thesituation in New Guinea (Australian Mandated Territory)] and 145-pages
longNyuginia jijo(papua ryo hen)[The situation in New Guinea(Territory of Papua)].(61)Those books introduced history, population, religion, education, climate, hygiene, geography, politics, etc. And they were based on information from English sources such as New
Guinea Handbook, Pacific Island Year Book, Pacific Islands Monthly, Rabaul Times,
Gazette of Papua, Annual Report of Papua, Papuan Courier and the ordinances of theAustralian administrations.
A sharp contrast to Japanese interests in Southeast Asia can be seen in the contents of the
publications. The Japanese were not so interested in the economy of Papua and New
Guinea. Table 5 shows that almost half of the publications were about the general situationand travel, and only 8 out of 42 were on industry and natural resources.
Until the early 1930s, Japanese perceptions of Papuans and New Guineans remained thesame. Tatsue Yoshinobu, who travelled with Komine in the early 1900s, wrote that ’fierce
natives’ were impeding development,(62) and Miyoshi Hoju called New Guinean women theugliest in the world.(63) However, in the late 1930s perceptions sharpened. The government
Table 5. Classification of publications on Papua and New
Guinea, 1923 to 1941
number
Biography

1

General situation and travel account23

Geography

8Race and culture

1

Politics and foreign relations

1

Industry and economy

4

Fishery

2

Mining

2

total

42

Source: 日本拓殖協会編 1944. 増補南方文献目録 . p.p.2
33-235, 大同書院, 東京. [Japan Colonisation Society (ed.)
1944. Bibliography of the South Literature, revised edition.
p.p.233-235, Daido-shoin, Tokyo]

Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

43

publications presented the ’tribal’ diversity (e.g. coastal people were peaceful but inland
people were still rebellious),(64) and the effectiveness of Australian rule through administration and missions which produced some educated Christian natives.(65)
The introduction of New Guinean artefacts also improved the stereotyped perceptions.
The Minami no kai (Society of the South) published Nyuginia dozoku hin zushu[Illustrated
New Guinean artefacts] which introduced collections of artefacts and their relations withnative religions and customs. Interestingly Matsue Haruji, the Directing-Manager of theSouth Seas Developing Company, was the owner of the collections in the book, and he hadbought them from Komine.(66) A similar book was written by Fujiki Yoshihiro, an anthropologist. His book, Nyuginia sono fukin to sho no dozoku hin [Artefacts of New Guinea andadjacent islands], had introductory sections written by artists and anthropologists who
appreciated the high quality of the artefacts and commented favourably such as ’New
Guinean artefacts are excellent’ or ’New Guineans are artists.’(67)Although weak, there was some government interest in the economy. Muramatsu Kaoru,
an official of the Research Section of the Department of Foreign Affairs, compared theeconomic potential of Australian New Guinea with Dutch New Guinea, and pointed out that
’Australian New Guinea was superior to Dutch New Guinea in various points’ such as incopra planting and coastal shipping.(68) The Nan’yo Keizai Kenkyu Sho (Research Instituteof the South Seas Economy), a government research organ specialising in the economy of
the South Seas, reported the oil search in Papua.(69) The Institute also reported the shortageof labour, industries and the Australian exploration in the highlands.(70) But all those publications seem to be mere translations from English sources.
The government was also aware that Australians placed great strategic importance on
Papua and New Guinea. Nagatsuka Jiro argued that Australians had always
regarded Papua and New Guinea as an important defence line, pointing out that
their attempt to annex Papua and New Guinea was the manifestation of thisrecognition.(71)
The increase in references to Japanese migrants was an important trend from the mid1930s. It stressed the fact that Japanese had had a long linkage with New Guinea. It was asignificant change because until then nobody had demonstrated much interest. Government
publications, such as the ones of the Department of Colonisation and the South Seas
Government, devoted many pages to the history of Japanese migration (mainly about
Komine) and commercial activities.(72) Although the information was a plain description of
events and accounts of the migrants, it was the first time that the migrants were taken up
by officials with such intensity.
Nanshin-ron advocates played a more important role. They exalted Komine as a national
hero. In 1935 Sande mainichi [Sunday Everyday], a popular weekly magazine, publishedan article titled ’Showa no Yamada Nagamasa, Nihon-to o sasagete tanshin doku-kan oikedoru: Nan’yo no kaitaku-sha Komine Isokichi’ [Yamada Nagamasa of the Showa period
captured a German ship alone with a Japanese sword: a pioneer of the South Seas, Komine44South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

Isokichi].(73) The article began with a comment: ’This is the story that impressed Debuchi
Gen, a special envoy to Australia, who said "This is the most appropriate episode to promote Japan-Australia relations.’’’ The article emphasised Komine’s relations with Germans
and Australians dramatically. It described how bravely he rescued the German governor
who was being attacked by natives on a jungle track: ’Mr Komine jumped off a seven-meterhigh cliff like a bird into the fighting and saved the life of the governor by a close shave.’
The article said that the capture of the Komet was proposed by frustrated Komine who saw
the Australians unable to do anything because they were unfamiliar with the local geography, and that Komine organised the expedition and when he found the Komet, he climbed
onto the deck by himself just carrying a Japanese sword and successfully persuaded theGerman commander to surrender. Because of this feat, he was given the compass of theKomet and a title of both naval and army captain. The article also emphasised that Komine
was a good friend of the German captain and looked after his family at Rabaul while thecaptain was imprisoned by Australians, and later the captain thanked Komine, saying ’Now
I have learnt the greatness of the Japanese.’ Most accounts in the article were
exaggerated.(74) No other written records and oral evidence can confirm that Komine carrieda sword or the German captain thanked him (generally the Germans resented Komine’s
action). At the time of writing the article, Komine was already dead and nobody (except
for those who actually knew about Komine) could challenge the accuracy of the accounts.
Thus the writer could say almost anything to dramatise the events.
More significantly, the article was reintroduced in April 1941. Captain Kamijo Fukashi
wrote Sensen ichi-man kairi: zen taisen ji nan’yo no rekishi [The war front of ten thousand
miles: the history of the South Seas during World War I] and inserted the article fully inhis book.(75) Kamijo added a detailed account of the capture of the Komet, although theaddition seems to be his translation from MacKenzie’s The Australians at Rabaul which had
been published in 1927. Similarly, in August 1941 the Nanpo sangyo chosa kai (Society of
the South Seas Industry Research) published Nyuginia, a book introducing general information on Papua, Australian New Guinea and Dutch New Guinea, and repeated the story about
Komine’s feat, although briefly.(76) Thus just before the outbreak of the Pacific War, thegovernment and nanshin-ron advocates began to popularise the Japanese in New Guinea,
obviously intending to propagate and justify the nanshin. The Japanese in New Guinea, who
had attracted little public attention in Japan, were suddenly and comprehensively integrated
into the vast scheme of Japanese expansionism.

Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas45

4. Japanese in Papua
Australians scarcely noticed the small number of Japanese. An official report in
the late 1930s stated that ’with regard to the Territory of Papua, there are no
Japanese.’(77) The smallness of the Japanese population was one reason. The limited activities of the Japanese was another. Japanese business operations were too small to threat
Australian interests, and they were confined in Milne Bay and had little interaction with theJapanese in New Guinea.(78) Consequently no reports about the Japanese appeared in the
Papua Annual Report or the Government Gazette between the two wars.
However, Australians were concerned about the Japanese who attempted to enter the
territory. In 1939 Nan’yo Boeki Kaisha (South Seas Company) sent trade envoys to
Samarai and Port Moresby and entertained the residents with films of Japanese industries
and tourist attractions. The Pacific Islands Monthly reported the visit uneasily: ’in spite ofwars and the echoes of wars, and the manifest distrust of all British communities in theCentral and South Pacific, the Japanese continue with their program of commercial penet
ration−part of their campaign to secure economic domination of the Pacific.’(79)There was another incident involving Nan’yo Boeki. The company purchased the steamer
Papuan Chief, wrecked and lying on a reef near Port Moresby, and sent Japanese crew tosalvage it. The entry of the crew to Port Moresby was granted in July 1941, but the
Department of Defence Co-Ordination had strongly objected, insisting that: ’the view of the
Department of the Army is that it is undesirable for Japanese at Port Moresby, particularly
having regard to movement of troops and other defence measures now taking place’.(80)
However, the Department of Foreign Affairs supported admission provided that the crew
stay at Port Moresby for a limited period. Finally the Prime Minister decided to grant entry
and advised the Administrator, Murray: ’No doubt you will be able to restrict movement ofcrew at Port Moresby to a minimum, without this being obvious to the crew.’(81)It was a delicate time just before the outbreak of the war. Prior to that, there was anincident which embarrassed the Australian government and could have worsened its relations with Japan. In June 1937, the Australian patrol boat Larrakia ’wrongfully and without
lawful authority, and by force of arms seized and took possession’ of the Japanese fishingvessel New Guinea Maru on the high seas in the Arafura Sea and imprisoned the captainand the crew.(82) The Japanese appealed to the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory,
which ordered the Australian government to pay compensation.(83) Possibly the incident
affected the attitude of the Department of Foreign Affairs and made it more diffident in thecase of the Papuan Chief.
Australians were concerned about the possible effect of the war on Papuans. Australians
feared that their authority would be undermined by war against a non-white race. Just one
month before the war, the government anthropologist, F.E. Williams, wrote explicitly
anti-Japanese articles in his newspaper The Papuan Villager which circulated among
Australian-educated Papuans. The article introduced the Japanese as ’not white men...[and]46South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996very warlike people...[who] have made a number of cruel wars against their neighbour,
China,’ and concluded that:Japan is like a very snappy little dog, barking at three big dogs that just lie down andlook at her. The three big dogs are Great Britain, America and Russia. If this little dog
ever begins to bite, then the three big dogs will jump at her and tear her to pieces.(84)The pre-war Japanese population was last recorded by the administration in 1920: six
lived in the Eastern Division and one in the South-Eastern Division.(85) From 1921 to 1948,
the administration did not record the non-Papuan coloured population. Although the 194748 Annual Report (published in 1949) listed the coloured population, statistics were only
for 1921 and 1933 and no Japanese were recorded in either years.(86) The only available data
are the 1933 census by the Australian government that listed two Japanese in the categoryof ’not able to read and write English, but able to read and write a foreign language’ and 14
Japanese ’classified according to race.’(87) The two Japanese are undoubtedly Tanaka andMurakami. The 14 Japanese were most likely mixed-race Japanese.
Information about the Japanese in this period can also be derived from oral evidence.
According to them, most of early Japanese settlers died between the two wars, and theirmixed-race children took over their trade. The children continued to keep Japanese names
and their businesses and mostly prospered.
Jimmy Koto died at an unknown date in the inter-war period. His son George inherited
Jimmy’s trade and became a trader, boat builder and planter. He was the only boat builder
on Misima Island and had large plantations (Palanean plantation in Motorina island andanother in Kimuta Island). He started boat building on Motorina. He also dived for trochus
shells, sea cucumber and turtle. His trading covered Milne Bay, having a business partnership with Tanaka Taichiro.(88) Jimmy’s good relations with Mrs Mahoney seem to have been
continued by his daughter, Florence. Mrs Mahoney once took her for a trip to Sydney.(89)Tanaka Taichiro made a success of his trading business and owned six luggers by theoutbreak of the war.(90)
Murakami Heijiro moved from Naiwara, a village at the end of Milne Bay, to Kuyaro, avillage opposite Samarai to work in the plantation owned by Whitten Brothers before 1927.
In 1927, his son Kalo left Kuyaro to attend the mission school at Dogura in GoodenoughBay. Honor, a daughter of Tanaka Shigematsu, was in the same school. After schooling,
Kalo came back to Kuyaro then went to Samarai to work for a freezing company. In 1939
he went to Misima to look for a job in the gold mine.(91)Tamiya Mabe tried to return to Japan by himself some time before the Pacific War, butdied on the way. His three sons−Tetu, Hagani and Namari−all became boat builders. Tetu
worked with Hagani in Kanamadawa village on Basilaki Island, and they also dived forshell and traded. Tetu married a Basilaki woman and Hagani married a woman from East

Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

47

Cape.(92) Namari married a woman from Wagofufu village on East Cape and stayed there
and built boats by himself. He owned a sailing boat and named it Papua. Later he returned
to Basilaki and died there around 1930.(93)
All informants (including local elders who are not related to the Japanese) relate that theJapanese kept amicable relations with Australians, Papuans and other Asians. Kalo
Murakami recalls that Charley Wisdel (an Australian), who also worked for Whitten
brothers in Samarai, was a good friend of his father. Also a Chinese cook called Maxim,
and some Filipinos, were good friends of Japanese. But no informants suggest that theJapanese kept a high profile in the community.

5. Japanese in New Guinea
Officials in Melbourne perceived the Japanese in New Guinea very explicitly as part ofJapanese expansionism. Atlee Hunt, a member of the Royal Commission on Late German
New Guinea (and the Secretary of the Department of Territories), regarded the development of Japanese commercial activities in Taiwan, India, Dutch East Indies and thePhilippines as ’no doubt part of a vast system’.(94) At this time there was a diplomatic dispute
about the Australian restriction on direct trade between Rabaul and Japan. The Australian
government stopped the Japanese trading in New Guinea from 1919 to 1920 on two grou
nds−to retaliate against Japanese restriction on Burns Philp’s trade in Micronesia and tomonopolise trade in New Guinea. In 1919, the government refused to grant permission to
the Japanese vessel Nanking Maru to ship copra, discharge and load cargo at Rabaul.
Similarly in 1920, the government refused the application of the Madras Maru to dischargecargo at Rabaul. The Japanese government protested and the Japanese press condemned theAustralian actions.(95)
As a result, diplomatic relations were strained, and rude behaviour by the Australian
military staff at Rabaul who received the Japanese crew of Madras Maru added to thetension. It was alleged that Australian soldiers, under the influence of alcohol, abused andused violence against the Japanese returning to the ship.(96) Hearing of the incident, theadministrator immediately reported to the Prime Minister, who quickly expressed regret to
the Japanese Consul-General in Sydney, saying ’I shall be obliged if you will be goodenough to inform the Japanese Government of the regret of the Commonwealth
Government at this occurrence.’(97) The soldiers were punished and the Japanese government
did not take up the matter publicly.
Nevertheless the Australian government kept a firm attitude on the trade issue, in spiteof Piesse’s suggestion that hard-line policies would affect diplomatic relations:
I would suggest for consideration that the Commonwealth might suffer no serious loss,
if, in the period before the mandate is issued, during which our legal right to restrict
trade is doubtful, we ceased to hinder Japanese ships from engaging in this trade. Such

48

South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

a policy would avoid our getting deeper into a position which we have difficulty inmaking good, diplomatically; it might be regarded by Japan as a friendly act, and it
might even make easier the securing of Japan’s concurrence in the issue of the mandate.(98)
However, Hughes bluntly replied to the Japanese official protest:
Although there is no intention on the part of Commonwealth Government to exclude
Japanese vessels from having access to the port of Rabaul, any more than there is any
intention to exclude British, French, or American vessels, we claim the right to makesuch laws in respect to trade as we please, and trade includes navigation; therefore
cannot give undertaking in this respect.(99)And Hunt thought that all those Japanese activities were ’calculated to bring about one
result i.e. grave embarrassment to Australia...[by] making Australia’s position as difficult
as possible.’(100)Japanese traders sought in vain for a loophole. The Osaka Shosen Kaisha (Osaka
Merchant Ship Company) applied for permission to open trade with the Solomons.
Probably the company planned to purchase copra from a Japanese trader, Okaji, in
Bougainville, thinking that he would act as a middle man between Rabaul and Japan. But
the application was refused, for Australian officials thought that ’it seems obvious thatJapanese frequentation of ports in the British Solomons is as dangerous to Australianinterests as Japanese trade with Rabaul.’(101)Regarding the Japanese residents in New Guinea, the Royal Commission recognised ’thedesirability of adopting any policy which would free the Territory fromJapanese influence’ and considered MacKenzie’s proposal to purchase all Japanese properties.(102) However, the Commission turned down that proposal on the ground that:
The result of the sale of Komine’s properties to the Government would simply be that
he would part his present interests and would be provided with capital which, after
liquidating his liabilities to the Japanese Company named or otherwise, would beavailable for the purchase of other interests, so that the general situation would be left
much as it was before.(103)
From the late 1920s, officials in Canberra began to consolidate their perceptions of fearof Japanese attack. They suspected that Japanese migrants in the South Pacific andSoutheast Asia were part of government-organised Japanese expansionism. The Australian
Navy was monitoring the activities of the Japanese in New Guinea, Netherlands East Indies
and Thursday Island intensively.(104) Similarly, Australian officials thought that Japanesefishing vessels operating illegally in waters north of Australia had some connection withespionage. Naval Intelligence collected detailed reports of Japanese poaching in the Gulf ofCarpentaria, Ninigo Group, Solomon Islands, and so on.(105) The Commander of the RoyalIwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

49

Australian Navy predicted ’the landing of the [Japanese] armed force somewhere on CapeYork Peninsula’ in the event of war.(106) And a naval expert pointed out the significance ofMicronesia as Japanese advanced bases and emphasised the vulnerability of Rabaul, comparing the distance:
Rabaul to Sydney−1850 miles.
Rabaul to Darwin−1736 miles.
Rabaul to Singapore−3186 miles.
The proximity of the Japanese Mandated islands−which can be used by the Japanese
as an intermediate base−to the Australian Mandated Islands in not generally realised.
The distance from Truk, in the Caroline Islands, to Rabaul is only a matter of 800
miles.(107)Australian fear increased towards the end of the 1930s. The Prime Minister’s Department
studied Japan’s southward advancement policy.(108) The Department monitored the entry of
every agent of Japanese companies in New Guinea, when the giant Nippon Mining Co. senta geologist to investigate the copper ore deposit in the Nakanai District on north-west coastof New Britain in 1937 and the Nanyo Boeki Kaisha sent four Japanese to investigate thegoldfields at Wau in 1939. Their activities were thoroughly reported to the Department by
the administration at Rabaul, although none of those activities could not be substantiated as
spying.(109) The acting administrator reported: ’It is believed that every Japanese is a potential intelligence officer for Japan, but unfortunately it is not practicable to substantiate that
belief by quoting incidents in support.’(110)
The Australians at Rabaul were also alarmed by the development of Japanese Micronesia.
The secrecy of the Japanese administration aroused their suspicion. The seriousness of theirconcerns was illustrated by a long report in the Rabaul Times by Gordon Green, an
Australian traveller who made a trip to Japan via Micronesia in 1929.(111) He reported indetail high tariffs imposed on imported goods and strict restrictions on his travel by thepolice.
The Australian concerns turned to fear in the 1930s, when they learnt that the Japanese
population in Micronesia was increasing rapidly, and when militarisation was rumoured.
Numerous articles about Japanese Micronesia in The Rabaul Times, which were mostly
long and detailed, indicate their fear. In 1932, the newspaper reported:Japanese had fortified the more strategic points in the Carolines, and was also Japaning the natives of her mandated territory in a wholesale manner by inter-marriage withthe women of the islands. In 1920 there were some 3,600 Japanese; when the 1930
census was taken the number increased to nearly 20,000 !(112)
When another Australian traveller reported Japanese naval exercises in Micronesian50South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

waters,(113) the editor immediately wrote an alarming article:
The ever-smiling little Jap has become a force in the Pacific with whom the nations of
the world must reckon at present time.....The once urbane Jap-man, now that he has
thoroughly mastered the intricacies of western civilisation by out-westerning the West,
resembles nothing so much as a youth strutting about with his first loaded revolver
eager to display his prowess with his instrument of slaughter.(114)
A month later, the editor repeated the alarm: ’Japan is endeavouring to present an amicablyinclined face to the nations of the world’, and criticised the inability of the League of
Nations to keep Japan and Germany in the League.(115) Rabaul’s anxiety increased when awell-known German journalist, Herbert Rittlinger, stopped at Rabaul from his trip to
Micronesia but declined to comment about the fortifications. The Rabaul Times reported,’Perhaps he has seen things, and has given his word not to divulge the information which
he has collected’.(116) Their anti-Japanese feelings were heightened by anger against thefrequent appearances of Japanese poachers in New Guinea waters. At the same time theyfelt that Canberra was neglecting to protect them, and condemned the Federal
Government.(117)
However, Rabaul’s fear seems to have been directed mainly towards Japanese in
Micronesia and Japanese poachers (not to the local Japanese residents). Economically the
local Japanese hardly threatened Australian interests. Griffiths reported to Melbourne:
There [sic] businesses are so small compared with the large Companies here, and they
are so few in numbers that they are not seriously considered as business competitors.
They have been most successful against all competition in shell-fishing, because theybring skilled divers to carry on the work, and give the work their close personal
attention.(119)The Rabaul Times did not express any hostility against the local Japanese except for one
article about the death of a Japanese suspected of spying. The article was very brief (oneparagraph) compared to the articles about Japanese Micronesia or poachers. The wholearticle says:
A prominent Japanese merchant by the name of Y. Nishimura, died here suddenly
whilst in a detective’s office undergoing questioning. Other prominent Japanese havebeen questioned and later deported. Many documents have been seized and it isrumoured that a gigantic espionage system has been discovered.(119)But it is doubtful that Nishimura was a spy. If any gigantic espionage system had existed,
the incident must have attracted the attention of Canberra or Naval Intelligence, but thereIwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas51

was no official record in Australian sources.(120) The name of Nishimura cannot be found in
the list of passports issued for travellers bound for New Guinea in the Japanese Foreign
Ministry record or Japanese literature. Oral evidence have no information, either. Thissuggests that he was a merchant based outside New Guinea. Possibly he acted somehow
suspiciously in the eyes of some Australians and was caught by the police, then his sudden
death provoked a rumour that he was a spy. The incident may simply show the nervousnessof Australians in Rabaul against non-local Japanese.
Despite its anxiety about Japanese expansion, The Rabaul Times wrote about the local
Japanese in a respectful and friendly way. The editor praised Komine’s carpenters’ ’very
clever piece of work’ to shift Burns Philp’s bungalow without causing much
disturbance.(121) When the arrest of a New Guinean called ’Komini’ for stealing was in thenews, the editor noted ’not our esteemed Japanese fellow townsman’.(122) At the death ofKomine in 1934 he was written about as one held in high esteem: he was ’one of the oldest
and best-known identities in the Territory’ and ’the whole [Rabaul] community extends its
deep sympathy’ to his widow.(123)
The Rabaul Times’ warm comments on the film show held by the Rabaul branch of Nan’yo Boeki suggest that personally Australians remained friendly to the local Japanese evenafter the outbreak of war in Europe. The branch was run by Tashiro Tsunesuke, a long time
resident. The show was held twice in October and December 1939. The newspaper reported
that the ’films showing the industrial and agricultural life [of Japan] were exceedinglyinteresting’ and that ’a crowded house fully appreciated the interesting portrayal of Japanesesocial and industrial life.’ The second show was even combined with fund raising by local
white women (Ethel Smith and Tootsie Hamilton) for the Red Cross.(124) The absence of
hostility was probably because of the smallness of the local Japanese population and theirlong personal acquaintance with white residents.
The Japanese population declined gradually under Australian migration regulations,particularly due to the clause that: unless Japanese men were married when they first cameto New Guinea, they could not bring their wives.(125) This regulation effectively reduced thenumber of Japanese who were mostly single males on two-to-three year contract. Also therestriction not to allow the population to increase higher than the number in 1914 stopped
new Japanese from migrating. Some left New Guinea and even fewer came in. As Table 6
shows, the number decreased by about half from 87 in 1921 to 38 in 1940. The decline of
the female population was high, suggesting that quite a few married couples left New
Guinea.
Consequently, in terms of numbers, the Japanese became an extremely marginal group.
As Table 7 shows, they were far fewer than other non-indigenous groups and their proportion among these groups declined from 2.7 percent in 1921 to 0.5 percent in 1940.
The occupational composition also changed. As Table 8 shows, by 1938 artisans (carpenters and sawyers) and labourers disappeared, whereas the number of traders and trading52

South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

Table 6. Population of Japanese by gender in New Guinea, 1921-1940
malefemale

total

male

female

total

1921

69

18

87

1923

59

14

73

1932

29

6

35

1933

38

6

44

1924

51

8

1925

46

8

59

1934

37

7

44

54

1935

38

7

45

1926

40

1927

41

6

46

1936

33

6

39

6

47

1937

38

2

40

1928
1929

42

7

49

1938

35

3

38

37

8

45

1939

36

4

40

1930

38

7

45

1940

36

2

38

1931

33

7

40

Source: Report to the League of Nations on the Administration of the Territory of
New Guinea, 1922, p.139; 1924, p.94; 1925, p.68; 1926, p.54; 1927, p.40; 1928,
p.90; 1929, p.69; 1930, p.98; 1931, p.108; 1932, p.106; 1933, p.96; 1934, p.116;
1935, p.104; 1936, p.98; 1937, p.101; 1938, p.128; 1939, p.131; 1940, p.129; 1941,
p.131

Table 7. Population of Japanese and other non-indigenous groups in New Guinea, 19211940

1921
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
1939
1940

Japanese

ChineseBritishGerman

other

total

87
73
59
54
46
47
49
45
45
40
35
44
44
45
39
40
38
40
38

1,402
1,365
1,330
1,303
1,279
1,254
1,259
1,253
1,238
1,179
1,215
1,353
1,399
1,424
1,448
1,525
1,737
1,890
2,064

715
765
824
944
1,086
1,341
1,629
1,808
1,992
1,992
2,140
2,594
2,847
3,026
3,288
3,329
3,472
3,547
3,345

579
325
316
310
299
293
332
328
348
370
402
379
377
404
442
469
473
473
439

390
399
465
434
422
464
482
494
532
561
574
845
549
554
471
534
563
588
615

3,173
3,927
2,994
3,045
3,132
3,399
3,751
3,928
4,155
4,142
4,366
5,215
5,216
5,453
5,688
5,897
6,283
6,538
6,498

Source: Report to the League of Nations on the Administration of the Territory of New Guinea, 1922,
p.139; 1924, p.94; 1925, p.68; 1926, p.54; 1927, p.40; 1928, p.90; 1929, p.69; 1930, p.98; 1931,
p.108; 1932, p.106; 1933, p.96; 1934, p.116; 1935, p.104; 1936, p.98; 1937, p.101; 1938, p.128; 1939,
p.131; 1940, p.129; 1941, p.131

Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

53

Table 8. Occupation of the Japanese in New Guinea, 1921 and 1938 (number and percentage)trader &planter & boat
carpen- sawyer fisher- barber factory
other
hand＊
trading company’s plantation builder ter
man
agent
manager

total

1921
no.

4

27

10

12

3

8

3

11

25＊＊ 103＊＊＊

％

3.8

26.2

9.7

11.6

2.9

7.7

2.9

10.6

24.2

no.

6

13

7

0

0

10

3

0

4

43

％

13.9

30.2

16.2

0

0

23.2

6.9

0

9.3

100.0

100.0

1938

＊

This seems to be labourers in boat building yard.
This includes 13 accompanied family members (mostly wives and children).
＊＊＊
These figure from the Japanese source contradicts those from the Australian source in Table 6.
The Japanese figures seem to be accurate, because they are more detailed about the occupationalclassification than the Australian ones.
＊＊

Source: 南洋庁長官官房調査課 1939. p.p.318-319, ニューギニア事情 (濠洲委任統治領) .
コロール [Research Section of the Secretary-General of the South Seas Government 1939. The
situation in New Guinea (Australian Mandated Territory). p.p.318-319, Koror.]

Table 9. Japanese businesses in New Guinea in 1919
name of businessmen

company name

1. Komine Isokichi

Nan’yo Sangyo

type of businessgeneral store, boatbuilding,capital (yen)1,000,000

fishery, copra planting
2. Okaji Santaro

Okaji Company

general store, copra planting

15,000Source: 外務省通商局 1919. 在外本邦実業者調 . p.213, 東京. 外交史料館所蔵文書, 通189 ｢在外本邦実業者調, 大正８年｣ [Bureau of Commerce, Department of Foreign Affairs
1919. Zaigai honpo jitsugyo sha shirabe. p.213, Tokyo. In: Japanese Diplomatic Record (hereafter
JDR), Tsu189, ’Report on overseas Japanese businessmen 1919’］

company agents and fishermen increased. The increase of those two occupations is important when the total population decreased by more than half. As a result, the proportions oftraders and trading company agents and fishermen increased respectively from 3.8 percent
in 1921 to 13.9 percent in 1938 and from 7.7 percent to 23.2 percent.
The change in the occupational structure was caused by the emergence of new small
businessmen. The largest company, Komine’s Nan’yo Sangyo, was liquidated in 1931 andsome of his business was bought by Nagahama. At the same time, small fishing companies
and a new branch of a trading company were established. Consequently, as Table 9 and 10
show, the number of businesses increased from 2 in 1919 to 12 in 1940. Those new companies did not require many employees, except for Nagahama’s plantations, because they were54

South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

Table 10. Japanese businesses in New Guinea in 1940
company name

1. Nakamura Soshichi
2. Kimura Hideichiro
3. Kikuchi Ichisuke
4. Tsujii Shigeru
Mano Kisaburo
5. Ikeda Kunizo
6. Ishibashi Umakichi
7. Tsurushima Sokichi

Nakamura Company
Kimura Company
Kikuchi Company
Tsujii Mano Company

fishery
fishery
fishery
fishery

3,000
8,000
10,00010,000

Ikeda Company
Ishibashi Company
Tsurushima Company

7,000
7,000
100,000

8. Ishimoto Terunari(representative)＊
9. Asanuma Ichimatsu
10. Izumi Eikichi
11. Nagahama Taichi(with Ah Tam)South Seas Trading
Company, Rabaul branch
Asanuma Factory
Izumi shipyard
Kali plantation
Sau plantation
Rambutjo plantation
Papitelai plantation
Papitelai plantation
Uraputor plantation
Kabil plantation

fishery
fishery
general store, retailer
wholesaler, trader of marine
products and trochus shelltrading
ship repair
shipbuilding
copra planting
copra planting
copra planting
copra planting
copra planting
copra planting
copra planting

10,00050,000180,000
39,00085,00065,000140,000
25,00025,00012. Nagahama Taichi(with Shin Loon)

type of businesscapital (yen)name of businessmen

15,000＊

Tashiro Tsunesuke was a local agent.

Source: 外交史料館所蔵文書, E.4.0.0.11.
｢外南洋及南太平洋ニ於イテノ邦人ノ営ム農企業
個人並商工業者査報一件｣ [JDR, E.4.0.0.11, ’Report on Japanese agricultural enterprises andindividuals and merchants operating in the outer South Seas and South Pacific’]

mostly run by family members.(126) Simultaneously the scale of shipbuilding was reduced,
so the demands for artisans declined, and the costly Japanese employees were replaced withcheap New Guinean ones.
Although the population had declined and a large company disappeared, Japanese tradewith New Guinea increased. After the restriction on trade was lifted, exports increased
rapidly from ￡458 in 1923 to ￡34,921 in 1939 and imports from ￡525 in 1925 to ￡7,
266 in 1939 (Table 11). The total trade (exports and imports) increased from ￡3,373 in
1925 to ￡42,187 in 1939, at a rate of 1,000 percent. However, this increase was not so
astonishing in the total New Guinean trade which increased by 820 percent in the same
period.(127) The proportion of Japanese trade remained extremely marginal in the total New
Guinea trade, although it increased very slightly from 0.6 percent in 1925 to 0.9 percent in1939 (even at its peak in 1937 the proportion was only 2.3 percent).(128)
Although the total trade was slight, it was lucrative and the balance always greatly

Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

55

Table 11. Japanese trade with New Guinea, 1919-1939 (￡)
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
1939

exportimport

total

458
194
2,848
−
10,30318,805
23,10327,05013,94722,04625,36942,75776,03073,747
98,585
46,62734,921

−
−
525
−
−
−
−
4,065
3,633
4,243
7,783
9,839
12,035
10,027
8,620
7,445
7,266

−
−
3,373
−
10,30318,805
23,103
31,115
17,58026,28933,152
52,596
88,065
83,774
107,205
54,072
42,187

Source: Report to the League of Nations on the Administration of the
Territory of New Guinea, 1926, p.p.60-61; 1927, p.p.47-48, 1927,
p.p.54-56; 1928, p.p.39-40; 1929, p.p.53-62; 1930, p.p.63-73; 1931,
p.p.60-70; 1932, p.p.59-68; 1933, p.p.77-86; 1934, p.p.69-79; 1935,
p.p.66-75; 1936, p.p.67-77; 1937, p.p.91-100; 1938, p.p.94-103;
1939, p.p.93-102; 1940, p.p.85-101

favoured Japan. A typical Japanese trade pattern developed−exporters of light manufactured goods and importers of raw materials. Their major exports were tinned fish, clothes
and textiles (Table 12)−common Japanese exports in the pre-war period. Tsurushima andNan’yo Boeki, retailers of Japanese goods at Rabaul, used to advertise the sale of kimono,silk underwear and even Sapporo beer.(129) The major Japanese imports were shell (mainly
trochus), followed by copra and behe-de-mer (Table 13), reflecting the increase of thebusinesses engaged in those industries (Table 9 and 10). The demands for those products
were, however, slight in Japan: even copra, one of the major exports from the South Seas,
occupied less than one percent in 1937 in the total imports of Japan.(130)The trade and investment pattern also shows a classic pattern of colonial trade. The
Japanese invested capital in primary industries and used New Guinean labour for production, while expanding the local market for their manufactured goods. In the plantations andshipyards, the Japanese used New Guinean labourers. As Table 14 shows, all fishermen
employed New Guinean crews; all plantations had New Guinean labourers; and the shipyard and even general store had New Guinean employees. In total 324 New Guineans were
employed by about 40 Japanese. The Japanese recruited New Guineans widely from Manus,

56

South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

Table 12. Major items of Japanese exports to New Guinea, 1928-1939 (￡)

1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
1939

tinned fish

apparel &attiretextilescementmatches

other

total

2,606
762
2,807
496
2,307
2,789
2,935
7,325
11,426
12,008
7,002
13,256

3,475
1,915
818
319
1,047
3,082
4,150
6,580
5,487
6,959
3,370
3,659

9,196
5,045
8,772
8,505
14,418
11,37921,791
39,083
26,641
50,52622,024
3,352

1,199
2,473
454
1,284
1,456
1,090
1,569
2,704
2,962
1,377
1,563
995

479
493
260
7
33
304
531
868
621
894
1,160
3,018

1,850
12,415
13,393
3,336
2,785
6,725
11,781
19,47026,61026,821
11,508
10,64118,805
23,10327,05013,94722,04625,36942,75776,03073,747
98,585
46,62734,921

Source: Report to the League of Nations on the Administration of the Territory of New Guinea, 1926,
p.p.60-61; 1927, p.p.47-48, 1927, p.p.54-56; 1928, p.p.39-40; 1929, p.p.53-62; 1930, p.p.63-73; 1931,
p.p.60-70; 1932, p.p.59-68; 1933, p.p.77-86; 1934, p.p.69-79; 1935, p.p.66-75; 1936, p.p.67-77; 1937,
p.p.91-100; 1938, p.p.94-103; 1939, p.p.93-102; 1940, p.p.85-101

Table 13. Major items of Japanese imports from New Guinea, 1931-1939 (￡)

1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
1939

copra

shell

behe-de-mer

other

total

−
−
−
−
662
359
4,232
2,690
−

3,620
4,215
7,595
9,816
11,340
9,520
4,340
2,880
7,040

−
−
150
−
−
−
−
1,875
−

13
28
38
23
33
148
48
−
226

3,633
4,243
7,783
9,839
12,035
10,027
8,620
7,445
7,266

Source: Report to the League of Nations on the Administration of the Territory of New
Guinea, 1926, p.p.60-61; 1927, p.p.47-48, 1927, p.p.54-56; 1928, p.p.39-40; 1929,
p.p.53-62; 1930, p.p.63-73; 1931, p.p.60-70; 1932, p.p.59-68; 1933, p.p.77-86; 1934,
p.p.69-79; 1935, p.p.66-75; 1936, p.p.67-77; 1937, p.p.91-100; 1938, p.p.94-103; 1939,
p.p.93-102; 1940, p.p.85-101

New Ireland, New Britain and Bougainville.(131) Like white settlers, the Japanese also
suffered from the shortage of labour and even went to the area along the Ramu River inmainland New Guinea to recruit.(132)Japanese settlers were, as the Australians in Rabaul perceived, no menace to the securityof New Guinea. They lived their day to day life like other ordinary townsfolk. Unlike inIwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

57

Table 14. New Guinean labourers in Japanese businesses, 1940
company nameno. of New Guinean employees

no. of other non-Japanese employees

Nakamura Company
Kimura Company
Kikuchi Company
Tsujii Mano Company
Ikeda Company
Ishibashi Company
Tsurushima Company
South Seas Trading Company
Asanuma Factory
Izumi Shipyard
Kali plantation
Sau plantation
Rambutjo plantation
Pitelu plantation
Papitelai plantation
Uraputor plantation
Kabil plantation

8
25
25
20
22
20
3
8
−
20
30
8
28
25
40
22
20

−
−
−
−
−
−
2 (Malays)
1 (Filipino)−
4 (Chinese)
−
−
−
−
−
−
−

total

324

7

Source: 外交史料館所蔵文書, E.4.0.0.11. ｢外南洋及南太平洋ニ於イテノ邦人ノ営ム農企業
個人並商工業者査報一件｣ [JDR, E.4.0.0.11, ’Report on Japanese agricultural enterprises andindividuals and merchants operating in the outer South Seas and South Pacific’]Micronesia or Southeast Asia, they formed no political organisations or religious groups.
They formed the Japanese Society in 1932, but it was a social club used only by theJapanese. They knew the Australian fear of Japanese development in Micronesia, as it wasoften rumoured and reported in the newspaper. And they knew about developments in
Micronesia because Nan’yo Boeki’s liner came regularly to Rabaul from Ponape bringing
news. Probably they felt neglected by their own government, knowing of the ’Japanisation’of Micronesia: the establishment of schools, shrines, temples and even education of
Micronesians. However, they also knew that any public expression of admiration for development in Micronesia was detrimental to good relations with the Australians. What they
could do was just hide their patriotism and concentrate on their daily business, hoping that
one day their government would praise their development of New Guinea.(133)
The Japanese divided into three groups−businessmen at Rabaul, plantation managers
and planters on Manus, New Ireland and Bougainville, and mobile fishermen. Most lived
in Rabaul and others often visited there. Rabaul was a meeting place for business transactions, socialisation and gathering precious information about Japan. In Rabaul, the Japanesecommunity, although small, was well known. They had stores, a garage, shipyard and58South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

barber’s shop, most of which advertised in the local newspaper.(134) Although the precise
number of the Japanese in Rabaul throughout the period is unknown because of the lack of
a local population census except for 1933 and 1940, on average about 20 Japanese seem tohave resided in the town. In 1933 the Commonwealth census recorded 17 according tonationality (i.e., allegiance) and 29 according to race.(135) The first figure is very likely theactual number of the Japanese and the latter seems to be mixed-race Japanese. In 1940 when
all Japanese were interned, 16 out of total 29 internees were arrested in Rabaul.(136)
Their material possessions made them visible, out of proportion to their numbers. They
had nine motor vessels, three motor cars (two latest model Plymouth sedans and one Ford
V-8 sedan 1938 model), two trucks and one motor cycle, and most owned houses.(137)
However, their social status did not equal that of white residents. They were still not
accepted in European quarters as in the German period. Most Japanese lived in the area now
called Malaytown and Malaguna, and Japanese stores and Imaizumi’s cinema werein Chinatown.(138) The Japanese quarters in Malaytown were sometimes called’Japantown’.(139)
Komine remained a leader of the community. He acted like a lobbyist when Australia
restricted Japan-New Guinea trade. In 1920, he visited Sydney to petition the Australian
government to lift trade restriction.(140) He also unsuccessfully sought permission from thePrime Minister to raise ￡10,000 to ￡15,000 by mortgaging his plantations to a Sydney
company, George Morgan & Co. Ltd.(141) At Sydney he was interviewed by the Daily
Telegraph. A short article appeared with a photograph. Probably Komine exaggerated his
experiences in New Guinea deliberately in order to impress Australians. The article said that
he was a ’Pacific Pioneer’ and ’built a row-boat....to navigate 360 miles of the Fly River....
by permission of Sir William MacGregor’. His assistance to the Australian forces at WorldWar I was admiringly reported and the article concluded that ’he did a heap of service
generally, for which the [British] Empire stands in his debt.’(142)
As on his visit to Sydney, Komine sometimes acted like an official to represent theJapanese in New Guinea. Some Australians in fact thought that he was an official. An
Australian traveller, Lilian Overell, mistakenly thought him a consul:
Farther on [from Malaytown] is the Japanese quarter. The Japanese Consul is said bysome to be the richest man in Rabaul. When Lord Jellicoe arrived here, he called atGovernment House and then at the Japanese Consul’s, where he left a present tosmooth someone’s ruffled feathers.(143)Similarly, Manus people thought he was a Japanese kiap.(144)
Komine led the Japanese economic activities until just before the Great Depression. In
1929, his company made ￡ 26,000 profits and employed 14 Japanese and 362 New
Guineans, while Nagahama, who had the second largest business among the Japanese, madeonly ￡3,000 and employed one Japanese and 10 New Guineans.(145)

Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

59

However, Komine’s status began to decline when the Great Depression savaged allplanters in New Guinea:
By 1931, the price of copra had fallen to ￡11.10s. a ton, half of what it had been in
1925-6. It was to fall much further in the next three years, reaching ￡4.11s. a ton in
1934.....Within five years the value of copra exports fell from ￡1,176,040 in 1928 to￡618,298 in 1932. The new owners, who had expected to live in a style appropriate
to men who control the wealth of a country, found themselves with an intolerable
burden of debt and no prospect of discharging that debt. The properties wereunsalable.(146)
Komine was no exception. His businesses made large losses and his debt to Burns Philp
increased to the extent that he could not pay wages for his employees. In this crisis he asked
the Consul-General, Inoue Kojiro, in Sydney for financial assistance. Inoue wrote to theForeign Minister, Shidehara Kijuro regarding Komine’s request to borrow funds at low
interest.(147) Shortly afterwards Hanaoka Masaichi, the directing manager of the
Headquarters of the Nan’yo Sangyo Kaisha in Japan, sent a formal petition to
Shidehara.(148) Prominent white residents in Rabaul also telegraphed to Tokyo to ask forassistance for Komine. They included the administrator Wisdom, Catholic Missionary
Society, Methodist Church and Anglican Bishop.(149)
However, Tokyo was reluctant to respond. Inoue pressed Shidehara again saying, ’unless
the Japanese government took some measures or gave credible guarantee on the payment of
his debts, it would be very conceivable that Japanese businesses, which had been firmly
built on the islands, would be overturned from the foundation.’(150) Komine was frustrated
and wrote a long letter to Inoue, emphasising that he started his business because he was
encouraged by the admirals of the Imperial Navy, and appealed to national prestige. More
importantly Komine clearly indicated his imperial ambition:
My purpose [in starting the business] was not to make profits but to lay a foundation
for the development of the Empire in future. Therefore I kept good relations withGerman administrators and, of course, with Australian administrators. As imperial
subjects, I and other Japanese have endured difficulties until today so that we should
not disgrace the Empire. [If I do not get assistance] it would not only force my very
dedicated employees, who have worked for me for many years, to suffer from losing
jobs, but it would be a national disgrace as all people of other nationalities [in New
Guinea] were watching the outcome of our situation. That would be an agony for me
worse than death. I would like to beg you for your consideration.(151)
In response, Inoue appealed to Tokyo more strongly but in vain.(152) Even the Bank of New
South Wales recommended ’favourable consideration of his [Komine’s] application’ toTokyo, but the government declined any assistance.(153) Japan could not intervene in the

60South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

affairs of the Australian mandate, because it would have caused a diplomatic problem with
Australia; Japan had been excluding non-Japanese economic activities, particularly theoperations of Burns Philp, in Micronesia. Consequently, although Loxton (sympathetic
honorary consul in Brisbane) intervened and succeeded in postponing the foreclosure fortwo months,(154) Komine’s business (including properties) was auctioned on 30 December
1930.(155) At this time he was 64 years old, probably too old to run a business, as Inouewrote in his letter to Shidehara that Komine needed able advisers.(156)
After he lost his business, he returned to his old trade−shell fishing−despite his age.
One day in October 1934 he took a schooner to the sea and died. He was then 68 years old.
It was an ironic end of his dramatic life. He died like a careless fisherman, notlike a once successful businessman. He was poisoned by a lobster which he caught andate.(157) But his funeral revived his past glory. Hundreds of New Guineans from Manus, New
Ireland, and Bougainville, Chinese and Europeans, including the Acting-Administrator
Wanliss and other officials attended.(158) And Tatsue Yoshinobu, Komine’s old friend since
his exploration days, erected a monument in the European cemetery.(159) His body wascremated and his wife went back to Nagasaki with his bones.
However, Komine’s death did not end Japanese business activities. At the time of liquidation, Komine persuaded Nagahama Taichi, a shipwright from Goryo village in Amakusa,
to take over his business. Komine recruited Nagahama in the 1910s because Nagahama’sfamily in Amakusa were well-known as master shipwrights for generations. In Rabaul,
Nagahama worked for Komine for some years, but soon became independent and set up his
own shipyard and coastal shipping business.(160) Fortunately Nagahama’s business was notmuch affected by the fall of copra prices because he was not a planter. Komine told
Nagahama that successors of Ah Tam, a wealthy Chinese resident in Rabaul and Komine’s
long-time friend, would provide as much assistance as possible for the purchase of
Komine’s businesses. According to Nagahama’s daughter, what Komine most feared wasthat his assets would be taken over by Burns Philp, extinguishing Japanese influence in
New Guinea.(161) Nagahama bought all of Komine’s plantations with Ah Tam’s successors(Lee Tam Tuck, Tee Chee Wee, Tse Dong, See To Fat Whye).(162) Naturally Nagahama,
now the most wealthy Japanese in New Guinea, took over the leadership of the community.
In 1932 he became the founder and first president of the Rabaul Japanese Society.(163) His
nephew, Yukiyoshi, was also working in his shipyard. Although Nagahama did not have ahistory of bravery like Komine, probably he had an air of dignity cultivated by his upbringing in his master shipwright’s family where the master-apprentice relationship was strictly
maintained. Like Komine, he lived in Malaguna.
Nagahama also bought Komine’s shipbuilding business but sublet it to Izumi Eikichi,
another shipwright who came to Rabaul around the same time as Nagahama, from the samevillage in Amakusa. He was also a competent diver. The shipyard was close to Ah Tam’sarea. Business became very busy after the eruption of Matupit and Vulcan in 1937. He had

Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

61

so many orders(164) that he went back to Japan and recruited three more shipwrights andexpanded into a second dry dock at Timbur in Kokopo.(165) Izumi had to offer high wages
to attract shipwrights to this unknown land. One of the new shipwrights, Hatamoto Otosaku,
remembers the offered wages as almost three times higher than those in Japan. In fact, after
only two months, he paid all his debts which he had made to buy new tools before coming
to New Guinea, and began to remit money handsomely to his family.(166) Izumi’s shipyard
had a good reputation; his good repair work to the Australian vessel China Maru wasreported in The Rabaul Times.(167) Izumi married Nataman, a New Ireland woman, in 1929
and had four children by the outbreak of the Pacific War.(168)
Nozaki Tsunejiro was another well-known boatbuilder. Unlike other boatbuilders, hecame from Shizuoka, a prefecture close to Tokyo, and started his boatbuilding by purchasing the business from an Australian boatbuilder, R.D. Pye in 1930.(169) He worked actively
for the administration. He repaired the government vessels M.S. Hermes in 1930 and M.V.
Thetis in 1933.(170) He performed ’extremely credible’ work in salvaging the motor schooner
Marina which had sunk off Matupi.(171) He also acted as an accountant for Izumi.(172)Tashiro Tsunesuke and Tsurushima Sokichi were probably the most common faces
among the townsfolk, as they had stores in Chinatown. Tashiro was an old resident. He was
the eldest son of Otomatsu who came to Rabaul to trade before 1916 and in that year
brought his wife and Tsunesuke.(173) Tsunesuke began to work as an agent of Nan’yo Boeki
and lived in the house opposite the Nan’yo Boeki store. Nan’yo Boeki expanded its tradingin the mid-1930s. Its Rabaul branch was opened in 1936 (promotion from just an agency)
and supplied Japanese goods wholesale to Burns Philp and Carpenters.(174) Tsunesuke didmost of the work in Rabaul, although the company appointed another manager at its opening of the branch office. Tsunesuke’s brother Kiyoshi, who was born in Rabaul in 1922 but
was sent to Japan for education from 1925 until re-joining Tsunesuke in June 1939, also
worked for the company. Arata Gunkichi, a descendant of samurai from Kagoshima, also
worked for the company. He came to New Guinea in 1916 to work for Komine as a secretary.(175) He married a Manus woman and had three daughters.(176)
Tsurushima Sokichi, the store owner, was an old resident. He came to Rabaul to work for
Komine as a sawyer from Shimabara in Nagasaki in 1912.(177) Soon he was involved in
trading and opened a two-story store around 1935. He had many Chinese friends and his
store was popular among them.(178) He imported mainly sundries from Japan. According to
his relative, one time he brought back a neon lamp which was so bright that it created asensation in the town: ’Tsurushima has brought back civilisation from Japan’.(179)
Tabuchi Yoshimatsu came from Okayama in 1917 when he was 18 years old with theofficially stated purpose to make a ’commercial inspection.’(180) He was a unique figure,well-known among Europeans. In New Guinea he took up a career very different from otherJapanese. He became a clerk of Irwin Cromie, a solicitor at Rabaul, and assisted in legal
matters mainly dealing with the Japanese.(181) He was also an agent of Nan’yo Boeki.(182)62South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

Tabuchi and Tsurushima were probably the most trusted among the Japanese. Sasaki
Keisuke, a fisherman on Manus, left a will to distribute all his assets between the two.(183)
According to oral evidence, Tabuchi married a very attractive mixed-race woman fromThursday Island, Carmelita. Her father was a Portuguese pearl diver and her mother a
Torres Strait islander. They married in Rabaul on 3 January 1925 in the Catholic Church.
They had four children, but he went back to Japan on 5 October 1938, thinking that war was
about to break out. He never came back to New Guinea. In 1940, he re-married a Japanese
woman and had two children in Japan.(184)There was a Japanese barber shop servicing mainly Europeans and Japanese. The barbers
were Yamaji Fujigoro, Ito Matsutaro and his wife Tsuru.(185) Yamaji started the businessfirst around 1920. He was also a tortoise-shell craftsman.(186) Ito joined the business later but
closed the shop for some time and re-opened it on 25 April 1936 at Paatzch’s
Chambers.(187)
Asanuma Ichimatsu was a popular mechanic and did general engineering andblacksmithing.(188) He came from Hachijo-jima, an island near Tokyo, in 1915. Until 1922
he worked for various people and then started his garage in Chinatown between MalagunaRoad and the cemetery.(189) He could fix any sort of machinery such as boat engines, carsand even airplanes. He was diligent and did not drink but liked all kinds of sports. He
married Louise, a Japanese woman who was adopted and raised by a Filipino family in Yap
in the Caroline Islands. The family came to New Guinea in 1914. Louis could not speak
Japanese. The couple had three children.
Tsujii Shigeru was another engineer.(190) He had his business in Malaguna but sold it toWong Fat, a Chinese businessman in 1929.(191) Later he started a fishing business.
Imaizumi Masao, the owner of the cinema in Chinatown, screened both Japanese andEnglish films. His cinema also had a billiard saloon.(192) Sometimes when Japanese sailors
visited Rabaul, he set up an arena in his cinema and organised a wrestling tournament toentertain the townsfolk.(193) He sold the business and left New Guinea in 1925.(194)The fishermen operated widely from the Ninigo Group to Bougainville and fished mainly
for trochus shell. They worked for Komine until the liquidation of his business. After that,mostformedcompanies

and

sold

their

catch

to

Tsurushima

andNan’yoBoeki. They all owned at least one schooner and employed many Manus people.(195) Most
lived in Rabaul, except for Kikuchi Ichisuke and Nakamura Soshichi because of theirmarriages to New Guinean women. Both lived in Talasea.
Kikuchi came to New Guinea as a transport worker in 1917 when he was 25 years
old.(196) He then married a New Guinean, Mongai, and lived on Kapo Island in Talasea
where she came from.(197) Mongai was the daughter of a village head man, and the couple
had five children. He first owned the Marukin Maru, a small five-ton boat, and then theEbisu Maru, a thirty-ton schooner.
Nakamura had originally gone to Thursday Island from Wakayama in 1899(198) and laterIwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas63

he went to New Guinea, where he married a Kilenge woman, Mapole, around 1928 and had
six children. He owned a schooner Kilenge.(199)
The other fishermen, based at Rabaul, were Kimura Hideichiro, Tsujii Shigeru, Mano
Kisaburo, Ikeda Kunizo and Ishibashi Umakichi. Kimura came to New Guinea in 1916 andmarried Josephine, a Filipino woman in 1939.(200) Tsujii and Mano had a business partnership and they seem to have fished actively in the Ninigo Group: they applied for special
leases on Ami and Lau island in the Group in 1938.(201) Ikeda and Ishibashi came in 1914
from a famous fishing town, Misaki in Kanagawa.(202) Both seemed to be determined to livein New Guinea, because they brought their wives and children in 1939 when everybody wassensing the outbreak of war.(203) In Rabaul, Ishibashi experienced an unfortunate accident.
Reginald Reed, a young single Australian man, tried to hijack his schooner Namanula inorder to leave New Guinea. Ishibashi resisted and was shot in his shoulder. His Chinese andManus crew overpowered Reed and brought him to the police, and Ishibashi was sent to thehospital.(204) Later he recovered and resumed fishing.
Plantation managers and planters were the last major group. Most worked in Manus
either for Komine or Nagahama. Originally they came to New Guinea as fishermen or
boatbuilders. Probably they were hard workers and won credit from Komine or Nagahama(both well-known for their strictness towards their employees). Their ability to form good
relations with New Guineans probably helped in being appointed managers.
Most married local women, which indicates that they were liked and accepted by the local
communities.(205) That was an important factor in managing plantations where hundreds of
New Guineans had to be employed.
Yamashita Shichinosuke was the manager of the plantation on Pityilu Island in Manus.
He came to New Guinea in 1913 probably as a fisherman. He was 20 years old and had justpassed an examination for conscription. His home was Shikine Jima, a small island in Izu
Islands south of Tokyo. He went to Misaki in Kanagawa to look for a job and knew about
New Guinea from local fishermen and decided to come to New Guinea.(206) In the 1920s
Yamashita married Samaruesu, a woman from Nyada Village on the north coast of Manus
and the couple had three children.(207) On Pityilu he also ran a store and the schooner Pityilu.
However, towards the end of the 1930s the management began to suffer deficits and accumulated large debts to Burns Philp. Yamashita could not bear the heavy pressure andcommitted suicide in 1940, detonating dynamite in a toilet on the beach.(208)
Ikesaki Tokuyoshi, who married a Kimbe woman, ran the plantation on Momote. He
came to New Guinea at the age of 17 in 1912 as a sawyer from the same village as
Nagahama.(209) However, in New Guinea he became more interested in diving for trochus
shell, which gave him more income. As well, he began to do some plantation work. He wasa man of many romances. By the 1930s, he had contracted three marriages all with New
Guinean women.(210) After he married the third wife, Gela (daughter of the village chief of
Bulunuri village near Kimbe in West New Britain), he came to Manus and was appointed
the manager of Momote plantation.(211)64South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

Hagiwara Hikota, the manager of Pak Island plantation, came to New Guinea from
Amakusa in the same year as Ikesaki. He was a sawyer and was 20 years old.(212) He marriedPhirai, a Manus woman, and had three children.
Endo Shigetaro was a small planter on Anir (Ambitle) Island in New Ireland.(213)
He came to New Guinea from Tokushima in 1914 as a shipwright to work for
Komine.(214) In the 1920s he married Nataman, a woman from Anir Island, then he moved
to her island and began to plant copra and build small boats for theislanders.(215) The couple had three children.
Okaji Santaro kept operating a plantation and store in Buka Island and later Bougainville.
Unlike others, he did not marry a New Guinean. But he was successful. From Buka Island
where he originally started his business, he expanded into copra planting at Kieta. He had
a 50-hectare lease north of Kieta.(216) However, he died in 1924 and his brother came to New
Guinea to arrange his affairs.(217)
In racial relations, the Japanese managed to form amicable relations with members of themain races in New Guinea. In the colonial structure which was strictly hierarchical by race,
the Japanese precariously secured a position almost equal to the Australians in formal
terms; in reality they did not enjoy the full privileges which Australians had. The Japanese
held a position as business partners to the Chinese, and as masters to New Guineans. Theirpeaceful relationship with the Australians was partly attributable to their numerical andeconomic marginality.(218) The Australians could maintain their friendliness, because theJapanese hardly affected their interests. This contrasts with Australian uneasiness with the
Chinese when their number increased and their business expanded.(219) If the Australians had
not restricted Japanese migration and trading, the Japanese could have experienced the same
fate as they did on Thursday Island from the 1890s and eventually been driven out of New
Guinea. The amicable Japanese-Australian relations developed in this artificial circumstance.
At personal level, however, the administrators always respected Komine. That wasdemonstrated at the times of Komine’s financial difficulties and funeral. Other Japanese also
made personal friends. Nozaki, the boatbuilder, and his wife had been friends of John
Thurston, a prominent planter, ’for many years.’(220) In fact, the childless couple adopted
Josephine, a daughter of Thurston.(221) Asanuma and Izumi were ’great friends’ of Gordon
Ehret, a Rabaul trader, and did much repair work for him.(222) Similarly, ex-Rabaul
shipwright, Hatamoto Otosaku, recalls good relations with his Australian counterparts.(223)
He was building boats for the administration with Australian boatbuilders and they used to
go to the beach in Kokopo together.
The Japanese knew that their presence was at the mercy of the Australians. This madethem almost impossible to show their patriotism or Japaneseness. Unlike in Micronesia,
they built no Japanese shrines or temples. There was no New Year celebration in a Japanesestyle, unlike the Chinese. Nor was there the Bon Festival in mid-August.(224) Probably these
Japanese events were celebrated privately among themselves in Izumi’s house which was
unofficially called the ’Japan Club’.(225) The Club was their only sanctuary in New Guinea;
most Japanese used to meet there. Probably they thought it wise to confine their activities

Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas65

to themselves in order not to offend any Australians, even though that in itself might haveinvited suspicion.
In order to keep friendly relations with the white settlers, the Japanese followed westerncustoms. They celebrated Coronation Day, putting their own entry in the procession.(226)
Similarly, most inter-racial marriages were celebrated in Christian churches, although theJapanese did not accept the Christian faith. They hardly taught the Japanese language orJapanese customs or religions to their mixed-race children.(227) And most mixed-race children were sent to Vunapope Mission School run by German Catholics.(228)Japanese relations with New Guineans had two aspects. The Japanese were masters. Like
their white counterparts, most Japanese kept master-servant relationships. They were wellaware of the racial hierarchy and considered themselves equal to white masters.(229) Someregarded New Guineans as mere labour and treated them cruelly. For example, there was aviolent master, called Narumi, who always ill-treated his New Guinean crew.(230) However,what distinguished the Japanese masters from their European counterparts was their cordial
efforts to cultivate good relations, because the formation of good relations, which assured
a supply of cheap labour, was essential to their economic survival. They had little capital(none were large capitalists and all were artisans or fishermen when they arrived); they
could not attract investment from large Japanese capitalists who were far more interested inSoutheast Asia; and the Japanese government never provided assistance due to the delicate
diplomatic relations with Australia.
Komine set an example in forming such cordial relations. All oral evidence confirm that
Komine brought many gifts and the islanders were happy to provide their labour in exchange.(231) He also instructed other Japanese, particularly plantation managers, to treat theislanders well, otherwise they were brought back to Rabaul. More importantly, Kominefaithfully fulfilled reciprocal obligations with the islanders. That was extremely importantin Melanesian traditions and was often neglected by white settlers. The following episodefrom elders of Ponam Island, where Komine’s schooner was wrecked and he was helped by
the islanders in 1907,(232) is a good example. When the luluai village chieb of the island diedin 1925, Komine came from Rabaul bringing a concrete grave and buried him. The grave,
which has Komine’s name on its lower part, is still in the island’s cemetery and the story offriendship between their luluai and Komine has been handed down from generation to
generation.(233)
Forming family relationship through marriages and the adoption of children was anotherimportant tradition in Melanesian society, which Komine also followed. He adopted a New
Guinean boy and sent him to Tokyo for education in the 1920s. The boy attended a private
junior high school but got sick and died after a year.(234) A shipwright from Amakusa also
adopted a boy and brought him back.(235) As seen in the previous section, some Japanese,
who came to New Guinea at a young age, married local women. The marriages of course
reinforced relations with the islanders.
The Japanese also formed good relations with the Chinese. It was another require-66

South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

ment for their survival. Komine once regarded the Chinese as formidable rivals. But theJapanese, since their migration and trading had been restricted, could not compete with the
Chinese who were far more numerous and had a more extensive trading network extending
to Southeast Asia. To make the Chinese their rivals in business was an unwise choice. As
a result, the Japanese had many business deals with the Chinese. As described earlier, Tsujii
sold his engineering business to Wong Fat in 1929, and Komine’s business was bought by
Nagahama and the successors of Ah Tam in 1930. Nagahama also bought a Chinese plantation in Namatanai when the planter, Lum Fook, died in 1928.(236) Indeed, Bernard Chan,a prominent ex-Rabaul Chinese businessman, recalls his good relations with the Japanese,
despite the fact that the Chinese generally disliked the Japanese due to their invasion in
China:
After the Japanese invasion into China, some Chinese started to boycott the Japanese
goods, but this was in a small way, because without Japanese goods, these shops wereunable to operate. The second reason of the Chinese not against the local Japanese,
because Nagahama and the other Japanese national are friendly people.(237)Some oral evidence confirm Chan’s memory. Tsurushima had many Chinese friends andused to play mahjong with his best Chinese friends−members of the prominent Seetofamily.(238) According to some informants, the Japanese were always on the side of theChinese when Australian racism against Asians was strong: for instance, Nakamura used tostand up to the Australians when they harassed the Chinese.(239)Conclusion
In the rapidly changing international situation between the two wars, the Japanese influence in New Guinea gradually declined because of the policies of both Australia and Japan.
Australians reinforced their perceptions of an ever expanding Japanese Empire towards thesouth and their recognition of the strategic importance of New Guinea. New Guinea,
Australians believed, had to be an Asian-free white bastion. The Japanese in Tokyo considered the small number of Japanese in New Guinea expendable in order to secure their
exclusive control of Micronesia. Only some nanshin-ron advocates from the late-1930s
were interested in using narratives about the settlers for propaganda. Thus the Japanese in
New Guinea were deserted by their own government and restrained by the Australian
government.
In these discouraging circumstances, nevertheless, the Japanese settlers were able torealise the dreams of Meiji nanshin-ron advocates − peaceful economic expansion.
Although the Japanese economic activities were marginal in the overall economic growthof New Guinea, they expanded the trade dramatically, exporting copra and shell andIwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

67

importing textiles: in terms of trade relations, Japan secured raw materials and markets for
its manufactured goods. Thus the pattern of postwar economic relations between Japan andPapua New Guinea already existed in this period.(240) In developing such economic relations,
the Japanese community was transformed from a group of artisans to a group of businessmen. And such a transformation was possible because the Australians provided a colonial
apparatus expedient to the Japanese. The Australians granted the Japanese the position ofhonorary colonial masters and allowed them to use New Guinean labour, that is, in effect,
the Australians relieved the Japanese of the cost of bringing in their own labourers.
Consequently, the Japanese were able to develop colonial relations with New Guineans
within the Australian colonial apparatus. Thus, although they declined numerically and their
total economic activities were relatively slight, the Japanese were indeed able to colonise
New Guinea.

Notes
(1)

About Komine, see IWAMOTO, H. 1995. ’The origin and development of Japanesesettlement in Papua and New Guinea, 1890-1914’, South Pacific Study, 15(2): 97133 and ’The impact of World War Ⅰ on Japanese settlers in Papua and New Guinea,
1914-1918’, South Pacific Study, 16(2): 143-174, Kagoshima University South
Pacific Research Center, Kagoshima.
(2) LATHAM, J. 1920. The significance of the Peace Conference from an Australian pointof view. p.3, Melville & Mullen Pty. Ltd., Melbourne.
(3) 内田から松井への書簡, 1919年４月21日. 外務省 1971. 日本外公文書 大正八年 第三冊上巻. 242頁, 東京. [Uchida to Matsui, 21 April 1919, in Foreign
Ministry 1971. Japanese diplomatic documents, 1919, vol.3, No.1, p.242. Tokyo.](4) 若槻泰雄 1972. 排日の歴史 . 138頁, 中央公論社, 東京. [WAKATSUKI,Y.
1972. History of discrimination against the Japanese. p.138, Chuokoron-sha,
Tokyo.](5) OWEN, F. 1954. Tempestuous Journey: Lloyd George His Life and Times. p.550,
Hutchinson Stratford Place, London.
(6) CLARK,M. 1987. A Short History of Australia, third edition. p.213, A Mentor Book,
New York.
(7) HUDSON,W. 1978. Billy Hughes in Paris: the birth of Australian diplomacy. p.55,
Nelson, Melbourne.
(8) SISSONS, D. 1971. The Immigration question in Australian diplomatic relations withJapan 1875-1919, paper presented to the 43rd Congress of the Australia and New
Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science. p.38, Brisbane.
(9) PIESSE, E. 9 January 1920. Draft for ’V. Future Policy, 19. The racial discrimination
should be reduced to the utmost possible extent,’ p.12, in Australian Archives (hereafter AA), A5954 1203 2, ’New Guinea and White Australia Policy: papers prepared68South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

for first assembly of League of Nations - 1920’(10) LATHAM, op.cit., p.9.
(11) GRATTAN, C.H. 1963. The Southwest Pacific Since 1900: A Modern History,
Australia, New Zealand, The Islands, Antarctica. p.65, The University of Michigan
Press, New York.
(12) 若槻 [WAKATSUKI] , op.cit., p.153.
(13) NELSON, H. 1995. ’Sacred trust and self-interest: Australia, Rabaul and beyond’, In:
The Great War: gains and losses−ANZAC and Empire (Ed. WILCOX, C.), p.111,
Australian War memorial and Australian National University, Canberra.
(14) 細谷千博 1988. 両大戦間の日本外交 . ２頁, 岩波書店, 東京. [Hosoya C.
1988. Japanese diplomacy between the two wars. p.2, Iwanami shoten, Tokyo.](15) 江口圭一 1994. ｢1910−1930年代の日本−アジア支配への道｣. 日本通史,
第18巻, 近代３ (朝尾直弘他編), 31頁, 岩波書店, 東京. [EGUCHI K. 1994.
’Japan from 1910s to 1930s−the path to rule Asia’, History of Japan, Vol.3, modern
period 3 (Ed. ASANO. et al.), p.31, Iwanami shoten, Tokyo.](16) COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA. 1992. Parliamentary Debates, Vol.XCIX. p.789,
Melbourne.
(17) PIESSE, E. 1926. ’Japan and Australia’, Foreign Affairs, Vol.4. p.488, New York.
(18) FREI, H.P. 1991. Japan’s Southward Advance and Australia. p.114, Melbourne
University Press, Melbourne.
(19) ANDREWS, E. 1967. ’The Australian Government and Appeasement’, The Australian
Journal of Politics and History, Vol.13, p.41.
(20) FREI, op.cit., p.127.
(21) HUDSON, W. 1967. Towards a Foreign Policy: 1914-1941. p.67, Cassell Australia,
Melbourne.
(22) HUDSON, W. 1970. Australian Diplomacy. p.24, Macmillan of Australia, Melbourne.
(23) Ibid., p.25.
(24) 細谷千博 1979. 日本外交の座標 . 75頁, 中央公論社, 東京. [HOSOYA C.
1979. Coordinates of Japanese diplomacy. p.75, Chuokoron sha, Tokyo.](25) WEINBER, G. 1980. The Foreign Policy of Hitler’s Germany: starting World War
Ⅱ 1937-1939. p.136, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.
(26) 日本国際政治学会 1963. 太平洋戦争への道. 第７巻, 日本開戦 . 56〜57
頁, 朝日新聞社, 東京. [Japanese Association of International Politics. 1963. The
road to the Pacific War. p.p.56-57, Vol.7, The outbreak of Japan-US war, Asahi
shimbun sha, Tokyo.](27) 外務大臣から在東京ドイツ大使への書簡, 1940年９月27日; 在東京ドイツ大使から外務大臣への書簡, 1940年９月27日. 日本国際政治学会 1963. 太平洋戦争への道, 第５巻, 三国同盟, 日ソ中立条約 . 224〜225頁, 朝日新聞社,
東京. [Japanese Foreign Minister to German ambassador at Tokyo, 27 September
1940, German ambassador at Tokyo to Japanese Foreign Minister, 27 September
1940. In The road to the Pacific War, Vol.5, Tripartite Pact, USSR-Japan Non-

Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

69

Aggression Pact (Japanese Association of International Politics. 1963). p.p.224-225,
Asahi shimbun sha, Tokyo.](28) Quoted in HUDSON, W. (Ed.) 1974. New Guinea Empire: Australia’s colonial experience. p.6, Cassell Australia, Melbourne.
(29) 清水 元 1991. ｢日本資本主義と南洋｣ 講座東南アジア学, 第10巻, 東南
アジアと日本 (矢野暢編), 92頁, 弘文堂, 東京. [SHIMIZU H. 1991. ’Japanese
capitalism and the South Seas’ In: Southeast Asia Studies, Vol.10, Southeast Asia andJapan (Ed.YANO T.), p.92, Kobun-do, Tokyo.](30) ’Tonan ajia’ in Japanese. It literally means ’East-South Asia’.
(31) 岩本洋光 1995. ｢太平洋戦争前のパプアおよびニューギニアへの出稼移民−
南進と白濠主義の間に生きた人々｣ 移民研究年報 , 創刊号. 95頁, 日本移民学会, 東京. [IWAMOTO H. 1995. ’Japanese Migrants to Papua and New Guinea
before the Pacific War. People caught between the "Nanshin" Policy and the "White
Australia" Policy’ Annual Review of Migration Studies, Vol.1. p.95, Japanese
Association for Migration Studies, Tokyo.](32) SHIMIZU, op.cit.
(33) 清水 元 1986. ｢ 南進論 の帰趨と南洋貿易会議の思想｣ 両大戦間期日本・東南アジア関係の諸相 . 24〜25頁, アジア経済研究所, 東京. [SHIMIZU H.
1986. ’The trend of southward advancement theory in the 1920s and the ideology of
the South Seas Trade Conference’. In: Various aspects of Japan-Southeast Asia
relations between the two wars (Ed. SHIMIZU H.), p.p.24-25, Ajia keizai kenkyu sho,Tokyo.](34) 外務省通商局 1928. 貿易, 企業及移民ヨリ観タル南洋 . 東京. [Commerce
Bureau of the Department of Foreign Affairs 1928. The South Seas in view of trade,
companies and emigration. Tokyo.](35) Ibid., p.1.
(36) 藤山雷太 1933. ｢海の生命線と我が南洋発展｣ 植民 , ７〜８頁, 植民通信社, 東京. [FUJIYAMA R. 1933. ’Sea life line and our South Seas development’, The
Colonial Review, p.p.7-8, Vol.12, No.9, Shokumin tsushin-sha, Tokyo.](37) 波多野澄雄 1984. ｢昭和海軍の南進論｣ 増刊歴史と人物 , 279頁, 中央公論社, 東京. [HATANO S. 1984. ’The southward advancement theory of the navy in
the Showa period’, Special Issue, History and People. p.279, Chuokoron sha, Tokyo.](38) Ibid., p.282.
(39) 後藤乾一 1986. 昭和期日本とインドネシア . 35〜36頁, 勁草書房, 東京.
[GOTO K. 1986. Showa Japan and Indonesia. p.p.35-36, Keiso-shobo, Tokyo.](40) ｢付録16｣. 矢野 暢 1979. 日本の南洋史観 . 212頁, 中央公論社, 東京.
[Appendix No.16. In: YANO T. 1979. Japanese historical view of the South Seas.
p.212, Chuokoron sha, Tokyo.](41) The first shogun of the Edo Era, Tokugawa Ieyasu, encouraged the South Seas trade,
before the shogunate government adopted sakoku [seclusion] policy. In order toprotect trading ships, he institutes the system to issue shuin-jo [red-seal permits]

70South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

which were the letters of official endorsement of trade to the countries that theJapanese traders were dealing with. The trading was so active in the early 16th
century that approximately 100,000 Japanese settled in Southeast Asia mainly forbusiness purpose and created Nihon machi [Japanese town].
(42) 岩生成一 1936. 近世初期日本人南洋発展の歴史 . 台北大学, 台北. [IWAO
S. 1936. History of Japanese development in the South Seas in the early modern
times. Taipei University, Taipei.](43) 岩生成一 1939. ｢南洋に於ける日欧関係の推移｣ 東西交渉史論 . 509〜556
頁, 富山房, 東京. [IWAO S. 1939. ’The change of Japan-European relations in theSouth Seas’, Theory on the history of East-West contact. p.p.509-556, Tomiyamabo, Tokyo.](44) 岩生成一 1940. 南洋日本人町の研究 . 地人書館, 東京. [IWAO S. 1940.
Study on Japanese towns in the South Seas. Chijin-shokan, Tokyo.](45) 入江寅次 1938. 邦人海外発展史 . 移民問題研究所, 東京. [IRIE T. 1938.
History of Japanese overseas development. Imin mondai kenkyu kai, Tokyo.](46) 筧 清澄 1938. 南方諸方に於ける往昔日本人の活躍 . 1頁, 熱帯文化協会,
東京. [KAKEI K. 1938. Japanese activities in the southern area in old times, p.1,
Nettai bunka Kyokai, Tokyo.](47) 防衛庁防衛研修所戦史室 1968. 大本営陸軍部 (2) 昭和16年12月まで . 55
頁における引用文, 朝雲新聞社, 東京. [Quoted in War History Office, Defence
Training Institute, Defence Agency] (ed.) 1968. The Army Section of the Imperial
Headquarters (2) until December 1940. p.55, Asagumo shinbun sha, Tokyo.](48) Ibid., p.56.
(49) Quoted in ibid., p.59.
(50) 飯澤章治 1940. 南方共栄圏 . 189頁, 高山書院, 東京. [IIZAWA S. 1940.
South Co-Prosperity Sphere. p.189. Takayama shoin, Tokyo.](51) 日本経済研究会 1941. 南進日本商人 . 164頁, 伊藤書店, 東京. [JAPANESESOCIETY OF ECONOMIC STUDIES (ed.) 1941. Japanese merchants advancing south.
p.164 Ito shoten, Tokyo.](52) 後藤 勇 1941. 南洋興亡史 . 13頁, 東光社, 東京. [GOTO I. 1941. Historyof rise and fall in the South Seas. p.13 Toko sha, Tokyo.](53) YANO, op.cit., p.187.
(54) The same source of Table 2.
(55) 飯本信之, 佐藤 弘編 1942. 南洋地理体系 第１巻 南洋総論 . 137〜138
頁, ダイヤモンド社, 東京. [IIMOTO N. and SATO H.(ed.) 1942. Outline of thegeography of the South Seas, Vol.1, Introduction to the South Seas. p.p.137-138,
Daiyamondo sha, Tokyo.](56) 三菱経済研究所 1933. 東洋および南洋諸国の国際貿易と日本の地位 . １
頁 , 集 英 社 , 東 京 . [Mitsubishi Research Institute of Economy (ed.) 1933.
International trade of Oriental and South Seas countries and the position of Japan.
p.1, Shuei sha, Tokyo.]Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

71(57) 石川友紀 1972. ｢統計よりみた日本出移民史 ３] 地理科学 . 27〜28頁のデ ー タ よ り 集 計 , 地 理 科 学 学 会 , 広 島 . [Data from ISHIKAWA T. 1972.
’Emigration history in the view from statistics’, Geographic Science. p.p.27-28,
Vol.16, Chiri kagaku gakkai, Hiroshima.](58) Quoted in SHIMIZU 1986, op.cit., p.28.
(59) 清水 元 1985. ｢特集にあたって] アジア経済 , XXVI-3. ４頁, アジア経 済 研 究 所 , 東 京 . [SHIMIZU H. 1985. ’Introduction of the special issue’,
Developing Economy, XXVI-3. p.4, Ajia keizai kenkyu sho, Tokyo.](60) 外務省欧亜局 1938. 英領パプア . 東京; 外務省欧亜局 1938. 濠洲委任
統治領ニューギニア . 東京; 拓務省拓務局 1938. 濠洲委任統治領ニュー
ギニア . 東京. [Section of Europe, Department of Foreign Affairs 1938. British
territory of Papua. Tokyo; Section of Europe, Department of Foreign Affairs 1938.
Australian Mandated Territory New Guinea, Tokyo; Section of Colonisation,
Department of Colonisation 1938. Australian Mandated Territory New Guinea,
Tokyo.](61) 南洋庁長官官房調査課 1939. ニューギニア事情 (濠洲委任統治領) . コロー
ル；南洋庁長官官房調査課 1939. ニューギニア事情 (パプア領編) . コロー
ル. [Research Section of the Secretary-General of the South Seas Government 1939.
The situation in New Guinea (Australian Mandated Territory). Koror; Research
Section of the Secretary-General of the South Seas Government 1939. The situationin New Guinea (Territory of Papua). Koror](62) 龍江義信 1924. ｢食人種棲息するニューギニア探検談 (一)｣ 植民 , 第３巻第11号. 99頁, 植民通信社, 東京. [TATSUE Y. 1924, ’Accounts of explorationin New Guinea; land of cannibals (1)’, The Colonial Review, Vol.3, No.11. p.99,
Shokumin tsushin sha, Tokyo.](63) 三好朋十 1933. ｢南洋の女さまざま｣ 植民 , 第12巻第12号. 100頁, 植民通信社, 東京. [MIYOSHI H. 1933. ’Variety of the South Seas women’, The Colonial
Review, Vol.12, No.12. p.100, Shokumin tsushin sha, Tokyo.](64) 南洋庁長官官房調査課 1939. ニューギニア事情 (パプア領編) . 18頁, コ
ロール. [Research Section of the Secretary-General of the South Seas Government
1939. The situation in New Guinea (Territory of Papua). p.18, Koror.](65) 南洋庁長官官房調査課 1939. ニューギニア事情 (濠洲委任統治領) . 40頁,
コ ロ ー ル . [Research Section of the Secretary-General of the South Seas
Government 1939. The situation in New Guinea (Australian Mandated Territory).
p.40, Koror.](66) 南の会 1937. ニューギニア土俗品図集 , 上・下巻. 南洋興発株式会社,コロール. [Society of South 1937. Illustration of New Guinean artefacts, Vol.1 and2. Nan’yo Kohatsu kabushiki kaisha, Koror.](67) 藤木喜久呂 1939. ニウギニア其付近島嶼の土俗品 . １〜２頁, 吾八, 東京. [FUJIKI Y. 1939. Artefacts of New Guinean and adjacent islands. p.p.1-2,
Gohachi, Tokyo.]72South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

(68) 村松 薫 1937. ｢蘭領ニューギニア外観｣ 海外移住 , 第10巻第６号. 17頁,
移民問題研究所, 東京. [MURAMATSU K. 1937. ’Outlook of Dutch New Guinea’,
Overseas emigration, Vol.10, No.6. p.17, Imin mondai kenkyu sho, Tokyo.](69) 南洋経済研究所

1939b. ｢開拓時代のニウギニア石油事情]

研究資料

第２

巻第11号. 49〜51頁, 東京. [Research Institute of the South Seas Economy
1939c. ’Situation of oil in New Guinea: development stage’, Research Materials,
Vol.2, No.11. p.p.49-51, Tokyo.](70) 南洋経済研究所

1939a. ｢ニウギニアにおける労働力欠乏問題−亜細亜人労働者を入るべきか−｣
業概観｣
(4)｣

研究資料

研究資料

研究資料

第２巻第８号; 1939c. ｢濠領ニウギニア産

第２巻第12号; 1939d, ｢英領ニューギニア探検報告(1)第３巻第６〜９号. [Research Institute of the South Seas

Economy 1939d, ’Labour shortage problem in New Guinea: should we import Asianlabour?’, Research Materials, Vol.2, No.8, Tokyo; 1939b, ’Outlook of industries in
New Guinea’, Research Materials, Vol.2, No.12; 1939a, ’Report of the exploration of
British New Guinea (1)-(4)’, Research Materials, Vol.3, No.6-9.](71) 長柄次郎

1939. ｢ニウギニア (濠洲委任統治領) パプア合併問題の一進展｣

研究資料

第２巻第７号. 10〜11頁, 南洋経済研究所, 東京. [NAGATSUKA

J. 1939. ’Development of the issue of the annexation of New Guinea (Australian
mandate) and Papua’, Research Materials, Vol.2, No.7. p.p.10-11, Nan’yo Keizai
Kenkyu sho, Tokyo](72) Section of Colonisation, Department of Colonisation, op.cit., p.p.83-93; Research
Section of the Secretary-General of the South Seas Government, op.cit., p.p.314-318.
(73) 毎日新聞社,

サンデー毎日 , 1935年７月８日, ｢昭和の山田長政, 日本刀を捧 げ て 独 艦 を 生 捕 る : 南 洋 の 開 拓 者 小 嶺 磯 吉 ｣ . 30 頁 , 東 京 . [Mainichi
shinbun-sha, Sunday Everyday, 8 July 1935, ’Yamada Nagamasa of the Showa period
captured a German ship alone with a Japanese sword: a pioneer of the South Seas,
Komine Isokichi’, p.30. Tokyo.] Yamada is a popular legendary figure believed tohave served the Ayutaya dynasty in Thailand as a military commander in the 17th
century. Nanshin-ron advocates from te late 1930s to the early 1940s regarded him
as symbol of Japanese pioneers in the South Seas.
(74) About Komine’s actions, see IWAMOTO H. 1995. The origin and development ofJapanese settlement in Papua and New Guinea, 1890-1914’, South Pacific Study,
15(2). p.p.97-133; and ’The impact of World War I on Japanese settlers in Papua and
New Guninea, 1914-1918’, South Pacific Study, 16(2): 143-174, Kagoshima
University South Pacific Research Center, Kagoshima.
(75) 上条深志

1941.

戦線１万海里: 前大戦時南洋の戦史 . 182〜193頁, 南島

群島文化協会, 東京. [KAMIJO F. 1941. The war front of ten thousand miles: thehistory of the South Seas during World War Ⅰ. p.p.182-193, Nanto gunto bunka ky
okai, Tokyo.]Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

73(76) 南方産業調査会編 1941. ニューギニア . 148頁, 南進社, 東京. [Societyof the South Seas Industry Research (ed.) 1941. New Guinea. p.148, Nanshin sha,Tokyo.](77) ’Territories of New Guinea and Papua’, Date unknown (possibly around 1939). AA,
A518 1 O918 2, ’Papua admission of (Asiatics) Japanese’.
(78) Interview by the author with Tanaka, Mary (daughter of Tanaka Taichiro), 22
December 1994, Samarai, Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea (hereafter PNG).
(79) Nationwide News, Pacific Islands Monthly, November 1939. p.59, Sydney.
(80) Telegram quoted in ’Memorandum for the Secretary, Department of External Affairs’,
8 July 1940, AA, A981 1 PAPUA 3, ’Papua: sale of steamer "Papuan Chief" toJapanese firm’.
(81) Prime Minister to the Lieutenant-Governor, 9 July 1940, ibid.
(82) Statement of claim in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory of Australia, 18
June 1938, AA, A1 1 1938 20320, ’Japanese lugger case transcript of proceedings inaction No.14 of 1938 "New Guinea Maru" ’.
(83) ’Japanese lugger actions in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory of Australia’,
8 November 1938, ibid.
(84) The Papuan Villager, October 1941, No.10, Vol.13.
(85) Papua Annual Report 1920. p.13, Melbourne.
(86) Papua Annual Report, 1949, p.34.
(87) Census of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1933 Vol.1. p.p.573-574, Canberra.
(88) Interview by the author with Koto, Jessie (grand daughter of Koto, Jimmy), 4
January 1994, Misima Island, Milne Bay, PNG.
(89) Telegram received from Judge Murray, Sydney, 4 January 1923, AA, A457 1 C115
9, Territory of Papua. Government Secretary’s Department. Admission to Territory.
Koto, Florence’.
(90) Interview by the author with Tanaka, Mary op.cit.
(91) Interview by the author with Murakami, Kalo (son of Murakami Heijiro), 4 January
1994, Misima Island, Milne Bay, PNG.
(92) Interview by the author with Tetu, Joseph (grand son of Tamiya Mabe) 24 December
1993, Kanadamada village, Basilaki Island, Milne Bay, PNG.
(93) Interview by the author with Namari, Kesaya (grand daughter of Tamiya Mabe), 30
December 1993, Biwa Village, Milne Bay, PNG.
(94) ’Activities of Japanese and Germans in Rabaul’, date unknown (definitely after 1919;
Hunt was appointed the Commissioner of the Royal Commission on Late German
New Guinea in 1919), AA, CP661 15 1 BOX 1, ’Papers of the Royal Commission
on Late German New Guinea−Mr Atlee Hunt (Commissioner)’.
(95) The Japan Advertiser, 23 May 1920, ’Discrimination against Japan’; The Japan
Weekly Chronicle, 27 May 1920, ’Japan in the South Seas: Australian government
charged with discrimination’.
(96) Prime Minister, S.S. ’Madras Maru’ Incident at Rabaul, 7 December 1920, AA,
A3932 1 SC397, ’German New Guinea−Introduction of Japanese shipping’.

74South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996(97) Prime Minister to Tamaki, 22 July 1920, ibid.
(98) Memorandum for the Secretary, Prime Minister’s Department, 16 April, 1920, ibid.
(99) Prime Minister’s Department, 1923, Territory of New Guinea: treatment of foreigners
and foreign interests, p.17, in MS882, ’Piesse Paper’, Manuscript Room, National
Library of Australia, Canberra.
(100)’Activities of Japanese and Germans in Rabaul’, op.cit.
(101)The Secretary, Prime Minister’s Department, 24 January 1920, AA, MP1049 1920
047, ’Japanese trade in the western Pacific, attempts to open up trade with Rabaul,
Tulagi and other ports in the British Solomons’.
(102)Royal Commission on (late) German New Guinea’, 6 December 1919, AA, B197 02022 1 3, ’Japanese property in late German New Guinea - proposal to purchase’. It
is doubtful whether MacKenzie really attempted to free New Guinea from Japanese
influence, as his relations with Komine were cordial and good during the war. His
proposal to purchase Japanese properties, which were indeed all Komine’s properties,
seemed to be aimed at assisting Komine who was short of funds to run his business.
(103)Ibid.
(104)Correspondence to Director of Naval Intelligence are in AA, MP1049 5 1877 13 66,’Dept of Navy. Classified general correspondence files, 1923-1950’.
(105)Commander(Ret.) R.A.N.R. to Director of Naval Intelligence, 25 October 1929; S.C.
Thompson to Mr. Solomons, 29 October 1933; Admiralty Reporting Officer to
Director of Navel Intelligence, 8 November 1932, AA, MP 1049 5 0 1877 13 152,
’Strange craft in Gulf Carpentaria, Solomons, & New Guinea matters relating toJapanese espionage in Australia with discussion on possibilities of Japanese aggression’.
(106)Commander(Ret.) R.A.N.R. to Director of Naval Intelligence, 28 April 1936, ibid.
(107)A Naval Expert 1928. ’Mandated Territories − Some Defence Consideration’,Egglestone, Frederic(ed.), The Australian Mandate for New Guinea. p.95, Macmillan& Co.Ltd., Melbourne.
(108)’Southward advancement policy’ received by the Prime Minister’s Department, 6
December 1938, AA, A1606 1 SCBS12 1, ’Japanese activities in the South Seas’.
(109)Administrator to the Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Department, 21 October 1937,
AA, A518 1 W834 1, ’New Guinea. Japanese mining activities’; Acting administrator to the Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Department, 20 January 1939, AA, A816
1 19 304 188, ’Japanese interests on Papua New Guinea’.
(110)Acting administrator to the Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Department, 20 January
1939, ibid.
(111)The Rabaul Times, 18 January 1929, Rabaul, ’Meanderings of an Australian: Off theBeaten Track of the East, by Gordon Green, No.1, Impressions of the Japanesemandate’.

Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

75(112)The Rabaul Times, 22 April 1932, ’The Japs and their mandate’.
(113)The Rabaul Times, 15 September 1933, ’Japan and her mandated islands: A traveller’s
first hand impressions’.
(114)The Rabaul Times, 22 September 1933, ’Martial murmurings’.
(115)The Rabaul Times, 27 October 1933, ’The trend of events’.
(116)The Rabaul Times, 22 December 1933, ’A German Journalist: arrives from the Easton a world tour’.
(116)The Rabaul Times, 22 December 1933, ’A German Journalist: arrives from the Easton a world tour’.
(117)The Rabaul Times, 19 January 1934, ’Our northern neighbours’, and 17 May 1935,’Poachers and policies’.
(118)Memorandum for the Secretary, Department of Defence, Melbourne, 20 September
1920, AA, AWM33 57 5, ’Reports and memoranda concerning administration ofGerman New Guinea from Big-Gen T Griffiths, Administrator, Rabaul to Departmentof Defence (September-October 1920).
(119)The Rabaul Times, 14 December 1934, ’Eastern Espionage: gigantic system reported’.
(120)All intelligence files (including secret files) related to Japanese activities in New
Guinea, Micronesia and waters north of Australia in this period seem to be open to
the public, but the author could not find a record related to Nishimura’s death.
(121)The Rabaul Times, 8 July 1927, ’Local and General’.
(122)The Rabaul Times, 26 April 1929, ’Police News’.
(123)The Rabaul Times, 5 October 1934, ’Death of a pioneer: Captain I. Komine’.
(124)The Rabaul Times, 20 October 1939, ’Local and General’, and 15 December 1939,
Local and General’.
(125)Territories of New Guinea and Papua’, Date unknown (possibly around 1939), AA,
A518 1 O918 2, ’Papua admission of (Asiatics) Japanese’.
(126)外交史料館所蔵文書. E.4.0.0.11. ｢外南洋及南太平洋ニ於イテノ邦人ノ営ム農
企業個人並商工業者査報一件｣ [Japanese Diplomatic Record (hereafter JDR),
E.4.0.0.11, ’Report on Japanese agricultural enterprises and individuals and merchants
operating in the outer South Seas and South Pacific.’](127)The data from the same source of Table 11.
(128)Ibid.
(129)The Rabaul Times, 16 November 1934, advertisement (Tsurushima), and 31
December 1937, advertisement (Nay’yo Boeki).
(130)内閣統計局 1938. 大日本帝国統計年鑑 . 214頁, 東京. [Statistical Bureauof the Cabinet (ed.) 1938. Statistical yearbook of the Great Japan Empire. p.214,
Vol.57, Tokyo.](131)Various oral evidence collected by the author (from November 1993 to March 1994
in PNG) confirm this.
(132)FUJIKI, op.cit., p.6.
(133)Interview by the author with Hatamoto Otosaku (ex-Rabaul shipwright from 1937-

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South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

1940), 3 July 1993, Nagasaki, Japan. Hatamoto was interned in Australia during the
Pacific War. He proudly told the author that the Japanese at Rabaul were sangyo
kaihatsu-in (industrial development staff) and therefore Australian treatment in theinternment camp was good. That indicates they thought that they were contributing
to the development of New Guinea even though it was for Australia.
(134)The Rabaul Times, 17 June 1927, advertisement (Asanuma); 1 May 1936, advertisement (Ito); 16 November 1934, advertisement (Tsurushima); and 31 December
1937, advertisement (Nan’yo Boeki).
(135)Census of the commonwealth of Australia, 1933. p.581, Vol.1, Canberra.
(136)AA, MP1103 1 MJ18500-MJ18533, ’Registers of containing ’Service and Casualty’Forms (form A.112) of Internees and Prisoners of War held in camps in Australia,
1939-1947’.
(137)Ibid.
(138)Various oral evidence collected by the author, January 1994, Rabaul, PNG.
(139)Rabaul Gazette, 1919, Vol.6, No.2. p.28, Rabaul.
(140)Komine to Prime Minister, 12 July 1920, AA, A3932 1 SC397, ’German New Gui
nea−Introduction of Japanese shipping’.
(141)Piesse’s report, 26 May 1921, AA, A457 1 673 8, ’Territory of New Guinea.
Administration: Land Department Applications to deal in Lands.I.Komine, mortgage
to Morgan & Co.’(142)Daily Telegraph, 9 July 1920, Sydney, ’Pacific Pioneer. man who made a start’.
(143)OVERELL L. 1923. A Woman’s impression of German New Guinea. p. John Lane The
Bodley Head Ltd., London; there was no Japanese consulate at Rabaul.
(144)Various oral evidence collected by the author, March 1994, Manus, PNG. Kiap is alocal term for a ’captain’ which means an official of the colonial administration.
(145)外務省通商局 1929. 在外本邦実業者調 . 339頁, 東京. 外交史料館所蔵文書, 通193, ｢在外本邦実業者調, 昭和３年｣ [Bureau of Commerce, Ministry ofForeign Affairs 1929. Report about overseas Japanese businessmen. p.339, Tokyo. In
JDR, Tsu 193, ’Report on overseas Japanese businessmen 1928’](146)RADI, H. 1971. ’New Guinea under Mandate 1921-41’. In: Australia and Papua New
Guinea (Ed.Hudson,W.J.), p.120, Sydney University Press, Sydney.
(147)井上から幣原への書簡, 1930年７月10日, 外交史料館所蔵文書, E.2.2.1.3-1.
｢本邦会社関係, 南洋拓殖株式会社｣ [Inoue to Shidehara, 10 July 1930, JDR,
E.2.2.1.3-1, ’Miscellaneous matters about Japanese companies, the South Seas
Industry Company’.](148)花岡から幣原への書簡, 1930年７月22日, 前掲史料. [Hanaoka to Shidehara,
22 July 1930, ibid.](149)Administrator Wisdom, 14 July 1930; Catholic Missionary Society, 22 July 1930;
Methodist Church, 23 July 1930; Anglican Bishop, 25 July 1930, ibid.
(150)井上から幣原への書簡, 1930年８月５日, 前掲史料. [Inoue to Shidehara, 5

Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

77

August 1930, ibid.](151)小嶺から井上への書簡, 1930年８月12日, 前掲史料. [Komine to Inoue, 12
August 1930, ibid.](152)井上から幣原への電文, 1930年９月16日, 前掲史料. [Telegram, Inoue to
Shidehara, 16 September 1930, ibid.](153)Telegram from the Bank of New South Wales to the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo, 6September 1930, ibid.
(154)井上から幣原への書簡, 1930年10月30日, 前掲史料. [Inoue to Shidehara, 30
October 1930, ibid.](155)Managing Director of Burns Philp to Inoue, 30 October 1930, ibid.; The Rabaul
Times, 18 July 1930, notice.
(156)井上から幣原への書簡, 1930年８月５日, 前掲の外交史料館所蔵文書
E.2.2.1.3-1. [Inoue to Shidehara, 5 August 1930, op.cit,, JDR, E.2.2.1.3-1.](157)Interview by the author with Sato Yachiyo (Komine’s nephew’s daughter), 1 July
1993, Nagasaki, Japan.
(158)Various oral evidence collected by the author, January to March 1994, Rabaul,
Kavieng, Manus, PNG; Pacific Island Monthly. p.16, 22 November 1934, Sydney.
(159)南方産業調査会 1941. ニューギニア . 149頁, 南進社, 東京. [Society of
the South Seas Industry Research, 1941. New Guinea. p.149, Nanshin-sha,Tokyo.](160)Interview by the author with Nagahama Tome (wife of Nagahama Yoshiyuki, Rabaul
shipwright and nephew of Taichi Nagahama), 30 June 1993, Amakusa, Japan.
(161)西条セツ子 (長濱太一の娘) から著者への書簡, 1993年７月13日. [A letter tothe author from Saijo Setsuko (daughter of Nagahama Taichi), 13 July 1993](162)’Agreement’, date unknown, AA, A1379 EP J 851 SECTION E, ’Taichi Nagahama
Manus lease. Momote−acquisition of lease for defence purposes’.
(163)外務省通商局 1939. 在外日本人会並実業団体調 . 180頁. 外交史料館所蔵
文書, 通210- ｢在外日本人会実業団体調, 昭和14年｣. [Bureau of Commerce,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs 1939. Report on Japanese societies and businessmen
overseas. p.180. In: JDR, Tsu-210, ’List of Overseas Japanese societies and Industry
Organisation’] In the 1930s, the Japanese government encouraged the Japanese in theSouth Pacific to establish local clubs, reflecting the rise of Japanese interest in theSouth Seas. The Japanese societies were established in Rabaul, Noumea, Suva andNew Hebrides in 1932 and in Tonga in 1935.
(164)拓 務 省 拓 務 局 , 前 掲 書 , 91 頁 . [Section of Colonisation, Department ofColonisation, op.cit., p.91.](165)The three shipwrights were Hatamoto Otosaku (from Nagasaki), Miyazaki Noriichi(Kumamoto) and Onoue Hideyoshi (Kagoshima).
(166)畑本音作から著者への書簡, 1993年５月26日. [A letter to the author from
Hatamoto Otosaku, 26 May 1993.](167)The Rabaul Times, 8 September 1939, ’Local and General’.

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(168)’Interviews with Japanese internees at no.4 camp, Tatura’, 23 July 1946, AA., A367
C72538, ’IZUMI Eikichi’.
(169)The Rabaul Times, 30 May 1930, advertisement (Nozaki).
(170)New Guinea Gazette, 1930, No.272, p.2117; 1933, No.366, p.2748.
(171)The Rabaul Times, 8 February 1935, ’Local and General’.
(172)Interview by the author with Oehlerich, Cecile (grand daughter of Izumi Eikichi), 23
March 1994, Brisbane, Australia.
(173)外 交 史 料 館 所 蔵 文 書 , 3.8.5.8 , ｢ 海 外 旅 券 下 附 表 1916 年 10 月 〜12 月 ｣ .
[October to December 1916, JDR 3.8.5.8, ’The list of overseas passport issues’.](174)拓 務 省 拓 務 局 , 前 掲 書 , 93 頁 . [Section of Colonisation, Department ofColonisation, op.cit., p.93.](175)外 交 史 料 館 所 蔵 文 書 , 3.8.5.8 , ｢ 海 外 旅 券 下 附 表 1917 年 10 月 〜12 月 ｣ .
[October to December 1917, JDR 3.8.5.8, ’The list of overseas passport issues’.](176)Interview by the author with Asanuma, Michael (son of Asanuma Ichimatsu), 21
March 1994, Brisbane, Australia.
(177)外 交 史 料 館 所 蔵 文 書 , 3.8.5.8 , ｢ 海 外 旅 券 下 附 表 1912 年 10 月 〜12 月 ｣ .
[October to December 1912, JDR 3.8.5.8, ’The list of overseas passport issues’.](178)Interview by the author with Kai Chew (old Chinese resident), 25 January 1994,
Rabaul, PNG; telephone interview by the author with Croydon, Barbara (old Chinese
resident), 24 January 1994, Rabaul, PNG; 外務省通商局 1936 在外本邦実業者
調, 上巻 . 540頁. 外交史料館所蔵文書, 通195 ｢在外本邦実業者調 (上巻) 昭
和10−11年｣. [Bureau of Commerce, Ministry of Foreign Affairs 1936. Report on
Japanese overseas businessmen, vol.1. p.540, JDR, Tsu-195, ’Report on overseas
Japanese businessmen, vol.1, 1935-36’.](179)佐藤貞子 (鶴島の孫) から著者への書簡, 1993年６月４日. [A letter to theauthor from Sato Sadako (grand daughter of Tsurushima), 4 June 1993.](180)外 交 史 料 館 所 蔵 文 書 , 3.8.5.8 , ｢ 海 外 旅 券 下 附 表 1917 年 10 月 〜12 月 ｣ .
[October to December 1917, JDR 3.8.5.8, The list of overseas passport issues’.](181)THRELFALL, N. 1988. From Mangroves to Frangipani: the story of Rabaul and East
New Britain, unpublished. p.360, Division of Pacific and Asian History, Australian
National University, Canberra; Interview by the author with Tabuchi, Philip (son of
Tabuchi Yoshimatsu), 4 February 1994, Kavieng, PNG.
(182)南洋庁長官官房調査課, 前掲書, 318頁. [Research Section of the SecretaryGeneral of the South Seas Government, op.cit., p.318.](183)New Guinea Gazette, 1931, No.286, p.2193.
(184)Interview by the author with Tabuchi, op.cit.
(185)南洋庁長官官房調査課, 前掲書, 319頁. [Research Section of the SecretaryGeneral of the South Seas Government, op.cit., p.319.](186)Memorandum for the Secretary, Department of Defence, Melbourne, 20 September
1920, AA, AWM33 57 5, op.cit.
(187)The Rabaul Times, 1 May 1936, advertisement (Ito).
(188)The Rabaul Times, 17 June 1927, advertisement (Asanuma).

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79(189)Memorandum for the Secretary, Department of Defence, Melbourne, 20 September
1920, op.cit.; Interviews with Japanese internees at no.4 camp, Tatura’, 23 July 1946,
AA., A367 C72533, ’ASANUMA Ichimatsu’.
(190)He came from Nara. 外交史料館所蔵文書, ｢外国旅券下付表−件府県報告｣,
1932年１月〜３月. [January to March 1932, JDR, J.2.2.0.J13-7, ’Prefectural reporton the issuance passports’.](191)The Rabaul Times, 19 April 1929, notice.
(192)Memorandum for the Secretary, Department of Defence, Melbourne, 20 September
1920, AA, AWM33 57 5, op.cit.
(193)Telephone interview by the author with Imaizumi Kotaro (son of Imaizumi Masao),
23 June 1993, Japan.
(194)New Guinea Gazette, 1925, No.104, p.695.
(195)Manus people were renowned for their seamanship and navigation.
(196)Interviews with Japanese internees at no.4 camp, Tatura’, 22 July 1946, AA., A367
C72546, ’KIKUCHI Ichisuke’.
(197)Interview by the author with Kikuchi, Pius (son of Kikuchi Ichisuke), 18 March
1994, Brisbane, Australia.
(198)外 交 史 料 館 所 蔵 文 書 , 3.8.5.8 , ｢ 海 外 旅 券 下 附 表 1899 年 １ 月 〜 ３ 月 ｣ .
[January to March 1899, JDR 3.8.5.8, ’The list of overseas passport issues’.](199)Interview with Nakamura, Andrew (son of Nakamura Soshichi), 23 January 1994,
Rabaul, PNG.
(200)Interviews with Japanese internees at no.4 camp, Tatura’, 23 July 1946, AA., A367
C72540, ’KIMURA Hideichiro’.
(201)New Guinea Gazette, 1938, No.525, p.3979.
(202)外 交 史 料 館 所 蔵 文 書 , 3.8.5.8 , ｢ 海 外 旅 券 下 附 表 1914 年 １ 月 〜 ３ 月 ｣ .
[January to March 1914, JDR 3.8.5.8, ’The list of overseas passport issues’.](203)外交史料館所蔵文書, ｢外国旅券下付表−件府県報告｣, 1939年１月〜３月.
[January to March 1939, JDR, J.2.2.0.J13-7, ’Prefectural report on the issuancepassports’.](204)The Rabaul Times, 9 November 1928, ’Waterside shooting: Japanese severely
wounded’; 7 December 1928, ’Piracy: interesting court case, Reed’s admissions’.
(205)Generally inter-racial marriages take place with acknowledgment of the community.
They rarely take place based on individual decision.
(206)Interview by the author with Yamashita Midori (daughter of the niece of Yamashita
Shichinosuke), 21 June 1993, Tokyo, Japan.
(207)Interview by the author with Yamashita, Johnny (grandson of Yamashita
Shichinosuke), 28 January 1994, Kimbe, West New Britain, PNG; interview with
Keksan, Kamui; Pokupeal, Sotil; Ngapen, Amos; Pombuai, Hendry; Kahu, Kaspar;
Simon Sandrel (elders), 14 February 1994, Pityilu Island, Manus, PNG.
(208)山下七之助の死亡証明書, 1945年７月25日付, 東京都新島本村役場. [Deathcertificate for Yamashita Shichinosuke, dated 25 July 1945, Niijima Moto Village
office, Tokyo.]80South Pacific Study Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996

(209)外 交 史 料 館 所 蔵 文 書 , 3.8.5.8 , ｢ 海 外 旅 券 下 附 表 1912 年 10 月 〜12 月 ｣ .
[October to December 1912, JDR 3.8.5.8, ’The list of overseas passport issues’.](210)Interview by the author with Ikesaki, Francis (son from the second wife of Ikesaki
Tokuyoshi), 25 February 1994, Pere, Manus, PNG.
(211)Interview by the author with Ikesaki, Peter (son from the third wife of Ikesaki
Tokuyoshi), 26 January 1994, Rabaul, PNG.
(212)外 交 史 料 館 所 蔵 文 書 , 3.8.5.8 , ｢ 海 外 旅 券 下 附 表 1912 年 10 月 〜12 月 ｣ .
[October to December 1912, JDR 3.8.5.8, ’The list of overseas passport issues’];Interview by the author with Kochir, George (elder), 7 February 1994, Andra Island,
Manus, PNG.
(213)拓 務 省 拓 務 局 , 前 掲 書 , 91 頁 . [Section of Colonisation, Department ofColonisation, op.cit., p.91.](214)’Interviews with Japanese internees at no.4 camp, Tatura’, 23 July 1946, AA., A367
C72539, ’ENDO Shigetaro’.
(215)Interview by the author with Asanuma, Michael (son of Asanuma Ichimatsu), 21
March 1994, Brisbane, Australia.
(216)Memorandum for the Secretary, Department of Defence, Melbourne, 20 September
1920, AA, AWM33 57 5, op.cit.
(217)外交史料館所蔵文書, 3.8.5.8, ｢海外旅券下附表 1924年７月〜９月｣. [Julyto September 1924, JDR 3.8.5.8, ’The list of overseas passport issues’.](218)Official trade restriction was lifted in 1923, but the migration restriction, which
stopped the coming of new Japanese, virtually blocked the Japanese business expansion.
(219)Various articles in the Rabaul Times verify this: 14 March 1930, ’Editorial’; 5 August
1932, ’The Chinese in Rabaul’; 2 June 1933, ’Correspondence: Chinese and trading’;
19 March 1937, ’Asiatic Immigration’; 23 April 1937, ’Correspondence: Asiatic
immigration’.
(220)Administrator to the Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Department, 21 October 1937,
AA, A518 1 W834 1, ’New Guinea Japanese mining activities’.
(221)Interview with Oehlerich, op.cit.
(222)Interview by the author with Ehret, Gordon (ex-Rabaul trader), 22 March 1994,
Brisbane, Australia.
(223)Interview by the author with Hatamoto Otosaku (ex-Rabaul shipwright from 19371940), 3 July 1993, Nagasaki, Japan.
(224)The New Year day celebration and the Bon Festival (day for remembering ancestors’souls) were most common annual events in Japan. They are equivalent to Christmas
and Easter.
(225)Interview by the author with Asanuma, Michael (son of Asanuma Ichimatsu), 21
March 1994, Brisbane, Australia.
(226)The Rabaul Times, 16 April 1937, ’Local and General’; 14 May 1937, ’Coronation
celebrations’.
(227)Various oral evidence collected by the author, November 1993 to March 1994, PNG

Iwamoto: Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas

81

and Australia.
(228)Admission 1901-63 (boys and girls), Vunapope Catholic Mission School; the bookwas shown to the author by courtesy of Sister Bernadette. According to the registration, 14 boys and 4 girls attended the school from 1901 to 1963.
(229)Interview with Hatamoto, op.cit.
(230)Interview by the author with Kolomat, Korup and Pokomo, Poloat (elders who
worked on Japanese schooners in young days), 6 February 1994, Lou Island, Manus,
PNG.
(231)Various oral evidence collected by the author, January to March 1994, Rabaul,
Kavieng, Manus, PNG.
(232)See IWAMOTO H. 1995. ’The origin and development of Japanese settlement in Papua
and New Guinea, 1890-1914’, South Pacific Study, 15(2). p.122, Kagoshima
University South Pacific Research Center, Kagoshima.
(233)Interview by the author with Sohou, Alphonse and Mohak, Pious (elders), 11
February 1994, Ponam island, Manus, PNG.
(234)Telephone interview by the author with Imaizumi Kotaro (son of Imaizumi Masao),
23 June 1993, Japan. The boy had a Japanese name, Taro or Ichiro.
(235)The author has decided not to reveal detailed information about the boy in order toprotect his privacy. The boy grew up in Japan, served in the Pacific War, married aJapanese woman and is still alive in Amakusa.
(236)New Guinea Gazette, 1929, No.221, p.1815.
(237)A letter to the author from Chan, Bernard, 8 August 1994.
(238)Telephone interview with Croydon, op.cit.
(239)Interview with Kai Chew, op.cit.; interview with Nakamura, Andrew (son ofNakamura Soshichi), 23 January 1994, Rabaul, PNG.
(240)For the postwar economic relations, see IWAMOTO H. 1990. Japan-Papua New
Guinea economic relations in the postwar period: analysis from dependency perspective, honours thesis, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide.
(Accepted July 31, 1996)

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