Date: Tue, 2 Apr 1996 08:50:19 -0600
Subject: Environmental history of Japan?
From: "Derek R. Larson" <drlarson@indiana.edu>

Can anyone suggest sources for an environmental history of Japan? I've been collecting sources on the environment of the Pacific Rim and find that Japan is badly underrepresented. All I've found of real use is Totman's _The Green Archipelago: Forestry in Preindustrial Japan_ and a biography of Tanaka Shotzo. I'm waiting for the library to process a copy of _Nature Conservation Administration In Japan_, but that appears to be a brief institutional history produced by the Nature Conservation Bureau of the Japanese Environment Agency.

Ideas anyone?

Derek R. Larson
Indiana University
Dept. of History

                "Nothing interesting occurred today..."
        -Meriwether Lewis at Ft. Clatsop, Oregon, Jan.4th, 1806

Dr. Larson,

Perhaps you might try getting ahold of Luke Robert's dissertation, The Merchant Origins of National Prosperity Thought in Eighteenth Century Tosa--he wrote it at Princeton in 1991 and it has a very Richard White feel to it when he discusses the lumber trades.

Bill McGowan
UCSB

Date: Wed, 3 Apr 1996 08:44:20 -0600
Subject: Environmental history of Japan
From: Patrick Caffrey <caffreyp@gusun.acc.georgetown.edu>

Further to Derek A. Larson's query of April 2, 1996, the following are English-language works on the environmental history of Japan.

Barrett, Brendan F.D., and Riki Therival. _Environmental Policy and Impact Assessment in Japan_. New York: Routledge, 1991. Reviewed in the _Journal of Asian Studies_ (JAS) 51.1: 164-164.

Callicot, J. Baird, and Roger Ames, eds. _Nature in Asian Traditions of Thought: Essays in Environmental Philosophy_. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989.

Howard, Michael C., ed. _Asia's Environmental Crisis_. Boulder: Westview Press, 1993. Reviewed in: JAS 53.4: 1212-1213.

Huddle, Norie, Michael Reich, and Nahum Stiskin. _Island of Dreams: Environmental Crisis in Japan_. New York: Autumn Press, 1975.

Mitsuda, Hisayoshi, and Charles Geisler. "Imperiled Parks and Imperiled People: Lessons from Japan's Shiretoko National Park." _Environmental History Review_ 16.2 (Summer 1992): 23-39.

Oyadomari, Motoko. "The Rise and Fall of the Nature Conservation Movement in Japan in Relation to Some Cultural Values." _Environmental Management_ 13.1 (January-February 1989): 23-33.

Totman, Conrad. _The Lumber Industry in Early Modern Japan_. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995. (Derek Larson already listed Totman's fascinating _The Green Archipelago: Forestry in Preindustrial Japan_, published by U Hawaii in 1989.)

Tsuru, Shigeto. "Environmental Pollution Control in Japan." In Shigeto Tsuru, ed., _Environmental Disruption: A Challenge to Social Scientists__, pp. 325-348. Tokyo: International Social Science Council, 1970. (Says that traditional agricultural practices of recycling farm products were being abandoned as labor costs rose.)

Tull, Malcolm, and A. R. Krishnan. "Resource Use and Environmental Management in Japan, 1890-1990." _Australian Economic History Review_ (September 1994).

Papers relevant to Japan's environmental history presented at the "Nagoya Symposium on Paoleoclimate and Environmental Variability in the Austral-Asian Transect During the Past 2,000 Years" are to be published in 1996. A few of the many papers include:

T. Mikami, "Climate of the Little Ice Age in Japan Reconstructed from Historical Documents."

T. Yasunari, "Changing Climate over East Asia During the Past 100 Years."

For further information, contact Dr. T. Sweda, General Secretary, IGBP Nagoya Symposium, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya, Japan 464-01

I have not used it myself yet, but you may want to consult the _Japan Publications Guide Service_. It consists of more than 150 CD-ROMs, each of which covers a particular field, such as history, the environment, art, and plastic polymers. All the publications are in English.

I hope this helps.

Patrick Caffrey

Georgetown University

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