Japanese Antarctic Expedition

The Japanese Antarctic Expedition of 1910–12, in the ship ''Kainan Maru'', was the first such expedition by a non-European nation. It was concurrent with two major Antarctic endeavours led respectively by Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott, and has been relatively overlooked in polar history. After failing to land in its first season, the Japanese expedition's original aim of reaching the South Pole was replaced by less ambitious objectives, and after a more successful second season it returned safely to Japan, without injury or loss of life.

The brainchild of an army reserve lieutenant, Nobu Shirase, the expedition was privately funded. It left Japan in November 1910, and after its first season's failure was forced to spend the winter of 1911 in Australia. In its second Antarctic season, 1911–12, it made no major scientific or geographical discoveries, but could claim some significant achievements. These included the first landing on the coast of King Edward VII Land, the fastest recorded sledging journey, and the most easterly point along the Antarctic coast, to that date, reached by a ship. It also became only the fourth team to travel beyond the 80°S mark.

On their return, Shirase and his team were greeted as heroes, but interest swiftly died, and Shirase was burdened with expedition debts that took years to clear. Outside Japan, the expedition was generally dismissed, or ignored altogether. Only many years after Shirase's death in obscurity, in 1946, did the Japanese begin to honour him and his achievements. The availability since 2011 of an English translation of Shirase's account has revealed the story of the expedition to a wider audience. The first Japanese expedition is further commemorated in the names of several geographical features in Antarctica.

Planning

Background

Japan's slow emergence from isolation, following the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, kept it largely aloof from the growing international interest in polar exploration that escalated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, the idea intrigued and became a private passion for an army officer, Lieutenant Nobu Shirase, who, inspired by the tales that reached him of European explorers such as Franklin, nursed a desire to emulate his heroes and explore the Arctic. In 1893, by way of preparation, Shirase joined an exploration party to the Chishima Islands, led by Meiji Gohji. This expedition turned into a disaster, from which Shirase emerged in 1895 as one of few survivors, most of the party having succumbed to privation or scurvy. The harshness of these experiences did not diminish his Arctic ambitions. He dreamt of conquering the North Pole until, in 1909, he learned that two American rivals, Frederick Cook and Robert Peary, were each claiming, separately, to have reached the Pole. Undaunted, Shirase then changed his plans; he would go south instead, and aim for the still unconquered South Pole.

Preparations

Shirase knew that other nations were developing similar plans, and that if he were to have any hope of success he would have to move quickly. Early in 1910 he presented an outline of his plans to the government, declaring that, within three years, he would raise the Japanese flag at the South Pole. He added that his expedition would also advance the cause of science: "The powers of the world ridicule the Empire of Japan, saying we Japanese are barbarians who are strong and brave in warfare, but cowardly when it comes to the realm of science. For the sake of ''bushido'' (honour) we must correct this regrettable situation".

The government's response was lukewarm; it agreed a financial contribution and the possible loan of a ship, but in the event, parliament would not release the funds. The learned societies were uninterested; in their view, Shirase was neither a scholar nor a scientist, and his plans, despite his statements to the contrary, were focused more on adventure than on science. Even the Tokyo Geographical Society refused its backing. Amid public indifference and press derision, Shirase's fortunes turned when he secured the support of Count Okuma, the former prime minister, a figure of great prestige and influence. Okuma formed and presided over the Antarctic Expedition Supporters Association, and the public began to contribute, mainly in small amounts from what Shirase described as the "student class". Shirase also obtained important backing from one of Japan's leading newspapers, the ''Asahi Shimbun''. Still the scientific community remained aloof, and the journal of the Tokyo Geographical Society, while reporting on other countries' expeditions, ignored the Japanese venture entirely.

Hundreds applied to join the expedition, though none with any polar experience and only one, Terutaro Takeda, with any pretensions to a scientific background – he was an ex-schoolteacher who had also served as a professor's assistant. In the absence of a proper scientific team, Shirase had to scale down his scientific programme; he would concentrate on the conquest of the Pole.

Among the personnel selected were two Ainu people from the far northern Japanese islands, chosen for their skills with dogs and sledges. Dogs would be the prime mode of transport in the Antarctic; Shirase's initial preference for Manchurian ponies was impractical, since the expedition's ship, acquired with the assistance of Okuna, was too small to carry horses. This ship was the ''Hoko Maru'', a former fishing industry service boat. At 30.48 m (100 ft) in length and registering 204 GRT, she was much smaller than the other Antarctic ships of the era – less than a third the size of Robert Falcon Scott's '' Terra Nova''. But she was strongly built, with a double layer hull sheathed with iron plating, and extra protection at the stem. She was rigged as a barquentine, and her sailing power was augmented by a small (18 horsepower) auxiliary engine. At the suggestion of Admiral Togo, she was renamed ''Kainan Maru'', meaning "Opener-up of the South", or "Southern Pioneer". The ship was placed under the command of an experienced seafarer, Captain Naokichi Nomura.

Expedition

To New Zealand

Shirase set 28 November 1910 as his departure date, and announced details of the timetable he planned to follow. The expedition would reprovision in Wellington, New Zealand before proceeding to Antarctica, where they would set up winter quarters. Then: "On 15 September, when the winter will have ended, the party will proceed to the Pole", before returning to their base in late February 1912. Realistically, it was far too late in the season for this schedule to be viable, but this was not yet apparent to Shirase or his supporters.

On departure day, large crowds gathered to see the expedition off. In his account to ''The Geographical Journal'', Ivar Hamre describes a gala occasion, with flags and bunting flying, while others write of brass bands, speeches and around 50,000 supporters present. The event proved anticlimactic; ''Kainan Maru'' was not ready to sail that day. When she left Tokyo 24 hours later, only a few were present to see her go – "the most dismal sort of send-off ever accorded to any polar explorer", according to Shirase. After cargo trimming in Tateyama, the ship finally left Japan on 1 December, carrying 27 men and 28 Siberian dogs, leaving behind a debt that would increase considerably during the course of the expedition, and would burden Shirase for many years. In generally poor weather, ''Kainan Maru'' struggled southwards, crossing the Equator on 29 December, and arriving in Wellington, storm-battered and unannounced, on 7 February 1911. Many of the dogs had died en route. The two contemporaneous South Pole expeditions, led respectively by Scott and Amundsen, were by this time well established in their Antarctic bases.

Initial reactions in Wellington to this unexpected late arrival were of amusement and suspicion. Many New Zealanders found it hard to accept that this was a genuine Antarctic expedition, given the lateness in the season, the inadequate-looking vessel, the unsuitable equipment and food, the apparent lack of charts. While some suspected them as being part of a Japanese plan to expand its influence southwards, the ''New Zealand Times'' mocked the crew as "gorillas sailing about in a miserable whaler", a remark that caused Shirase deep offence.

During the few days spent in the port, the crew scoured the town for sources that might provide them with information about ice conditions further south. More particularly, they sought up-to-date charts; all they possessed for navigation beyond 60°S was a small-scale photocopy of an admiralty chart marking Ernest Shackleton's 1907 route in ''Nimrod''. By the time they were ready to depart, they had earned some respect from the New Zealand public; the ''Lyttelton Times '' sympathetically offered "the last Godspeed to the plucky little band of explorers from the Far East". The Christchurch ''Press'' thought they were "running it fine, even with their determination and daring".

First Antarctic season

Leaving Wellington on 11 February, ''Kainan Maru'' soon ran into stormy seas, with waves among the biggest that Captain Namora had ever encountered. By 17 February, in calmer weather, the crew captured its first penguin, an item of great curiosity: "It walked upright, looking for all the world like a gentleman in an overcoat". On 26 February the first iceberg was sighted, after which the ship was surrounded by ice of all kinds, from loose brash to huge bergs. On 1 March the sky produced a brilliant aurora.

On 6 March the crew sighted distant land, about 65 km (40 miles) to the south-east – the peaks of the Admiralty Range in Victoria Land. As they drew nearer, expectations of a landing grew; on 8 March ''Kainan Maru'' stood off Dorset Point, but ice conditions made it impossible to get nearer to the shore. The ship sailed on, past the Possession Islands and towards Coulman Island, where ice conditions were even worse. To their further discomfort, their proximity to the South Magnetic Pole was causing violent disturbances to the compass needle.

The consequences of their late departure were now becoming evident; with the onset of winter, the sea was beginning to freeze around them. The ice "took the form of small lotus leaves, which ... gradually spread out over the sea to cover the whole surface". The small leaves turned to large disks, four metres across, through which ''Kainan Maru'' attempted to drive a passage: "The crunch and crack every time we smashed through a floe were not at all pleasant." On 12 March, when the ship's position was 74°16'S, 172°7'E, it was halted by heavy ice. They could go no further south, and were in danger of being trapped, to face a wintering in the ice that it was unlikely the ship would survive. In difficult and dangerous conditions, Nomura's skilful seamanship turned the ship northwards, and they were able to escape from the danger. ''Kainan Maru'' would now make for Sydney, Australia, to sit out the southern winter and prepare for a second season. Of 28 dogs that had left Japan, only 12 had reached New Zealand alive, and as they set out for Sydney, only one of these was left; poor conditions, combined with tapeworm infection, had proved fatal to the rest. After enduring another very rough passage, the ship reached the Australian port on 1 May.

Winter in Sydney

The initial reception in Sydney was cool, even hostile. Tension had grown following Japan's recent military victories in Russia and China, and as in New Zealand, there was considerable suspicion about the party's true purpose. One newspaper demanded their immediate expulsion, and castigated the "supineness" of the government in failing to take immediate action. However, Shirase and his party found support from a wealthy resident in the exclusive suburb of Vaucluse

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