Landscapes in the Dark Valley: Toward an Environmental History of Wartime Japan
Author(s)
Tsutsui, William M.
Abstract
Provides an overview of the impact of economic mobilization, direct war damage, and the scarcity of foodstuffs and manufactured goods had on the Japanese environment in the World War II era. Discusses the effects of residual radiation on the flora and fauna of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the two years immediately following the dropping of the atomic bombs in 1945, how the need for foreign currency drove the exploitation of Japan’s coastal fisheries in the 1930’s, the resurgence of fish stocks as fishing vessels and their crews were drafted into naval service, the degree to which the forest and its resources were harvested to provide food, fuel, and building materials in the absence of imports, and how shortages of fossil fuels encouraged the development of alternative energy sources during the war years.
