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• 1 2019-11-18T17:18:26-05:00 Imperial Japan up in the Air 40 Sakura Christmas image_header 5487 2021-09-28T10:20:42-04:00 Manchukuo 43.88677, 125.3246 Paris 48.8667, 2.3333 Bailingmiao 41.70022, 110.43592 Ejen-e 41.95854, 101.06893 Alashan 38.85068, 105.70228 Shawangfu 39.56285, 109.74904 Huade 41.90455, 114.01043 Gobi Desert 44.0000, 105.0000 Berlin 52.5167, 13.4000 Rhodes 36.43405, 28.21763 Baghdad 33.31524, 44.36606 Kabul 34.55534, 69.20748 Anxi 40.52054, 95.7823 Xinjing 43.81707, 125.32354 Moscow 55.75582, 37.61729 Irkutsk 52.28697, 104.30501 Chita 52.0515, 113.47119 Hunchun 42.8675, 130.3581 Huludao Port 40.71742, 120.99924 Huanxiling 44.84302, 126.75179 French Indochina 16.0000, 107.0000 Siam 15.41771, 100.85989 Singapore 1.3667, 103.8000 Sumatra -0.30208, 101.3456 Inner Mongolia 43.5000, 114.7500 Shandong Province 36.3333, 118.2500 Su'pung Dam 40.46237, 124.96198 Fengman Dam 43.719444,126.688611 1932-1945 Sakura Christmas Manchuria Aviation Company

  The advent of aviation in the early twentieth century opened up an uncertain and contingent space of the Japanese empire, in between borders that did not so neatly align between land, sea, and air. This new form of transportation superseded earlier networks of ships and rail, extending the Japanese empire westward, from Manchukuo to Inner Mongolia, and beyond.

  This module examines how the aerial perspective, as made possible by aviation, helped Japanese occupiers imagine the Eurasian continent in its geographical vastness, and yet how their terrestrial limitations ultimately failed to sustain control over this space. For imperial Japan, the Manchuria Aviation Company (J. Manshūkoku kōkū kabushiki kaisha), founded in 1932, would become the predominant presence over Inner Asia during the wartime era.

  The first pathway, Reading ManAir Magazine, delves into the modern spaces created by the Manchuria Aviation Company through its in-house magazine, ManAir (J. Mankō). The Manchuria Aviation Company advertised its services by portraying its technological prowess and geographical reach. The corporation also sold the concept of flight with images of the modern woman and, as the Pacific War intensified, militarized children. ManAir intentionally conflated patriotic duty and its profit motive, using nationalism as a vehicle to drive its commercial viability.

  The second pathway, Eurasian Expansion, explores how Japanese air control outpaced its land occupation, as the Manchuria Aviation Company flew farther into the Republic of China and made alliances with Mongol princes. The territory surveyed by the Manchuria Aviation Company was sprawling, their mode of vision, exclusive: besides Japanese endorsements and Chinese critiques, indigenous reactions to these aerial incursions, for the most part, did not exist.

  Finally, the third pathway, Technologies of the Gaze, focuses on the seemingly objective renderings of the land produced by aerial photographs, developed in the ‘dark room’ of Japanese imperialism. This form of visual technology both fueled and followed geographical understandings of the Asian continent in the 1930s and 40s.
  
  Click here for a list of references for this module, which is also available from the module's Conclusion page.