City and War: Foreign Influences, the Pacific War, and the Japanese Citybetween 1937 and 1945

摘要

In 1942, Ishikawa Hideaki published a book entitled 'War and the City'('Sensoo to Toshi') in which he examined foreign planning concepts andlaid out the basics for a master plan for the Imperial Capital Tokyo. Inthe book, Ishikawa refers to numerous foreign examples, includingnotably German planners such as Paul Wolf and Walter Christaller. Thispublication provided a detailed approach on the theme of planning fordefense, and built on earlier works by Ishikawa and notably his 1941textbook on urban and regional planning in which he had already proposedhis own regional planning ideas. Ishikawa's proposal for Tokyo dividedthe city into multiple small units and strongly influenced Ishikawa'spostwar reconstruction plan. Ishikawa's career with the TokyoMetropolitan Government spans the war and postwar period from 1933 to1955. His work in Tokyo and in the colonies, in conjunction with that ofother prominent planners and architects of the time, provides room for atwo-pronged analysis of war and the Japanese city. In a first part, thepaper therefore analyzes urban design for colonial areas, where militarystructures facilitated the application of Japanese planning concepts.For Japanese planners the colonies were an important study ground offoreign planning concepts (German, Russian, etc.) as well as anopportunity to develop and try out their own design concepts. Among theexamples to be discussed are Ishikawa's experiences in Shanghai, TangeKenzo's proposal for the Japanese Cultural Center in Bangkok (1942) andhis 1942 entry in the Greater East Asia competition, as well as theurban project for Datong by a group of planners including Uchida Shozoand Takayama Eika for Datong. In a second part, the paper examinesinstances in which the war context facilitated planning in Japan, As thegovernment and notably the military prepared the Japanese mainland for apossible future defense, their support allowed planners to realizeproposals for decentralization planners had discussed for several years,but that had not found support. The construction of decentralizedmilitary towns such as Sagamihara Military City in 1940, or the decisionon the construction of a green belt in 1939 are evidence of the urbantransformation that took place during the war years. In conclusion,the paper argues that Japanese architecture and planning between 1937and 1945 were characterized by a conscious borrowing of foreign urbanplanning and design ideas both in order to demonstrate Japanesearchitectural and urban design skills in the colonies and in order totransform and defend the urban spaces on the Japanese islands. War anddefense preparation led to an acceleration of urban development that isvisible both in planning examples in the colonies as well as in Japan.