Dr Rieko Hayakawa, Law School, Doshisha University
I was interested to learn in the news in January that Foreign Minister Kamikawa was to visit Fiji to attend the interim ministerial meeting in preparation for this year's 10th Island Summit. The Foreign Minister had already arrived in Samoa just as the aftermath of my activities for mayoral election of my friend in Kyoto was beginning to cool down.
There, I read out in X-space the history of Samoa and Fiji, which the Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry's Oceania Division were not aware of. I still can't forget that Mr Kanehara, a high official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, gave a lie about Fiji's colonisation in a speech somewhere. Fiji wanted to be colonised by the British itself. Not on the Japanese wiki. The English version has more details. This historical fact is important because German and Japanese rule of Micronesia was modeled on the British colonisation of Fiji.
"History of Fiji colonisation dedicated to Foreign Minister Kamikawa."
X Space Link: https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1ynJOyPpEEkKR?s=20
Another point is the 'Asia-Pacific and Pan-Polynesian Concept' proposed to Emperor Meiji by King Kalakaua of the Kingdom of Hawaii, who visited Japan in 1881. Japan declined out of reservations about the Western powers, but the Kingdoms of Samoa and Tonga gave serious consideration to King Kalakaua's proposal. The Kingdom of Tahiti had already transferred its sovereignty to France in 1880. If you call yourself an expert on the Indo-Pacific concept, you cannot afford to be ignorant of this history. The current Indo-Pacific concept is a historical legacy from the Japan Abe administration.
"Polynesian Union and Indo-Pacific Concept proposed to Emperor Meiji by King Kalakaua dedicated to Foreign Minister Kamikawa during his visit to the Pacific"
X Space Link: https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1BdGYrXOEgoJX?s=20
The following papers were read out
World History Connected | Vol. 8 No. 3 | Kealani Cook: Kalakaua's Polynesian Confederacy: Teaching World History in Hawai'i and Hawai Hawai'i in World History
The following article, which I found by chance, describes how Emperor Meiji welcomed King Kalakaua to Japan and how Marumoto found the King's diary, which Marumoto analyses as showing that the Japanese government was interested in its treaty revisions, but I think that the Japanese government must have been concerned about the situation in Hawai'i, where there were already many Japanese immigrants.
Marumoto, Masaji. "Vignette of Early Hawaii-Japan Relations: Highlights of King Kalakaua's Sojourn in Japan on His Trip around the World as Recorded in His Personal Diary" Hawaiian Journal of History, Volume 10, 1976
Now, Foreign Minister Kamikawa's visit to Fiji this time is for Fukushima treated water measures. If you do not know this and do not overlap it with Foreign Minister Kuranari's visit to Fiji in 1987, you cannot be called an expert on Pacific Island countries. Japan's policy towards the Pacific Island countries has been linked to nuclear power.
First came the exposure of the Japanese fishing boats, Fukuryu Maru at Bikini Atoll in 1954. Then came the campaign against nuclear power and the promotion of the peaceful use of nuclear energy in Japan. The result was the Japanese Government's 1985 plan to dump nuclear waste in the Pacific Ocean. This was opposed by the Pacific island countries and the Treaty of Rarotonga was born. In response, Foreign Minister Kuranari visited Fiji and announced the Kuranari Doctrine, a policy towards Pacific island states.
Still going on: the PIF issued an annual General Assembly resolution condemning plutonium shipments between France and Japan, which began in 1992. This was followed by the 1997 Pacific Island Summit had started in which the Japanese Federation of Electric Power Companies (FEPC) participated alongside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 2011 when FEPC lost trust in Japan.
Then came the Fukushima treated water issue in 2023. It is ironic that the theme linking Japan, the A-bombed country, and the Pacific island states is nuclear energy, but it is an opportunity to strengthen Japan's engagement in the Pacific.
One final point. The Kuranari Doctrine has changed my life and I would like to write about it. The Sasakawa Pacific Island Nations Fund, which I have managed alone for nearly 30 years, is the result of inviting Kuranari as chairman in 1988 and inviting the leaders of the Pacific island countries to Japan for a conference. Therefore, the 'Kuranari Doctrine' and Prime Minister Ohira's OPan-Pacific Initiative before that are the cornerstones of the Sasakawa Pacific Island Nations Fund, which I reconstructed from 1991, and which led me to include Pacific island countries in the Abe Administration's Indo-Pacific Initiative.
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This is the third visit to Pacific island countries by a Japanese foreign minister, following Foreign Minister Kuranari in 1987 and Foreign Minister Kono in 2019.
https://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/files/000504746.pdf
Speech by Japanese Foreign Minister Kono on Japan's policy towards Pacific Island Countries (at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji) ~Three initiatives for the AOI (blue) future of our 'Pacific people'.
