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Geographical Review of Japan Series B 93(2): 50–65 (2020)

© 2020 The Association of Japanese Geographers

The Association of Japanese Geographershttp://www.ajg.or.jpJapanese Colonial Forestry and

Treeless Islands of Penghu: Afforestation Project and Controversy over Environmental HistoryKOMEIE TaisakuDepartment of Geography, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University; Kyoto 606–8501, Japan. E-mail: [email protected]

Received April 6, 2020; Accepted October 31, 2020

Abstract Scientific forestry and its environmentalist vision influenced the modern Japanese approach to forestry in the mainland as well as its colonies. Annexed into the Japanese empire with Taiwan in 1895, the Penghu Islands played a significant role in colonial forestry in two ways: The treeless landscape gave rise to an afforestation project by colonial foresters, including Tashiro Antei, and encouraged the construction of Honda Seiroku’s understanding of forest zones and the environmental history of “devastation.” Although the plantation project in the islands did not succeed due to dry climate and strong sea breeze, Honda’s vision of Penghu with a tropical forest in the past was reinforced by Ino Kanori’s historical research and was accepted among colonial foresters in Taiwan through dispute, compromise, and a fusion of understandings. It supported the colonial forestry with an environmentalist expectation of a “reforestation” project, criticizing the Chinese population for creating the treeless landscape before the Japanese colonization. This shows a complicated relationship between scientific forestry and colonialism, in which an envi-ronmentalist idea developed parallel to the establishment of forestry science through communication between the metropole and the colony.

Key words scientific forestry, colonial environmentalism, colonial Taiwan, Tashiro Antei, Honda Seiroku, Ino Kanori

Introduction

The relationship between scientific forestry and colo-nial environmentalism in the modern era has been one of the most important foci in environmental history in the past two decades (Guha 2000; Barton 2002; Rajan 2006; Mizuno 2006, 2020; Bennett 2011). Colonial envi-ronmentalism, or the ambivalent combination of colo-nial domination over indigenous people and conservation of the environment of colonies, is an important key to understanding the early development of modern environ-mentalism. How professional foresters and their global network established modern forestry science to underpin the colonial forestry project and to control the indigenous vegetation and population in the name of “conservation” is one of the most critical questions. While many studies have focused on forestry in the British empire, some refer to the Japanese empire (Nakashima 2010; Morris-Suzuki 2013; Fedman 2020), especially colonial Taiwan (Hung 2018; Chang 2018). Japan was not only an earnest student of scientific forestry established in Germany, but also a practitioner in its own territory in the mainland and in its colonies. European forestry science influenced the Japanese approach to forestry, which spread parallel with

the Japanese establishment of forestry science and the imperial expansion in East Asia.

Examining the historical geographies of Japanese colo-nial forestry, the author found that early foresters in mod-ern Japan had an environmentalist idea that regarded artificial change or “devastation” in vegetation as a criti-cal problem for the mainland as well as in its colonies (Komeie 2006, 2019, 2021; Komeie and Takemoto 2018). The foresters’ vision was advocated by Honda Seiroku (1866–1952) and his theory of forest zones of the Japanese empire (Honda 1900a, 1912), which had similar ideas to Frederic E. Clements’ succession theory (Clements 1916). Honda sought to conserve climax forests, aligning with the local climate both in the mainland and in the colo-nial territories. Honda’s idea of forest zones was not only influenced by German forestry science but was also based on his observations from the late 1890s to the 1910s on the agency of indigenous people who had changed the vegetation of colonial Taiwan and Korea. Particularly, an expedition to the Taiwanese grassy highland convinced Honda of forest zones, the environmental history of “dev-astation,” and the necessity of conservation (Komeie and Takemoto 2018; Komeie 2021). It is important to under-stand the early history of Japanese scientific forestry that

Original Article

Japanese Colonial Forestry and Treeless Islands of Penghu: Afforestation Project and Controversy over Environmental History

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the colonies were not necessarily territories to be con-trolled by newly imported forestry science, but rather the cradles of the basic ideas of Japanese forestry science. However, the conservational idea could not greatly affect the Taiwanese highland because of the self-governing indigenous people.

From the above point of view, the Penghu Islands in the Taiwan Strait (Figure 1) can provide an interesting case on the historical geography of Japanese colonial for-estry. The islands played a significant role in Honda’s account of vegetation change and the environmentalist view because of their treeless landscape. Honda hypoth-esized that the islands were an example of forest “devasta-tion” and that they should have otherwise been vegetated by the tropical climate. During the Japanese colonial period, his suggestion supported the afforestation proj-ect, which was the first task of colonial forestry in the Japanese empire, but it invoked controversy about why Penghu was treeless. The lack of trees on the islands also influenced some scholars in the post-colonial period, who agreed with Honda’s supposition that deforesta-tion was caused by the early modern Chinese population (Yoshino 1999; Urushibara and Chen 2008), although others stressed that extreme climate conditions hindered forest growth (Chen 1953; Fukui 1960). Examining colo-nial ideas and discourse on the environmental history of Penghu in the context of scientific forestry, this paper

focuses on the problematic relationship between Japanese colonialism and environmentalism.

Some previous studies mention the history of the afforestation project in Penghu, thus providing a help-ful background for this paper despite few references to the influence of Honda on scientific forestry. Guo (1980) overviews the afforestation history in Penghu until the 1970s, while his reference to the Japanese colonial period is not enough to illustrate the controversy of environ-mental history at that time. Although Yang and Ye (2007) focus on the greening project in the colonial period, their main focus is on Magong, the central port town of Penghu Island. On the other hand, archaeological stud-ies (Tsang 1992; Goto 2004) and a historical study on Chinese immigration to Penghu (Yu 1998) uncovered the pre-colonial history. However, their studies do not include analysis of environmental archaeology; thus, our understanding of the real history of the vegetation on the Penghu Islands is insufficient. Therefore, this paper focuses not on the reconstruction of vegetation history until the nineteenth century but on colonial discourse and the controversy during the Japanese period over the causes of the treeless landscape because it played an important role in supporting and naturalizing the Japanese colonial rule of the natural environment of Taiwan. After an overview of the islands, the paper traces the afforestation project, paying attention to the engage-ment of colonial foresters and the real result. Then, it examines colonial discourse and controversy on environ-mental history, followed by an argument on the environ-mentalist vision in the colonial forestry.

Colonial Afforestation in Vain

Treeless islandsThe Penghu archipelago consists of the main island

of Penghu and the other small ones with a total area of 141 km2. The islands’ flat landscape is void of any moun-tains, which makes the air and soil dry despite its loca-tion on the Tropic of Cancer. Following an earlier study by Chen (1953), Fukui (1960) highlights that the islands are mainly subjected to a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate (Cwa in Köppen’s climate classifica-tion), while they are occasionally considered to have an arid (BW) or steppe (BS) climate. A dry climate and a strong sea breeze have profoundly influenced the cul-tural landscape of the islands, especially stone fences protecting houses and agricultural fields (Urushibara and Chen 2008; Tsai 2009). Dry and small insular lands have restricted agriculture, while fishery has been an

Figure 1. Japan and Penghu Islands.

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important economy (Chen 1953; Tawa 2006; Wu and Tsai 2014). Chinese historical records refer to Penghu after the fourteenth century. Chinese immigrants formed settlements in early modern times (Yu 1998), while archaeological research shows the islands as having been inhabited for as long as 5,000 years (Tsang 1992; Goto 2004). European merchants and missionaries became interested in the archipelago for trade and naval bases at the start of the seventeenth century.

The islands and their characteristic landscape came to be known to Japanese colonialists when they were occupied by the Japanese army during the Sino-Japanese War in March 1895. Supported by Tokyo Chigaku Kyokai (Tokyo Geographical Society), Tashiro Antei (1857–1928)1, a botanist and an anthropologist, who were interested in (sub) tropical Pacific islands and their colo-nization (Chen 1998; Nakao 2011), joined the occupation troops to research on the islands’ flora. He found “strange vegetation” with several herbaceous plants and few trees (Tashiro 1895: 171). A soldier in the army also left his manuscript at his astonishment at the barren landscape: “There are no trees on the land, and thus, poor in water” (Hashimoto 1896: 58).

The treeless landscape of Penghu was recorded on early topographical maps by the Government-General of Taiwan (GGT). Figure 2 shows the land use/cover of the

main island of Penghu in the early twentieth century. The white areas are open fields for agricultural use, with small settlements scattered all over the island. Recorded with a map symbol of “wasteland,” grasslands are at the center and along the coast. As early Japanese visitors observed, there were no woodlands on the map. The treeless land-scape of Penghu impressed Japanese colonialists, includ-ing Tashiro Antei, who would become an early leader of Taiwan’s colonial forestry.

Beginning of colonial afforestationThe afforestation project started just after the annex-

ation in April 1895. Expecting the development of Penghu as a naval and trade base, Tashiro Antei pro-posed afforestation to the army and began to work for the Shokusan-bu (Production Department) of the colonial government as a gishi or engineer (Tashiro 1896; Kada 1917: 27)2. Despite three supposed causes of the treeless situation, namely excessive wind, lack of plantation pol-icy, and dry conditions, Tashiro was confident about the island’s afforestation because he knew a case of a lava bed on Sakura-jima Island in mainland Japan that also pro-duced pine forests through artificial plantation. Having observed the existing flora, he proposed forty-one tropi-cal species adequate for plantation in Penghu. Supporting the idea of afforestation, the bulletin of Dainippon

Figure 2. Land use and cover in Penghu Island in the early twentieth century.Source: Taiwan hozu (1 : 20,000), Provisionary Land Survey Bureau, GGT: Huxi-xiang, Wukan-xiang, Magong-jie, and Jimuwu-xiang, 1904. Taiwan bainian lishi ditu, Center for GIS, RCHSS, Academia Sinica. http://gissrv4.sinica.edu.tw/gis/twhgis.aspx


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Sanrin-kai, or the Japan Forestry Association (JFA), pub-lished a short article to appeal for interest in Penghu: “A certain forester claims that afforestation should be done with top priority in the administration of the new terri-tory, Penghu” (Anon 1895a: 85).

The JFA bulletin also reported that afforestation began just after the occupation of Penghu with trees such as momi or Japanese fir (Abies firma) and hinoki or Japanese cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) imported from main-land Japan under a temperate climate (Anon 1895b), which was different from Tashiro’s suggestion of tropi-cal species. The first official document on afforestation in August 1895 shows that the governor of the islands, Miyauchi Moritaka, requested the Minsei-kyoku (Home Affairs Bureau) of GGT to purchase 3,000 young trees to plant in the islands for the promotion of industry and sanitation3. Miyauchi described that this plan fol-lowed “the Governor-General’s suggestion” and would be “profitable for the navy in the future,” which sug-gests that Japanese colonialists recognized the geopoliti-cal importance of Penghu at the southwestern mouth of the East China Sea (see Figure 1) and the necessity of an economic base for the naval port, including timber and fuel. The Japanese navy designated the port of Magong on the main island to be one of the naval stations in 1901 (Inoue 2016). The JFA bulletin also continued to report the expectation of successful afforestation during the late 1890s. A visitor to the island observed that fortress artil-lery made thick woodlands and found hope for the future (Anon 1896). Observing wind and rain damage, Tamura Kumaji, a gishu or assistant engineer in Penghu, reported his finding on the growth of planted trees and believed that “green archipelago” could be realized with two thou-sand yen and in ten years (Anon 1898; Wu 2008: 75).

In contrast to optimistic foresters, some visitors had a more serious impression of the wind-caused treeless landscape. Togo Kichitaro wrote about a strong wind toward Penghu that “hindered the growth of plants” (Togo 1903: 34) and the difficulty of predicting the suc-cess of the afforestation project. Ida Rinroku explained that a dry and windy climate and demand for fuel had impeded the growth (Ida 1911: vi), claiming that one “can imagine the Penghu Islands have been bald islands lack-ing vegetation since their discovery” (Ida 1911: 4).

In the early development of colonial forestry in Taiwan, afforestation and conservation were more important than lumber because the Japanese could not find vast tim-berland in Penghu as well as in the mainland of Taiwan. Tashiro’s effort to establish the first nursery garden in Taipei in 1896 showed an urgent need for conducting

experiments to ascertain suitable trees for plantation (Wu 2008), while the forest reserve system was introduced to keep the remaining vegetation in 1901 (Liu and Liu 1999). In this respect, Penghu was a symbolic space in the early colonial forestry of Taiwan.

Unsuccessful plantationTwenty years after the beginning of afforestation in

Penghu, the project did not show success, despite ear-lier optimism. Based on studies conducted in 1911 and 1915, an official report by Shokusan-kyoku or Production Bureau (PB) of GGT, Hoko-to no zorin or Afforestation in Penghu Island (PB 1915) was edited by two assistant engineers, Ito Taemon and Furukawa Yoshio, in order to review the history of the project, to provide a reference to the colonial forestry of Taiwan, and to request more offi-cial support, according to the introduction by Kada Naoji, the first head of Rimmu-ka (Forestry Section, PB), who studied forestry science at Imperial University (Tokyo Imperial University since 1897, nowadays University of Tokyo). The report recognized that earlier lack of success had suggested the importance of the selection of spe-cies, season of plantation, and protection of plants from wind (PB 1915: 66). This reveals many failures in earlier plantation as noted: “projected and aborted many times over” (Anon 1911: 107). Figure 3 illustrates the areas of government afforestation on the main island of Penghu and two neighboring islands. The areas of governmental plantation, especially with “gingokan” (ginnemu) or white lead tree (Leucaena leucocephala), “momotamana” or sea almond (Terminalia catappa), and “shito” (deigo) or Indian coral tree (Erythrina variegate), were very limited4. It is noteworthy that non-native species such as white lead trees originally from tropical America were selected for plantation, while popular trees in Taiwan, such as sea almond and Indian coral trees, were also planted.

In addition, hoanrin or forest reserves for conserva-tion were introduced in 1911, ten years later than in mainland Taiwan (Liu and Liu 1999)5. Nineteen dis-tricts of “forest reserves” with a total area of 363.3 kah (3.5 km2)6 were demarked, especially along the coast (see Figure 3). A comparison with Figure 2 suggests that most of them were not forests but grasslands without trees. According to a forest survey in 1914, the Penghu Islands still had no forests but 1,672 kah (16.2 km2) of gen’ya (grasslands), approximately 15 percent of the whole land (Kada 1917: 101–102). Most parts of the grassland (1,591 kah [15.4 km2]) were under national control, with only 76 kah (0.7 km2) of private land, in 1919 (Penghu Prefecture 1919: 10–11).

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Figure 3 also shows several byoho (nursery gardens) for the examination and production of seedlings, which started in 1902 on a budget of eight hundred yen per year (PB 1915: 67). The year of the establishment of the garden and the budget, one year after the establishment of the naval stations in Magong in 1901, suggests that continuous afforestation was brought about in the geo-political context. The report mentioned two reasons for afforestation in a fortress, namely covering facilities and producing timber and fuel (PB 1915: 116–118). However, it seems that it took more than ten years before the nurs-ery gardens could provide young plants sufficiently, while the Hengchun Branch of the Forestry Experiment Station exported nursery trees of Chinese banyan (Ficus micro-carpa), sea hibiscus (Talipariti tiliaceum), and others to Penghu in 1911 for planting (PB 1915: 66). The branch was established in 1902 as Hengchun Tropical Plants Raising Garden through Tashiro Antei’s effort and was involved in the Penghu plantation in the early 1910s (Forestry Experiment Station 1914: 36–37). Although Tashiro did not manage the afforestation in Penghu directly after his earlier suggestion in 1896, his continu-

ous concern was evident in his books on street trees (Tashiro 1900: 23–25, 1920: 135–181).

Although the planting of street trees in and around the port town of Magon progressed in the 1920s and the 1930s as Yang and Ye (2007) point out, the affores-tation of the whole of the Penghu Islands was still dif-ficult after the PB’s report of 1915. The forestry statistics recorded no forest and 2,523 kah (24.5 km2) of grassland in the Penghu Islands in 1928 (Ito 1929: Appendix 1). According to Hoko-cho or the office of Penghu Prefecture (1928: 28), the grassland included thirteen districts of “forest reserve” with 187.7 kah (1.8 km2), while the affor-estation area reached only 61 kah (0.6 km2). Due to “slow progress in stony islands” and high cost “more than ten times of that in the main island of Taiwan,” Gaoxiong (Takao) Province, to which the Penghu Islands belonged as Penghu County from 1920 to 1927, aborted giving sup-port to the afforestation project in 1925.

However, the prefecture continued with the afforesta-tion in the “forest reserve”, with 5,000 yen per year from its own budget (Penghu Prefecture 1928: 28). Although the budget was reduced to 3,553 yen after 1931, the pre-

Figure 3. A part of ‘A map of governmental afforestation in Penghu island’.Note: The legend is embedded here horizontally although it is written vertically in the original. There are three forest reserves in Bazhao (Wan-gan) Island outside of this figure. Source: PB (1915), the author’s collection.


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fecture continued planting and also started to promote private afforestation in 1932 by setting up a “tree planting week” in April and a campaign song, aiming to “convert a red island into a green one” with sea almond, white lead tree, and beefwood (Casuarinaceae) through the coopera-tion of local Chinese residents (Penghu Prefecture 1932: 73–82).

Facing the outbreak of the second Sino-Japanese War, the prefecture proposed a development plan in 1938 on a national budget of 373,185 yen for ten years, including afforestation in the grassland, promotion of private plant-ing, and employment of an assistant engineer for the pur-pose of land conservation and fuel production (Penghu Prefecture n.d.: 17–19). According to Nagata Setsuo7, a colonial forester who was engaged in coastal afforesta-tion, the new national project started in 1939 in the name of Hoko-to shinko zorin or “Promotive Afforestation in Penghu” (Nagata 1942: 71). The last authentic sta-tistics for Penghu in the colonial period show 367 kah (3.56 km2) of forest in land registration, in contrast with 1,137 kah (11.0 km2) of grassland (Table 1). Most of the former were national lands with plantations in Magong Subprefecture, in which the ratio of woodland to grass-land reached approximately one to two. However, most of the land in Wangan Subprefecture, which consisted of remote islands several dozen kilometers to the south of Penghu Island, remained grassy. Nagata deplored (Nagata 1942: 68–69): “Bald Penghu Island! What miserable words! … Why can we not make the Penghu island green, although fifty years have passed after the annexation? …

It is a natural consequence that we failed in afforestation under an abnormal climate, quite a different milieu. I strongly feel it is impossible to hope for success.”

This fruitless outcome provokes us to question the Japanese foresters’ understanding of the environmental history of the Penghu Islands. What convinced the colo-nial foresters to believe that they were capable of affor-estation on such dry and windy islands? In the following sections, the author traces two streams of understanding the environmental history of the islands. One focused on artificial devastation and the other on climate conditions.

Controversy regarding the Environmental History of “Devastation”

Treeless Penghu in the tropical forest zoneHonda Seiroku, one of the most influential leaders

in the early development of Japanese forestry science, researched Taiwan’s forest zones in 1896 and discovered indigenous vegetation adjusted to the climate and sub-sequent artificial changes (Komeie and Takemoto 2018; Komeie 2019: 227–231, 2021). Having learned German forestry and having become an assistant professor of for-estry in 1892 at Imperial University, Honda was inter-ested in the new colony of Taiwan and tried to expand his idea of forest zones into the whole territory of the empire. He made his expedition to Mt Yushan, the high-est mountain in Taiwan, just one year after the annexa-tion in 1895. After conducting research on mainland Taiwan, Honda landed at Penghu Islands before returning to Tokyo (Honda 1897: 1).

Analyzing tropical forests in his doctoral thesis entitled Nihon Shinrin Shokubutsutai-ron (Forest Zones of Japan) (Honda 1900a), Honda regarded the Penghu Islands as an example of serious deforestation through human agency. He argued that scientific foresters should understand veg-etation not in an “ordinary botanist” way, focusing on existing flora, but from the viewpoint of original vegeta-tion adjusted to the local climate and historical changes. As shown in Figure 4, Honda’s forest zones, which consist of (i) the frigid forest or shirabe (veitch’s fir) and todo-matsu (Sakhalin fir) zone, (ii) the temperate forest or buna (Japanese beech) zone, (iii) the subtropical forest or kashi (live oak) zone, and (iv) the tropical forest or yoju (Chinese banyan) zone, were applied to Taiwan as well as the Penghu Islands:

Needless to say, the island of Penghu lies in a tropical climate and should have the same vegetation as Taiwan. However, sea breeze and human agency have made the

Table 1. Area of forest and grassland in 1941 (kah)

Subprefecture and landownership Forest (sanrin) Grassland (gen'ya)

Magong 355.80 703.55

National 289.66 610.39

Municipal 48.14 23.66

Private 18.00 69.50

Wangan 11.60 433.80

National 11.60 416.58

Municipal 0.00 3.26

Private 0.00 13.96

Total 367.40 1137.35

National 301.26 1026.97

Municipal 48.14 26.92

Private 18.00 83.45

Note: Military/naval areas are excluded. The main island of Penghu and its neighbor islands belonged to Magong Sub-prefecture, while other islands to the south of it belonged to Wangan. Source: Penghu Prefec-ture (1942: 34–35)

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island treeless, so that I have nothing to descript on the condition [of forest]. If you observe its geology and cli-mate, you can suppose a potential forest that can be in the future without difficulty. (Honda 1900a: 33)

Honda supposes that Penghu should have tropical for-ests due to its tropical climate. The treeless landscape suggested a history of “devastation.” Although Honda understood that the climate in Penghu was dryer than in Taiwan, he referred to a “historical record” that was written about Chinese immigrants cutting down trees. The name of the “historical record” was not mentioned in his text but, probably, he was referring to Mingshi, the official historiography of Ming Dynasty, the text of which had been quoted in a great encyclopedia in Qing Dynasty, Gujin Tushu Jicheng, and already referred to in a Japanese description of Taiwan’s geography by Ogawa Takuji, one of the earliest academic geographers in modern Japan (Ogawa 1896: 317).

Honda also claimed that a dense stand of trees can survive even in windy conditions, criticizing the belief that strong winds were impacting the islands and had hindered tree growth. He concluded: “the islands which have been made treeless through human agency can also be afforested with human agency” (Honda 1900a: 35). His

deductive theory on “original” vegetation corresponding to the climate and its historical change or “devastation” in floral environments through human agency can be found in his accounts of mainland Japan (Komeie 2019: 227–231) as well as the other Japanese remote islands of Ogasawara. In Honda’s opinion, the Ogasawara Islands were supposed to have a tropical forest influenced by the Black Current, but immigrants had devastated mature forests (Honda 1901a). Therefore, as Tashiro Antei had already proposed in 1895, Honda encouraged planting tropical trees in Penghu, such as screw pine (Pandanus boninensis), Chinese banyan, sweet viburnum (Viburnum odoratissimum), and others, which were also observed in mainland Taiwan, not to import subtropical species from mainland Japan except Ryukyu Island pine (Pinus luchuensis) and Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora) for a windbreak forest (Honda 1900a: 36).

Honda’s reference to Penghu was also published in other versions of Forest Zones of Japan (Honda 1900b: 8–11, 1901b: 69–71) in support of the afforestation proj-ect, which had started in 1895 and had been followed by Tashiro’s official proposal (Tashiro 1896). Although there is no distinctive record about Honda’s meeting with Tashiro, we should suppose that Honda had a chance to know an earlier concern of colonial foresters about Penghu when he visited Taipei in October 1896 to solicit the GGT’s support of his expedition. Honda’s visit to Penghu might be encouraged by Tashiro himself or other early colonial officials. The JFA bulletin also reported Honda’s discourse on the feasibility of afforestation in the islands (Anon 1901). This was obviously intended to sup-port the afforestation project on the islands by assuming the feasibility of planting, blaming the Chinese popula-tion for having “destroyed” the woodlands, and natural-izing colonial forestry to reconstruct an “original” forest.

However, Honda’s claim was partly different from that of Tashiro or the other colonial officials with regard to the cause of the treeless landscape or the supposition of a green Penghu in the past. In the same year of Honda’s publication of Forest Zones of Japan, a geological report on Penghu by the Production Section of Home Affairs Bureau of GGT mentioned the treeless condition “unique in the world,” claiming that strong winds and salty rain hindered the growth of plants, and not referring to the historical effect of human agency (Saito 1900: 64–66). It seems that Honda’s idea of environmental history was very new to many colonial officials or foresters in GGT. For Honda, the plantation project was not supposed to be new afforestation but reforestation without much difficulty to plant trees in the islands. How Honda’s understatement

Figure 4. A part of ‘A map of Japanese forest zones’ by Honda Seiroku.Note: The legend on forest zones is embedded here hori-zontally although it is written vertically in the original. Source: Honda (1900a: appendix). Faculty of Agriculture Library, Kyoto University.


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influenced colonial Taiwan is the next question.

Historical study of a green PenghuDespite the lack of historical and archaeological anal-

ysis, an influential historian followed Honda Seiroku’s argument. Ino Kanori (1867–1925), who was one of the early pioneers in anthropology and pre-colonial history of Taiwan and worked for the GGT mainly in the “docu-ments” section or the administration of indigenous peo-ple from 1895 to 1914, pushed Honda’s idea. Interestingly, Ino established Taiwan Jinrui Gakkai (Taiwan Anthropological Society) with Tashiro Antei in 1895; thus, it can be assumed that he knew Tashiro’s work on Penghu well. Ino himself had visited the Penghu Islands from 1900 to 1901 to research on the islands’ geography and history and found them to be “an unlimited treasury of ancient and early modern history” (Moriguchi 1992: 237). As Ogawa Takuji had done, Ino considered a text from Mingshi, which recorded the Dutch’s felling of trees to build houses to settle in 1603, claiming, “although Penghu island has no trees today, it had truly a dense growth at that time” in his Description of Taiwan (Ino 1902: 2).

Additionally, Ino presented an illustration as evidence of the Dutch’s first landing on the islands with some trees in his book (Ino 1902: plate 4), although the origi-nal drawing (Figure 5) represented the landing in 1622 during the Dutch–Portuguese War and was published a century later in 1726 in Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën by a Dutch minister, François Valentijn (1666–1727). This imaginary picture appeared as a new green imagery to the Japanese readers, who had held a vision of a desolate landscape of the islands. Moreover, Ino’s supposition of green Penghu in the past was reinforced by the discovery of stone tools from the lignite strata of the prehistoric age (Ino 1907). He presumed aboriginal people in the woody environment that had vanished due to volcanic eruptions long ago before the medieval Chinese immigration. In his opinion, wood had changed to lignite until the colonial era and “today’s treeless condition is probably caused by insufficiency of recovery of flora in the past geological age” (Ino 1907: 16). Ino was one of the earliest anthro-pologists concerned about vanished indigenous people in Penghu and was followed by some archaeological researchers such as Yamada (1921) and Kokubu (1942).

Although the first advocate for a green Penghu was Seiroku Honda, who expressed his idea on a forest zone in Tokyo and interested many Japanese foresters, the influence of Ino Kanori should not be overlooked. It is worth noting that the colonial concern on afforestation

in Penghu had been triggered by Tashiro Antei, who was originally a botanist but did not have a background of forestry science. It took some years before profes-sional foresters who learned forestry science at (Tokyo) Imperial University, especially from Honda, came to lead the colonial forestry of Taiwan.8 It was Ino who sug-gested historical change in the environment of Penghu in the early period of colonial Taiwan. Although Ino left Taiwan in 1906, he continued to work for the GGT. His supposition in the 1900s was typically shown in his contribution to the Penghu part of a gazetteer of the Japanese empire, Dainippon Chimei Jisho (Yoshida 1909: 188–199). Quoting the geological report of the Production Section claiming that wind caused the treeless landscape as discussed above (Saito 1900), he added his idea of a green Penghu in the past, referring to Mingshi and the Valentijn’s drawing; Ino concluded that “Chinese immigrants [to Penghu] deforested [the islands] to the present [treeless] situation” (Yoshida 1909: 190). In his understanding, the woody flora in Penghu was devastated in the medieval era and could not recover in the windy condition and under immigrants’ demand for fuel. How did colonial foresters in Taiwan respond to the idea?

Counterargument to the “devastation” historyIt appears unusual that the Production Bureau’s report,

Afforestation in Penghu Islands, criticized the view of arti-ficial devastation developed by Honda and Ino in the 1900s (PB 1915: 65). As mentioned above, the report was edited by assistant engineers, Ito Taemon and Furukawa Yoshio, not by Tashiro Antei, who was not engaged in afforestation in Penghu in person, although his concerns remained (Tashiro 1920: 135–181). The content of the

Figure 5. An illustration of the Dutch landing Penghu.Source: Page 45 in chapter ‘Beschryvinge van Tayouan, of Formosa, en onzen Handel aldaar,’ Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën, vol 4 (Valentijn 1726). Kyoto University Library.

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report shows Ito and Furukawa’s excellent abilities as assistant foresters, although they did not graduate from Imperial University (Tokyo Imperial University 1939: 438–448). Reviewing the history of colonial afforestation, the report, which reflected Tashiro’s claim and the affores-tation project of the Production Bureau, commented on the other opinion:

[With special reference to Mingshi and Valentijn’s picture,] some advocates make a quick decision that [the islands] had a dense growth of trees at that time. However, there is not enough evidence except these to reach a conclusion. Suggesting from today’s condition and other materials, including the existence of old trees in the front of temples, there might have been a small number of old trees in several places. Following their writing manner of exaggeration, the Chinese writer recorded the [Dutch’s] felling of a few of the trees for construction. The drawing of the [Dutch’s] landing might represent only popular coastal plants such as screw pine, chaste tree, milk bush, Chinese banyan, beach hibiscus, and others, which we can see today. We cannot conclude that there was dense growth every-where inland from the drawing.

Despite mentioning no names, the report obviously denies the idea of Ino Kanori (and Honda Seiroku). The introduction to the report by the Head of Forestry Section, Kada Naoji, suggested his confidence in the edi-tors, although he had supposedly learned from Honda at the university before graduation in 1902. It seems easy to point out several weaknesses in Ino’s argument, for example, that he used problematic secondary resources. However, the report showed a compromise over the exis-tence of some forests in the past because colonial foresters themselves recognized a few of several hundred-year-old Chinese banyan trees surviving in some places. Allowing the possibility of a small number of trees in restricted places in the past, the report focused on how to deal with two obstacles in human society and natural conditions that had hindered the development of a forest, namely the lack of an afforestation policy and strong winds. Thus, the continual afforestation policy and defense devices against strong wind became key issues.

The critical statement implies that the colonial foresters had two irreconcilable views regarding the cause of the treeless islands. They needed to explain that the unsuc-cessful result of their project was due to harsh natural conditions. At the same time, they needed to claim the possibility of their afforestation in a region that had not

permitted natural trees to grow. The perspective of arti-ficial devastation could be a harsh criticism of colonial foresters in Taiwan because it supposes that the Penghu Islands had been and could be capable of vegetation growth without much difficulty.

In his revision of Forest Zones of Japan three years before the bureau’s report, Honda also showed a compro-mise in changing the tone of the argument by acknowl-edging the difficulty of the afforestation project. He added a supplementary explanation based on observations by a forester named Nishigaki9, who graduated from Tokyo Imperial University and surveyed afforestation in the naval area of Penghu in 1910:

In sum, afforestation in today’s Penghu Island is not an easy project. However, it is not impossible to cre-ate a forest after we construct a fence with salt-tolerant plants or stones [to guard young trees] against sea breeze and blown sand (Honda 1912: 108–109).

This additional text shows Honda’s continuous concern about the Penghu Islands and an intention to support the colonial project of afforestation by understanding the colonial foresters’ efforts in Taiwan. However, he did not change the theory of the forest zone itself, expect-ing the reformation of tropical forests in tropical islands. Whether there was a green Penghu in the past or not, Honda and colonial foresters were able to share the neces-sity of afforestation in the islands.

On the other hand, Ino’s response to the counterargu-ment about a green Penghu was represented in a supple-mentary note to the chapter on forestry in his Description of Taiwanese Culture, a posthumous work published three years after his death in 1925 (Ino 1928: 683–684). Referring again to Mingshi and Valentijn’s work, he rebut-ted the question of credibility of the latter picture that “was actually an imagined drawing” by claiming that it “should be based on the image of someone who had joined the trip so that it includes [real] landscape of dense growth in the whole island.” However, he mentioned to Yuanshi, the official historiography of Yuan Dynasty, cit-ing a discourse that implies “few trees” in fourteenth century Penghu, which seems to conflict with Valentijn’s woody picture that he supposed to illustrate the seven-teenth-century landscape. Although Ino did not com-ment on what had happened from the Yuan Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty or how to interpret the two resources together, he concluded:

[Since the Dutch’s landing in the seventeenth century,]


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disorderly felling down of trees by Chinese immigrants made [the islands] treeless. Besides, severe natural con-ditions for the growth of plants cannot allow the past flora to recover. (Ino 1928: 684)

This shows his insistence on a green Penghu in the past as well as his incorporation of strong winds into his logic as the cause of the continuation of the treeless landscape, which Tashiro Antei and the Production Bureau contin-ued to maintain. Here, the two perspectives, namely the natural condition that had hindered growth and human agency that had devastated the woods, are combined to supplement each other.

Natural Conditions, Human Agency, and Colonial Forestry

Compromise and fusion of two viewsTwo views on the treeless landscape of Penghu—wind-

caused vegetation under natural conditions and the dev-astation history due to human agency—survived from the late 1890s to the 1920s (see Table 2). The devel-opment of the views with dispute, compromise, and fusion shows a case of the complicated relationship of Japanese scientific forestry and colonial environmental-ism. Early foresters in Taiwan did not initially accept the view regarding the environmental history of Penghu, as shown in Afforestation in Penghu Island (1915), although it could underpin their project. However, the two ideas were not necessarily inconsistent, as the former focused on why plants could not grow in the present, while the lat-

Table 2. Major events and publications regarding Penghu and Taiwanese colonial forestry, 1894–1945

Year Events and pulications

1894 The Sino-Japanese War began.

1895 Tashiro’s research in Ph; End of Sino-Japanese War and annexation of Taiwan; GGT and Production Department established. Afforestation in Ph began.

1896 Honda’s research on Mt Yushan and Ph. A report on the Ph Islands (N: Tashiro). Nursery garden established in Taipei.

1900 Forest zones of Japan (H: Honda); A geological report of Ph Island (N: Saito).

1901 Forest Reserve Rule instituted. Naval station built in Ph.

1902 Hengchun Tropical Plants Raising Garden established. Description of Taiwan (H: Ino).

1909 Gazetteer of Japanese empire (H: Taiwan part by Ino).

1910 Forest survey (–1914).

1911 Forestry Experiment Station established.

1912 Lumbering in Alishan started. Forest zones of Japan, revised edition (H: Honda).

1914 Readjustment of the National Forest started.

1915 Forest Bureau established. Lumbering in Baxianshan and Taipingshan started. Afforestation in Ph Island (N: PB).

1919 Forest Ordinance enacted.

1920 An outline of street trees and governmental afforestation in Taiwan (N: Tashiro).

1921 Forestry Department established in GGT Central Research Institute.

1925 Forest Planning Project started. Province's support to afforestation in Ph ceased.

1926 Visiting ancient and modern Ph (H/N: Sugiyama)

1928 Description of Taiwanese Culture (H/N: Ino).

1930 Forestry in Taiwan (H/N: PB).

1932 Tree planting week started in Ph.

1934 Afforestation in Ph Island (H/N: Ito).

1937 The Second Sino-Japanese War began.

1939 Promotive Afforestation in Ph started.

1941 The Pacific War began (–1945).

1945 End of Japanese colonization of Taiwan.

Note: Italic text shows publications. Regarding the cause of treeless landscape in Penghu, H stands for the devastation history due to human agency and N stands for the natural conditions. Ph: Penghu, GGT: Government-General of Taiwan, PB: Production Bureau.

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ter focused on the vanishing of flora in the past. Sharing the need for woodlands in the colonization of Penghu, the two ideas referred to each other and were combined into one idea that explained the present and the past as in Ino Kanori’s Description of Taiwanese Culture (1928).

The colonial foresters’ combined views were officially represented in an article entitled “Forest and its devas-tation in Penghu island” in an overview on Forestry in Taiwan (PB 1930: 59–62). Mainly following the argu-ment in Afforestation in Penghu Island that only a part of the islands had dense growth in the past, it quoted at the same time the whole text of Ino’s account of Penghu in his Description of Taiwanese Culture. Ino’s vision of environ-mental history was accepted with criticism for the past Chinese and Dutch immigrants.

For three hundred years since then, the water of large and small streams in the Taiwan Strait has conveyed civilizations of the East and the West to the lands many times over. Thus, the forests in the archipelago were devastated by the inconsiderate immigrants so much that we cannot find the past vestige, except for a few historical trees such as the great Chinese banyan in Tongliang in Baisha-zhuang (PB 1930: 60).

This discourse was part of a review of the history of forestry before the Japanese colonization, blaming defor-estation mainly by Chinese immigrants and the aborigi-nal people (PB 1930: 24). The Penghu Islands became a typical example of pre-colonial “devastation” and pro-vided an important basis for Japanese colonialists to jus-tify their control over forestry featuring an afforestation and conservation policy. The idea of devastation history, which dates back to Honda Seiroku’s research on main-land Taiwan and Penghu in 1896, was finally held among colonial foresters10.

Ito Taemon was one of the colonial foresters who came to accept the environmentalist view. Although Ito was one of the editors of Afforestation of Penghu Islands who supposed there was wind-caused treeless landscape, he provided a key speech to support Honda and Ino’s view in a colonial foresters’ workshop on Penghu in 1934:

Penghu had been burned and devastated several times during struggles for the island and could not recover [the vegetation] until the annexation because of the [geopolitical] location and [windy] climate. However, it is not adequate that the island cannot have woodland (Ito 1934: 33).

Why did he change his view? One reason must be that he, as an engineer in Sanrin-ka (Forest Section) at that time, needed to keep on believing that the islands could be green. This suggests that the acceptance of the envi-ronmentalist view on the historical change in vegetation was strongly associated with the development of colonial forestry. What role did the islands play in the develop-ment of colonial forestry in Taiwan?

Penghu Islands and the colonial forestry of TaiwanPenghu Islands were the place where colonial for-

estry began, especially afforestation projects. The envi-ronmentalist view on the devastation history could play a role in supporting the project, claiming that it was making admirable efforts to “reconstruct” the woodlands that had been “destroyed” before the Japanese annexa-tion. However, the vision was not completely accepted among colonial foresters until the 1930s with regard to the Penghu Islands, although the devastation history of the Taiwanese highland influenced them earlier (Komeie and Takemoto 2018). Kada Naoji, Head of the Forestry Section at the time of the publication of Afforestation of Penghu Island (1915), blamed the aboriginal people and Chinese immigrants for the disappearance of vast “origi-nal” forestland in mainland Taiwan before the Japanese annexation (Kada 1917: 18). In contrast to the mainland, it seems interesting that the devastation history of Penghu was accepted among colonial foresters after the Gaoxiong Province’s budget cut for afforestation in Penghu in 1925.

To understand the context of budget cuts, the impor-tant policy shift from afforestation to lumbering in colonial forestry needs to be taken into consideration (see Table 2). It was in the early 1910s that colonial for-esters began to focus on timberland such as Alishan, Baxianshan, and Taipingshan, which had been “discov-ered” from the late 1890s to the 1900s. This was followed by the Forest Survey (1910–1914) and Taiwan Forest Map (1915), enclosure of the National Forest (Readjustment of the National Forest started in 1914) and its manage-ment organization (Forest Bureau started in 1915), Forest Ordinance (enacted in 1919), and Forest Planning Project (started in 1925), the last of which was regarded as the beginning of “the period of full-scale development” of Taiwanese forestry (Hagino 1965: 466). With the increas-ing expectations for the future development of forest-lands, afforestation paled into insignificance.

Amid the withdrawal of afforestation projects in other areas of Taiwan, reasonable grounds were needed to con-tinue carrying out the project on Penghu Islands. A cel-ebration book on the thirtieth anniversary of the colonial


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rule, edited by the Head of Penghu County, Sugiyama Yasunori, distinctively followed Ino’s analysis of Mingshi and Valentijn’s image, supposing “reckless deforestation” that happened in the past (Sugiyama 1926: 107–113). Despite recognizing violent wind as one of the biggest obstacles to plants, the book appealed for continuous efforts in afforestation, against the budget reduction for the project. The inclusion of the idea of environmen-tal history in a semi-official book on the islands sug-gests the acceptance of a vanishing green Penghu as a motivating factor, in the hope of achieving reforestation. Official books on Penghu Prefecture overviewing the islands continued to share the same views in reviewing forestry (Penghu Prefecture 1929: 51–56, 1932: 73–82, 1936: 71–79). Seeking a green island, Penghu became a basis for the environmentalist idea, while timberlands in the mainland became available for lumbering of the colo-nial forestry. In this respect, Ino’s works (Ino 1902, 1928; Yoshida 1909: 188–199), which attracted many Japanese readers in need of an overview of Taiwanese culture or history, played a supporting role in afforestation.

The growing influence of forestry science on colonial foresters in Taiwan should form another background to the acceptance of a green Penghu. The increase in the number of colonial foresters who had learned forestry science at Tokyo Imperial University, at which Honda Seiroku worked, was apparent in the 1920s. When the Forestry Experiment Station was reorganized to become an institute of forestry science, the Forestry Department of GGT Central Research Institute in 1921, a third of the staff (engineers and assistant engineers) had gradu-ated from Tokyo Imperial University, including the first head, Kanehira Ryozo (1882–1948) (Wu 2009: 88). The influence of Honda’s view can be found in the first offi-cial report of the department, which addressed the forest zones of Yushan (Sasaki 1922), although Penghu was not necessarily a central focus in the institute. Honda’s the-ory continued to be referred to with authority, as shown in the educational text for foresters in Taiwan, which included a chapter on forest zones, claiming that most of the original forests in Taiwan had been devastated and changed into forests of shade-intolerant trees or waste-lands (Aoki 1925: 378). We can assume a decrease in the influence of the earlier generations without suffi-cient background in forestry science, including Tashiro Antei, who worked in the special staff of colonial forestry from 1915 until he retired in 1924. His last reference to Penghu was “a principle why we cannot choose the main street tree in Penghu” (Tashiro 1920: 135–181), in which Tashiro emphasized grass cover on the land surface and

anti-wind devices or plants for successful afforestation but did not mention or refute Ino’s view. Although it is difficult to examine each colonial forester’s idea of Penghu at that time, alteration of generations among colonial for-esters can be a hidden factor influencing understanding of the treeless landscape of Penghu.

However, we should not overlook the fact that the environmentalist idea did not involve the reconstruction of an “original” forest because no one knew exactly the vanished species in the past. The local government of the islands continued carrying out the afforestation project (see “tree planting week” and “Promotive Afforestation” in Table 2), even after the budget cut in 1925. In fact, colonial foresters tried to introduce many plants, includ-ing non-native plants such as ginnemu or the white lead tree. Growth efficiency was more important in Penghu than the reproduction of a “vanished” forest.

On the other hand, the idea that a strong breeze caused the treeless landscape continued until the early 1940s in some visitors’ writings (Oba 1925: 257; Morisaki 1931: 253; Shinoda Jisuke 1931: 121; Shinoda Jisaku 1935: 223; Enomoto 1942: 18) and geographical descrip-tions (Hayasaka 1931: 387; Masuda 1941: 154–156). Interestingly, the idea of wind-caused bald islands sur-vived partially in the Japanese imagery of Penghu, even after the colonial foresters accepted the environmental history of devastation by 1930. Although the controversy about treeless Penghu was one of the most important issues in Taiwan’s colonial forestry, the view of the wind-caused landscape continued to impress the Japanese.

Conclusion

From the viewpoint of the relationship between scien-tific forestry and colonial environmentalism, the Penghu Islands, under Japanese rule, provide us with a unique case in the pioneer days of Japanese colonial forestry. The idea of an environmental history of artificial devas-tation—advocated by Honda Seiroku, an early leader of scientific forestry who theorized about forest zones in 1900—was not accepted smoothly at first by the colo-nial foresters of Taiwan, despite that it included a dis-tinct account of Penghu with the intention of supporting colonial forestry. The pioneer of Taiwan forestry, Tashiro Antei, who was a botanist without an educational back-ground in forestry science, situated the islands as one of the first foci of the afforestation project. Based on his own observations in 1895, Tashiro believed that strong winds and dry conditions had hindered the growth of trees. The afforestation project was triggered as soon as the annexa-

KOMEIE, T.

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tion came into effect, not based on the historical perspec-tive but as a demand for the naval importance of Penghu. Despite earlier optimistic expectations, the plantation project faced difficulties in severe natural conditions.

However, interested in the pre-colonial history of Taiwan, Ino Kanori developed Honda’s idea with his his-torical method in the 1900s during his tenure in the colonial government. The Production Bureau did not necessarily accept all parts of Ino’s interpretations but assumed that the islands had been partially covered with trees. Introducing forest reserve areas in coastal grass-lands, the bureau encouraged the execution of the affor-estation project. However, it was too costly and, thus, not successful. Ironically, facing a reduction in the budget for afforestation in the 1920s, the local government and colo-nial foresters eventually accepted the history of the past artificial devastation to promote reforestation. The idea of artificial deforestation played an environmentalist role in blaming earlier Chinese inhabitants for the “devastation” of the “original” forest and in suggesting the capability to plant trees and the significance of the Japanese colonial forestry. In this regard, the afforestation of treeless islands became a symbolic focus in colonial environmentalism during the Japanese rule.

It should also be noted that environmentalism focus-ing on conservation and reconstruction of forests was not imported smoothly from the metropole to a colony by scientific foresters. Rather, the controversy and unsuc-cessful project for several decades in the colony was an important base for combining colonial foresters’ vision and historical perspective. The findings of this study sug-gest the importance of understanding the relationship between scientific forestry and colonial environmental-ism as developed in imperial geography consisting of the metropole and colonies. The process in which Honda’s environmentalist idea was first conceived from his experi-ence of a Japanese colony, then established scientifically in Tokyo, and developed in the colony illustrates one case of a historical geography of science. However, due to the lack of research on the method of environmental archae-ology, it is not easy to decipher whether his perspective was accurate in helping us understand the catalysts to the treeless landscape of Penghu. Rather, we should under-stand the progress of controversy as a development of discourse intimately intertwined with the colonial rule of the natural environment.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a JSPS Kakenhi Grant:

Number 18H00642. I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Nakashima Koji (Kanazawa University) and other members of the grant study group. I also thank Professor Wang Hurng-Jyuhn (National Dong Hwa University), who gave an important comment on the ear-lier version of this paper presented at the 5th Conference of East Asian Environmental History (October 26, 2019, at National Cheng Kung University, Tainan).

Notes

1. There has been confusion about the pronunciation of Tashiro’s given name because the Chinese characters for it can be pro-nounced as “Antei” or as “Yasusada” in Japanese. This paper uses Antei because “Tashiro Antei” is written on his own photograph of 1884 (Matsuzaki 1931: 43).

2. Tashiro’s proposal of afforestation was originally presented to Colonel Yoshiteru Hishijima, the commander of the occupation troop of Penghu, and then published in a GGT report. Tashiro Archive, National Taiwan University Library, includes the man-uscript for the latter part of Tashiro (1896): Hokoto kensatsu hobun: Hoko-retto ikushokuyo shokubutsuhen no bu. http://cdm.lib.ntu.edu.tw/cdm/landingpage/collection/Tashiro. (Retrieved 10 October, 2020)

3. “Hokoto-cho ni oite jumoku yasai no shishoku o keikaku su” (Planning of test planting of trees and vegetables in Penghu Island Prefecture), requested on August 1 and approved on November 22, 1895. In Taiwan shiryo kohon, ed. Taiwan Sotokufu Shiryo Hensankai. Image system for books of the Japanese-ruled period, National Taiwan Library. http://stfb.ntl.edu.tw/cgi-bin/gs32/gsweb.cgi?o=dbook&s=id=%22jpli2008-bk-sxt_0741_213_1895-aug01b%22.&searchmode=basic. (Retrieved 10 October, 2020)

4. PB (1915: 216) describes “harigiri” mistakenly as Japanese pro-nunciation for the Chinese characters of the Indian coral tree. This paper uses “shito,” a normal pronunciation for the characters because “harigiri” stands for a different tree (Kalopanax septemlo-bus).

5. The army needed and approved afforestation at the fortress, as shown in “Hoko-to yosai-nai kanrichi e shokuju no ken” (Afforestation in a controlled area of the fortress), requested on May 2 and approved on December 12, 1911. In Rikugunsho dainikki otsu-shu (Diary of the Ministry of Army). Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan. https://www.jacar.archives.go.jp/das/meta/C02031330100 (Retrieved 10 October, 2020)

6. Kah is a unit of land area in modern Taiwan. One kah equals approximately 0.97 hectares or 0.0097 km2. Kah is the pronuncia-tion in Minnan language whilst it is jia in standard Chinese.

7. The pronunciation of Nagata’s given name is not confirmed. The Chinese characters for it can also be read as “Fushio,” “Mineo,” or “Takao.”

8. Rimmu-ka (Forestry Section) in the Production Bureau was estab-lished in 1895 by ten foresters, including only two who learned forestry science at Imperial University (Kada 1917: 28).

9. Although the given name was not written, the forester was prob-ably Nishigaki Shinsaku (1886–1969), who learned forestry sci-ence and graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in 1909 and later became a lecturer at the university and a colleague of Honda Seiroku.

10. The revised versions of Forestry in Taiwan (PB 1930) were pub-lished repeatedly by Taiwan Sanrin-kai or the Taiwan Forestry Association (TFA 1933, 1935, 1938, 1941). The 1933 version


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included a section on Penghu (TFA 1933: 56–60), while the part was expurgated from the 1935, 1938, and 1941 versions, probably because of a restricting description within mainland Taiwan.

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Abbreviations

GGT: Taiwan Sotokufu (Government-General of Taiwan).JFA: Dainippon Sanrin-kai (Japan Forest Association).PB: Shokusan-kyoku (Production Bureau).TFA: Taiwan Sanrin-kai (Taiwan Forest Association).TGS: Tokyo Chigaku Kyokai (Tokyo Geographical Society).

(C) written in Chinese(CE) written in Chinese with English abstract(J) written in Japanese(JE) written in Japanese with English abstract

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.imic.2014.10.001


