Technology of Empire ─ Telecommunications and Japanese Expansion in Asia, 1883-1945

Fifty years ago, the economic historian Harold Innis pointed out that the geographical limits of empires were determined by communications and that advances in the technologies of transport and communications have enabled empires to grow. The power of communications was demonstrated when Japanese Emperor Hirohito's announcement of Japan's surrender was broadcast simultaneously throughout Japan and all the territories under its control over the telecommunications system that had, in part, made that empire possible.

From the 1880s to the 1940s, technology, geo-strategy, and institutions were closely intertwined in Japan's empire building. The central argument of this study of the development of a communications network linking the far-flung parts of the Japanese imperium is that modern telecommunications not only connected these territories but made it possible for the Japanese to envision an integrated empire in Asia. But, even as the imperial communications network fostered integration and strengthened Japanese leadership and control, its creation and operation often exacerbated long-standing tensions and created new conflicts within the government, the military, and society in general. Telecommunications, like other technologies, never operate in a social vacuum; they are always embedded in institutions and serve particular purposes. Their control is always open to contest.

Daqing Yang is Associate Professor of History and International Affairs at George Washington University.