Islands and the Japanese Border: The Interpretation of Historical Border Formation

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The expansion and convergence of Japan's “borders” at first glance looks natural. However, if we shift it to the “periphery,” one can see some artificialness. Previous research discussed Japan's border and boundary, presenting novel views on Japan's past and present.As an island nation, Japan has been beset with problems and conflicts. It is difficult to attribute these contradictions by using simple oppositional relations such as the ‘central’ and the ‘periphery.’ The formation of modern Japan as an island nation is a product of peripherally located islands integrated towards the central mainland. On the other hand, the fact that war, coercion, and competition among islands ended diversification cannot be overlooked.The boundary formation of Japan's islands possibly went through four phases: “blur,” a bound area without a defined range but with a spread; “zone,” a boundary with a recognized width; “dashed line,” a confirmed but unofficial line demarcating sphere of influence); and “solid line,” a legally defined border.This change may have been affected by the expansion of the power sphere and the island groups being separated by the straits. However, ancient Japan, or Wa, could not have had territorial ambition towards the Asian continent. On the contrary, Wa acquired its authority from the Chinese and was on its way to building a unified legal state. The straits were a buffer zone between ancient Japan and China and Korea.Soon, Japan's sphere of power expanded to distant islands by developing an occupational foundation. In the modern era, to the west and to the south, Japan expanded to the Korean peninsula and the inlands of the Asian continent, and eventually expanded to the Inner and the Outer South Seas. In those areas, the use of armed forces to wage war assumed a major role in the formation of the “border.” To the north, despite Japan's peaceful acquisition of Chishima, the history of border transformation, after the complete occupation of Sakhalin following the Russo-Japanese War, has been irrevocably tied to war.This article reconsiders the meaning of the Japan's ‘border’ and the processes that lead from its expansion to its reduction following World War II. This will be done by highlighting the issues and problems relating to border islands. The author pays particular attention to islands where turbulent changes lead to confusion in the society, to decline, and to being ‘peripheralized.’ Examining how these border islands managed hardships will prove indispensable for viewing and establishing policies on Japan's future border islands.There have been arguments against studying the meaning of “boundaries” in the context of Japanese history, but this article challenges the present conditions.

Islands and the Japanese Border: The Interpretation of Historical Border Formation

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