Marginal Development: Japan, Taiwan, and the Tropicalization of the Yaeyama Islands, 1880s to 1970s

Abstract

Located 491 kilometers south of Okinawa’s main island and 111 kilometers east of Taiwan, the Yaeyama Islands consist of 23 islands and represent Japan’s only tropical region. During the Japanese colonial period (1879-1945) and the American Occupation (1945-1972), scientists, capitalists, and bureaucrats idealized the archipelago as a “treasure trove” of unique natural resources. Japanese and American metropolitan demands for tropical products not only drove the exploration and exploitation of the islands’ resources but also transformed the environmental landscape to create a specific form of tropicality modeled after Taiwan. The process of tropicalization included the transplantation of hybridized varieties of pineapple and sugarcane, as well as the resettlement of other colonial populations, particularly Taiwanese and Okinawans, to work on large-scale land reclamation projects. These development efforts established new connections between the Yaeyama Islands and other islands in the region, while also reinforcing the economic structures that positioned the archipelago as internal colonies within the Japanese empire and American-occupied Okinawa. Through examination of the tropicalization of the Yaeyama Islands, this dissertation highlights the roles of scientific expertise, inter-imperial technological exchange, and labor migration networks in shaping the agricultural development of the islands within a broader global context.