Günter Dinhobl (Hrsg.): Sonderband 7. Eisenbahn/Kultur – Railway/Culture (2004)

II. Die Wahrnehmungen von Raum / The perceptions of space - Robert Lee: Railways, space and imperialism

Railways, space and imperialism

railway technology was Japan, where a government loan was contracted to build the first railway from Tokyo to Yokohama. It was completed in 1872, just four years after the revolution which had brought a new, modernising regime to power. Built by a British engineer with experience in New Zealand, it was in its technical specifications very much a typical British colonial railway of its time, including its gauge of 3 ft 6 in. However, it was owned by the Japanese government and opened with much ceremony by the young Meiji Emperor. It was a powerful symbol of the new government’s determination both to modernise and to maintain control of that modernisation itself.9 * 11

While Japan began early, rapid expansion of the railway network had to wait until the 1880s and 1890s, basically because the government could not afford to build railways quickly, and wished to avoid too many foreign loans. By then, Japanese technical personnel had been trained to build and operate the railways, but capital remained in short supply. There was also some limited private Japanese investment in railways in the first two decades, but this was on a small scale, simply because Japan at this stage remained poor in both public and private capital. Moreover, until the very end of the nineteenth century, Japan lacked the metallurgical and heavy-engineering industries needed to build its own railway equipment. The vast bulk of Japan’s locomotives, rails, rolling stock and other equipment was imported from Britain right up until around 1910. It is a myth that Japan industrialised and expanded its modem infrastructure rapidly after 1868."' The capital necessary for such a program just did not exist. But the intention to build railways, and to keep railways under the control of the state so they could be used to reinforce the state, was there from the beginning, as shown in the symbolism of the Meiji Emperor’s first train ride in 1872 over Japanese government- owned tracks.

Partly because it is an island nation, but also because of deliberate policy, railways were never a tool of Western imperialism in Japan. They were always exploited in the interests of the Japanese state. This was true even though Japanese railways were completely dependent on foreign expertise and capital in their early years, and remained dependent on foreign equipment for no less than thirty years. While British locomotive builders, bankers, and engineering companies may have made good profits out of Ja9 A o k i, Eiichi - I m a sh i r o , Mitsuhide - K a t o, Sinichi - Wakuda, Yasuo: A History of Japanese

Railways, 1872-1999. Tokyo, 2000, p. 8-12.

11 This myth is found in many books on Japan, including the very influential and now classic story, see S t o rry, Richard: A History of Modem Japan. Harmondsworth 1960, p. 107.

99