Handbook of environmental history in Japan / edited by Fujihara Tatsushi.

Includes bibliographical references and index

Contributors -- Preface -- Introduction: Perspectives of environmental history in Japan / Fujihara Tatsushi -- Part 1. Topology of environmental history -- 1. Cultural landscapes in Japan / Uesugi Kazuhiro -- 2. Japan's colonial environments / John Hayashi -- 3. National parks, nature conservation, war: the development of the National Parks System in Japan, 1907-1945 / Nishimura Takahiro -- Part 2. Pollution incidents/disasters -- 4. The Ashio Affair: the emergence of industrial pollution as a social, political and environmental issue in the 19th and 20th centuries / Cyrian Pitteloud -- 5. Two outbreaks of Minamata Disease and the struggle for human rights / Seki Reiko -- 6. Black rain, lawsuits and compensation: radiation in the environment and human exposure in Hiroshima and Nagasaki / Nakao Maika -- 7. Environmental problems caused by the Shinkansen in Nagoya City / Aoki Soko -- Part 3. Between nature and humans -- 8. The epidemiological landscape and medical theories: focusing on a history of smallpox in early modern Japan / Kozai Toyoko -- 9. Between nature and human: the history of the use of "night soil" in Japan / Yuzawa Noriko -- 10. Agricultural technology and the environment in modern Japan / Fujihara Tatsushi -- Part 4. Seas, lakes and shores -- 11. Regional environmental history: the Lake Biwa area / Hashimoto Michinori --12. Tokyo Bay in the 20th century: life, production and environment / Kobori Satoru -- 13. Tuna fisheries and thermonuclear tests, 1954-1963 / Yuka Moriguchi Tsuchiya -- Part 5. Forestry --14. Japanese swidden agriculture: environmental history of grasslands, forests and fire / Komeie Taisaku -- 15. A history of tree planting in modern Japan: resource utilization and environment conservation / Takemoto Taro -- 16. Empire forestry endures: the development and continuity of Japanese forestry in Southeast Asia, 1930-1970 / Nakashima Koji -- Index.

Japan: a land plagued by volcanoes, earthquakes and typhoons, yet blessed with a climate suitable for all manner of agriculture and forestry, and positioned where ocean currents collide and bring an abundance of the ocean's resources to its people; a country which moved quickly from an agrarian pre-industrial society to become one of the world's great economic powerhouses in only a few decades, spoiling water, air and land in the process, bringing misery to many of its people; a country with expansionist desires, colonizing neighboring lands, leading to war, defeat, destruction and, for the first time in history, nuclear devastation and its aftermath; a land and its people which share a remarkable resilience and ability to evaluate and correct their mistakes and renew their trajectory towards a better future. The sixteen chapters of the <cite>Handbook of Environmental History in Japan</cite) take a critical look at the environmental history of Japan, reviewing lessons learned and offering ideas that may provide solutions to at least some of the existential environmental problems faced by people all around the globe. Divided into five sections which examine topology, pollution, the relationship shared by humans and nature, water resources and forestry, this handbook is a valuable resource for students and scholars who want to discover and understand the role humans play not just in the destruction of resources but also in their preservation.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (JSTOR, viewed on July 19, 2023).

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