| In November 1910, Shirase Nobu (1861-1946) and his crew of Japanese adventurers sailed from Tokyo Bay aboard the Kainan Maru in a bid to conquer the South Pole. They were not alone in their quest. Rival expeditions from Britain, Norway, and elsewhere were all equally intent on becoming the first to reach the heart of the Antarctic. What made Shirase's expedition unique was that the Japanese had no history of polar exploration and, by and large, the Japanese did not consider themselves to be an exploring nation. This lack of experience led to a debate in Japan over the meaning and value of exploration that began in the Diet and soon spread to public rallies, university campuses, and leading newspapers. The result was a publicly-funded and widely-supported venture. As this study shows, the Japanese ultimately failed to reach the South Pole, but succeeded nevertheless in making a brief journey across a section of the Antarctic that culminated with a flag raising and a supposed territorial claim.;Nearly everything written about Shirase and his expedition follows a heroic narrative that first appeared in the explorer's own speeches and writing. Shirase, according to the tale, was born with all the qualities of an explorer, and he intended to lead Japan to the Pole from the time of his youth. This is the first study to argue that Shirase was foremost a legend of his own making: a man who won support for his expedition by exaggerating and even fabricating much of his past. At the same time, this study shows that the expedition was only made possible by a national climate created by the convergence of several historic trends. These include Japan emigration and travel, the emergence of a new genre of Japanese adventure literature, and the rise of a form of popular nationalism that had the Japanese pushing to best Europe and the Americas in their expansionist pursuits. Shirase's venture embodied all of these trends, and he and his supporters used these developments to propel Japan onto the world stage of geographic exploration. |
