New Tales of Ise: Militarization, Modernization, and Marine Experimentation around the Bay, 1890-1945
Introduction
Ise Bay, located near the center of Japan and endowed with rich biodiversity within its 822 square miles, has served for millennia as an aquatic pantry for habitants along its shoreline. Beginning in the late 19th century, its shores also played host to the rapid industrial development of the modern Japanese state and, in particular, to its war-making capabilities. This talk examines the tensions that arose between 1890 and 1945 from the demands made on the bay (and its sub-bay, Mikawa Bay) by the twin imperatives of feeding local populations and equipping a burgeoning defense state.
About the Speaker
Emer O’Dwyer specializes in 20th-century Japanese history with research interests in imperialism, industrialization, de-imperialization, and postwar economic high-growth. Her first book, entitled, Significant Soil: Settler Colonialism and Japan’s Urban Empire in Manchuria was published by Harvard University’s Asia Center Press in 2015. She is currently at work on a modern history of Ise Bay that aims to connect prewar/wartime and post-imperial histories through focus on the tensions of modernization in a specific region. Structured around the entangled geographies of the military/naval industrial complex, the fishing industry, and the petrochemical industry in Japan’s central region, it covers the period from 1870 through 1970.