Contents

• Words from Director. The Contribution of the Research Center to the Local the Community
• Research Activities of the Staff
• Scientific Survey of the Republic of Palau
• Research Seminars in 1995
  • February 6, 1995. Community Life and Religious Events
    Takako KOBAYASHI. Faculty of Education, Kagoshima University
  • March 6, 1995. Breast Cancer in Samoan Women
    V.F. ASAUA. National Health Laboratory, Health Department, Western Samoa
  • April 17, 1995. Kings and Poets of the Indic Java
    Toru AOYAMA. KURCSP
  • May 29, 1995. Progress Report of the 1994 Survey of the Research Project, "Man and the Environment in Micronesia."
  • June 26, 1995. Commercialization of Agriculture in the Philippines: Case Studies in Three Philippine Villages
    Satoru NISHIMURA. College of Liberal Arts, Kagoshima University
  • July 11, 1995. Reproduction and Life-Cycle of Aosa
    Yukihito ENOMOTO. Kobe University Research Center for Inland Seas
  • October 26, 1995. Open Lecture. The Story of Women's Suffrage in New Zealand
    Rachel McALPINE. Writer, New Zealand
  • Novermber 21, 1995. Traditional Houses in Japan and China
    Mitsuyoshi TSUCHIDA. Faculty of Engineering, Kagoshima University
  • December 11, 1995. Images of Islanders in Pacific War Photographs
    Lamont LINDSTROM. KURCSP
• Symposia in 1995
  • February 24, 1995. Symposium. Tropical Fisheries
  • September 16, 1995. Symposium. Modern Japan's 'Nanpo Kan'yo (Participation towards the South)'
    
• Public Lecture Series in 1995
  • August 5 & 6, 1995. Public Lecture. The South Pacific--Countries and Peoples--

The Contribution of the Research Center to the Local Community

Almost 15 years have passed since the founding of the Kagoshima University Research Center for the South Pacific. Intensive interdisciplinary area studies have been carried out by the Center in Oceania and its surrounding areas under the inclusive subject of "Man and the Environment." Results obtained have appeared in the Center's Publications such as South Pacific Study and Occasional Papers and also in other scientific publications.

Kagoshima University, situated in the south end of Kyushu, has accumulated much scientific knowledge and data on Asian and Pacific areas since its establishment, and takes as its charter "The promotion of research and investigation of these areas". The Research Center is one of the core organizations for this purpose. The scientific results obtained by surveys and research in Asia and the Pacific have been shared not only with students and graduate students but also with citizens through symposia, scientific meetings, lectures and open lectures. These remarkable achievements have been accomplished by the harmonious cooperation of full-time staff, on-campus researchers of Kagoshima University and off-campus researchers of other universities and institutes.

Thus we have achieved rather satisfiable results in research and investigation, but we reflect at present how our activities might have contributed to the local community. There are many needs expressed in Kagoshima for various kinds of information about the cultures, histories, industries, ethnicity and people of the South Pacific and Southeast Asia countries. About one month ago a timely proposal by a reader, which was much to the point on the Research Center's activities, appeared in the readers' column of a local newspaper. He proposed effective use of University data and documents by people in Kagoshima both for the acquisition of general knowledge about Oceania and Southeast Asia and for the industrial objectives. To his regret, however, accumulated data and documents have not been used effectively, partly because the Center's activities have not been fully understood within the local community. Kagoshima Prefecture is located at the southernmost end of Japan and it has always recognized that it should be a broad gateway to and from the South Pacific and Asia. Taking into consideration the Research Center's accumulated works and Kagoshima Prefecture's goals, the letterwriter suggested 1) the center should more effectively publicize its work, 2) the collected data and documents must be arranged in a way so that member of the public can access them with fewer difficulties and 3) the data access should be discussed among the organizations and people with concerns about these matters.

The purposes of the Research Center are not simply to undertake researches and survey and accumulate scientific data. The data and documents collected become of value when they are used effectively and as frequently as possible. The proposal by the reader coincides with fulfilling an another objective of the Center which has often been discussed among its staff. We are currently beginning the tasks of assorting data in a manner that most people outside of University might access them easily when needed.

Furthermore the Research Center will organize a conference of interested community members who can suggest to us appropriate ways to assort our data and documents. Subsequently, assorted data and documents will be made available to people concerned with knowledge of Oceania and Southeast Asia, through the Center's Newsletters and through Prefectural public bulletins. We sincerely hope that we can contribute to the local community in various ways and work effectively together in the future.

Research Activities of the Staff

Subject 1: Terrestrial Environment and Ecosystem

In collaboration with the staff at Dodo Creek Research Station in Honiara, the Solomon Islands, a field survey concerning the ecological aspects of swidden agriculture was conducted in Malaita Island of the above-mentioned country from the beginning of February until the end of April, 1995. During this survey, soil samples were collected from two fallows to investigate change in the physical and chemical properties of soils over time after the abandonment of a swidden. This sampling is one step of a longer series since 1989 to obtain soil samples throughout a swidden cycle from the same site.

In addition to the respective research activities of the staff concerned with Environment and Eco-systems, as in the preceding year, a colloquium the overall title of which is "Conservation and Tropical Forests" was held on December 15, 1995. At this meeting, Dr. Eiji Suzuki, Associate Professor of the College of Liberal Arts of Kagoshima University, presented an overview of the present situation of tropical rain forests in relation to human activities in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Furthermore, he introduced his own unpublished data about Kalimantan plant ecology which he is currently analyzing. Approximately ten members of the research staff from both off and on campus listened to his presentation and engaged in a vigorous discussion of its main points.

Subject 2: Studies on Aquatic Biological Processes and Resources

The studies listed below were carried out: 1. Ecological and taxonomic studies of planktonic and benthic algae; 2. Studies on geographical and morphological variations of sea urchins; 3. Ecological investigations on benthic larger Foraminifera and planktonic smaller Foraminifera; 4. Studies on current coastal fisheries in the Pacific region.

Subject 3: Studies on Tropical Diseases and Health

This year Dr. Terashi continued the epidemiological study of Adult T-cell Leukemia in Polynesia. On Monbusho's Scientific Research grant, he conducted a field research at Nakualofa, Kingdom of Tonga in August.

Subject 4: Studies on History and Culture

1995 was another busy year for Associate Professor Toru Aoyama. From August 9 to September 6, he visited Australia, Malaysia and the Netherlands to collect data and meet researchers to exchange information. This trip was supported by a grant from the Daiwa Bank Foundation for Asia and Oceania. The purpose of this on-going project is to analyze the Javanese concept of the "other world" and the historical context of its change. He also participated as secretary-general in the Center's Scientific Survey to the Republic of Palau from October to November (See the separate report). From 10th December to January 8 he conducted a field research in Indonesia and Laos as a member of one of Monbusho International Scientific Research Programs. The topic of this three-year project is the "Central and Regional Powers in Southeast Asian History."

Visiting Professor

Lamont Lindstrom is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Tulsa. He received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1981 and has also taught at Rhodes College of Memphis and at the University of Papua New Guinea. His anthropological and linguistic research has focused in Vanuatu and the Southwest Pacific, where he has been interested in local knowledge systems, sociolinguistics, Pacific War ethnohistory, and traditional drug substances. His recent books include Cargo Cult: Strange Stories of Desire from Melanesia and Beyond; Knowledge and Power in a South Pacific Society; and Culture, Custom, Tradition: Developing Cultural Policy in Melanesia (edited with Geoffrey M. White). While a visiting researcher at Kagoshima University, he has been working on an edited volume, Chiefs Today: Pacific Leaders and the Post-Colonial State (to be published by Stanford University) and on a book of oral histories about the Pacific War in Vanuatu. When he leaves the Center on March 25, he will go to Canterbury University, Christchurch, New Zealand where he will be a visiting scholar at the Macmillan-Brown Centre for Pacific Studies before returning to the University of Tulsa in September.

The Scientific Survey of the Republic of Palau

The Kagoshima University Research Center for the South Pacific has been organizing a series of research projects called "Scientific Survey of the South Pacific" since 1981, funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan. In 1994, a new series of projects focusing on Micronesia was begun. In the second year of this series, a field survey was carried out in the Republic of Palau in 1995.

The research project was designed to investigate the ecological, bioproductive and sociocultural features of natural and human environments on the islands of the Republic of Palau. The field survey was successfully conducted in cooperation with concerned personnel from the Palau Mariculture Demonstration Center and from other government and research institutes. During a fifteen day stay, we carried out research activities on such islands as Koror, BabeLdaob, Peleliu and Kayangel. Each survey was performed in close cooperation with scientists and people from relevant offices and institutes in Palau. During this short two week survey, we could not have obtained remarkable results without their help and coordination. I should like to express my sincere gratitude to all the individuals and organizations concerned in the Republic of Palau.

A presentation of survey results will be held in May 1996, and a progress report of the survey will be published in Autumn 1996. We hope that reported survey results will contribute, directly and indirectly, to the development of agriculture, fisheries, and the daily life of the people of the Republic of Palau.

• 9 October, 1995. Departure from Kagoshima Port, Japan
• (Oceanographic Survey)
• 16 October, 1995. Arrival at Koror Port, Republic of Palau
• 2 November, 1995. Departure from Koror Port
• 7 November, 1995. Arrival at Kagoshima Port

Team 1. Appropriate agricultural development in relation to the terrestrial environment.

• Dr. Nakano, Kazutaka, Professor, Terrestrial Ecology and Geography, Research Center for the South Pacific, Kagoshima University
• Dr. Hayashi, Mituru, Professor, Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Kagoshima University
• Dr. Kusigemati, Kanetosi, Professor, Economic Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kagoshima University
• Dr. Nedachi, Munetomo, Professor, Geochemistry, College of Liberal Arts, Kagoshima University
• Mr. Onjo, Michio, Research Associate, Tropical Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Kagoshima University
• Mr. Ito, Naoki, Undergraduate Student, Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Kagoshima University
• Mr. Take, Koichi, Undergraduate Student, Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Kagoshima University
• Mr. Furukawa, Hideyuki, Graduate Student, Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Kagoshima University
• Mr. Matsumura, Kenichi, Undergraduate Student, Geochemistry, Faculty of Science, Kagoshima University
• Mr. Yamanouchi, Hirofumi, Undergraduate Student, Geochemistry, Faculty of Science, Kagoshima University

Team 2. Development of marine biological resources and conservation of the marine environment.

• Dr. Inoue, Akio, Professor, Marine Ecology, Research Center for the South Pacific, Kagoshima University
• Dr. Tsukahara, Junzo, Professor, Developmental Biology, Faculty of Science, Kagoshima University
• Dr. Hatta, Akio, Professor, Earth Science Education, Faculty of Education, Kagoshima University
• Dr. Oba, Hideo, Research Associate, Phycology, Tokyo University of Fisheries
• Dr. Uehara, Tsuyoshi, Professor, Developmental Biology, Faculty of Science, The University of Ryukyus
• Dr. Takeda, Jun, Chief Research Worker, Ecological Anthropology, Hyogo Prefecture Museum of Man and Nature
• Dr. Hohenegger, Johann, Professor, Micropaleontology, Institute fur Paleontologie, Universitat Wien
• Mr. Tsukashima, Makoto, Undergraduate Student, Developmental Biology, Faculty of Science, Kagoshima University
• Mr. Terada, Shigeyuki, Research Fellow, Science Education, Faculty of Education, Kagoshima University
• Mr. Suwa, Shiro, Graduate Student, Science Education, Faculty of Education, Kagoshima University
• Mr. Miyake, Toshimune, Undergraduate Student, Fisheries, Faculty of Fisheries, Kagoshima University
• Mr. Hirayama, Yoshikazu, Graduate Student, Oral Pathology, Faculty of Dentist, Kagoshima University

Team 3. Development of the system of administration and its relationship to cultural autonomy.

• Dr. Aoyama, Toru, Associate Professor, Indonesian Cultural History, Research Center for the South Pacific, Kagoshima University
• Dr. Tajima, Yasuhiro, Professor, Human Geology, Faculty of Education, Kagoshima University
• Mr. Takahashi, Yasuaki, Professor, Political Sociology, Faculty of Social Information, Gumma University
• Mr. Hosoya, Akio, Professor, Comparative Culture, Kagoshima Prefectural Junior College

Team 4. Some Biological Aspects of Oceanography.

• Mr. Shimada, Kiyoshi, Associate Professor, Oceanography, Faculty of Fisheries, Kagoshima University
• Mr. Uchiyama, Masaki, Assistant Professor, Oceanography, Faculty of Fisheries, Kagoshima University
• Mr. Yoshinaga, Keisuke, Research Associate, Oceanography, Faculty of Fisheries, Kagoshima University
• Mr. Fujieda, Shigeru, Research Associate, Oceanography, Faculty of Fisheries, Kagoshima University

Clerkship.

• Mr. Kaneko, Shinichi, Program Officer & Accountant, Research Center for the South Pacific, Kagoshima University

Research Seminars in 1995

February 6, 1995
Community Life and Religious Events

It was in 1963 that I started studies with the support of the Kagoshima University Research Center for the South Pacific on dyeing and weaving and community life in Okinawa, then under U.S. military administration. Since then I have been doing research work on community life in the areas south of Kagoshima Prefecture focusing mainly on clothing, and I have published several articles entitled "A Study of Cloths Native to Japan," "Clothing and Life of Pan-Pacific Type," "On the Genealogy of Cloth," etc. My research findings now make me realize that there is a line connecting Kagoshima, the islands and the southern part of China involving both the material and spiritual lifestyles of the people living there. Take religious festivals for example: People in Japan use sakaki (Cleyera japonica) to pay respect to the deities in sacred Shinto events. One can see people engaged in similar acts in the famous Sacred Water-Brandishing Ceremony in the southern part of China, although the festival today has turned into an event to attract tourists. In small villages in remote areas with water buffaloes roaming here and there, one can witness villagers dipping twigs of laurel into fresh water and sprinkling nearby objects to consecrate them, just as Japanese people do in the Shinto purification rite to remove evil. This recalls scenes the late Professor Sasuke Nakao described in his thesis, "The Laurilignosa Culture," dealing at length with cultural relationships between Japan and the Yunnan district of China.

Since 1992, Life-Environment Studies have been part of the regular curriculum of elementary schools in Japan. There is, for example, a teaching unit titled "Festivals --Let's Make a Portable Shrine for Children" in a textbook used for elementary school second graders. I have been giving lectures on "Man and Life" about this subject to students who aspire to become teachers. In each course I use video tapes to introduce famous shrines in Japan, and annual religious events and cultural treasures of Kagoshima Prefecture in ethnological and ethnographical contexts. One of the aims of this course is to redefine local festival events related to ancient religions, which nowadays are often used as instruments to promote tourism. The significance of festivals related to shrines is little known to the public, but they are none the less important in that they help us identify the basic or deep culture of this country from the viewpoint of our modern everyday life.

The Sengu Rite (a ritual where the shrine is rebuilt and the deity is installed with due ceremony) and the sacred treasures of the Grand Shrines of Ise are outstanding cultural heritages of the Japanese people that inform world archaeology. Tamamaki no Ontachi, a sword with a jewel-studded scabbard, and metallic mirrors from the ancient tombs of Takamatsuzuka and Fujinoki, give us a good insight into who are the persons buried in these tumuli. For the Sengu Ceremony, which takes place every 20 years at the Ise Grand Shrines, the sacred treasures as well as the main sanctuary of the Grand Shrines are all made anew. It was customary until the end of the Meiji era that the old shrines were all buried or burned. We sometimes hear news stories that bronze objects used as implements in ancient rituals have been excavated. Some archaeologists say that the treatment of the divine treasures of Ise Shrine during the Sengu Rite can indicate the use and significance of these unearthed objects. The continuing rituals concerning rice growing, from the Festival of Rice-Transplantation to the Rice-Harvesting Ceremonies performed by the Imperial family of Japan, give us an idea of methods of planting and cropping rice in former times.

I exhibited about 80 photographic slides to illustrate my argument.

Photo 1:
The Master of the Ceremonies and the Superintendent of the Sanctuaries of Ise Grand Shrines retiring from the site of the Great Kawara Purification Rite at the Outer Shrine of Ise the day before the 61st Sengu Event (Oct., 1993).

Photo 2:
The Koshogatsu (Little New Year's Day, Jan. 14) in Chiran, Kagoshima Prefecture. This event is called "Kaseda-uchi" indicating those families that earned enough in the neighborhood the year before to build new houses (Jan., 1993).

March 6, 1995
Breast Cancer in Samoan Women

The ultimate cause of carcinoma of the breast remains unclear. However, a great deal of aetiological information has been collected by clinicians, pathologists, statisticians and researchers in many centres all over the world.

In Western Samoa, for the period 1988 to 1993, we received at our National Health Laboratory, Apia, a total of 57 breast tissue specimens from 57 females for histological diagnosis. A total of 26 (45.6%) of these patients have carcinoma of the breast. Fibroadenomas account for the next most common tumour (benign) of the breast in our patients.

By age distribution, 5 of the 26 cancer patients are in the ago group of 30 to 39 years old, 9 patients in the 40 to 49 years old group, 4 in the 50-59 age group, 4 in the 60-69 age and we have 4 in the 70-79 age group. The youngest and oldest patients in our cases are 31 years and 78 years old respectively. This age distribution suggests that we could consider the possibility of cancer in any woman presented to us with a mass in the breast and over 30 years of age. It is also noted that the highest number of breast cancers in our cases fall in the age group of 40-49 years of age. At present, we have no explanation for this. We have not done any work or research to identify risk factors that might explain this.

The most common histological carcinoma of the breast in our cases is the infiltrating duct carcinoma, which accounts for 21 of our 26 cases. It is unfortunate that all of these cases already showed evidence of metastasis in the breast tissues or adjacent lymph nodes at the time of diagnosis.

Conclusion:
We have no patient in our cases below the age of 30 years. With reference to the age distribution of our breast cancer patients, we would consider the possibility of carcinoma of the breast in any women with a lump in the breast after age 30 years and especially those who are approaching menopause or within this period.

The high number of breast cancers at the menopausal period suggests some hormonal disturbances as risk factors related to the development of malignancy. It would be worthwhile to carry out research to identify risk factors regarding the development of breast cancer in our female population.

April 17, 1995
Kings and Poets of the Indic Java

The island of Java is the homeland of intricate Javanese culture, which has been influenced by waves of foreign civilizations. Indian civilization, in particular, exerted influence either in its Buddhist or Hindu aspects for more than fifteen centuries and therefore contributed greatly to the formation of the substratum of Javanese culture.

The first Indic kingdoms flourished in Central Java in the mid-eighth to ninth centuries. In this period, the Buddhist Sailendra and the Hindu Mataram kingdoms emerged and built beautiful temples, such as Borobudur and Prambanan. The kingdoms also supported court poets who produced a number of literary works. The Javanese edition of the famous Indian epic Ramayana is one of the earliest and greatest examples of these literary activities. The elegant reliefs on the wall panels of Prambanan temple testify to the epic's popularity.

The story depicted in the reliefs, except for some details, closely follows the orthodox Sanskrit recension. The prince Rama, reincarnation of the god Wisnu, married the princess Sita. Rama's father decided to give up the throne for Rama but a political intrigue forced Rama to retreat to a forest with his brother and Sita for thirteen years. While they were in the forest, the demon king Rawana fell in love with Sita, kidnapped her and took her away to his kingdom in Langka. Rama and his brother, with the aid of a monkey king and his powerful general Hanuman, attacked Langka and succeeded in rescuing her.

The Ramayana remained popular even after the Islamization of Javanese people and their literary and performing arts repertoires. Its persistent popularity appears to be embedded in the way the story is constructed: The story's simple structure avoids excessive complication which makes it easier to comprehend the confrontation between good and evil. Nevertheless, it manages to develop characters interesting enough to grasp the audience's attention.

May 29, 1995
Progress Report of the 1994 Survey of the Research Project, "Man and the Environment in Micronesia."

Part 1. Appropriate Agricultural Development in Relation to the Terrestrial Environment

• Report 1: Comments on Some Features of Horticultural Land Use on Pohnpei Island
  Kazutaka NAKANO
• Report 2: Preliminary Report on Soil Conditions in Pohnpei Island
  Michio ONJO, Takako KITAGAKI, Nobufumi MIYAUCHI, Shigeto TOMINAGA and Mitsuru HAYASHI
• Report 3: Characteristics of Tropical and Subtropical Fruits Collected from Pohnpei Island of the FSM
  Shigeto TOMlNAGA, Michio ONJO, Mitsuru HAYASHI, Adelino S. LORENS and Fumio HASHINAGA
• Report 4: Distribution of Citrus Species on Pohnpei Island of the FSM
  Shigeto TOMlNAGA, Michio ONJO, Mitsuru HAYASHI and Adelino S. LORENS
• Report 5: Introduction of Tropical Plants from Pohnpei Island
  Michio ONJO, Shigeto TOMINAGA and Mitsuru HAYASHI

Part 2. Development of Marine Biological Resources and Conservation of the Marine Environment

• Report 1: The Growth of G. toxicus, A toxic Dinoflagellate in Pohnpei Island and Ant Atoll, the Federated States of Micronesia
  Akio INOUE and Ahser EDWARD
• Report 2: Marine Algal Flora of Pohnpei Island of the FSM
  Tadahide NORO, Saori ETOH and Ahser EDWARD
• Report 3: Purification and Characterization of Biologically Active Peptides from the Seacucumber Holothuria Atra
  Yasuyuki SHIMOHIGASHI, Takeru NOSE, Tadahide NORO, Tatsuro MATSUOKA and Ahser EDWARD
• Report 4: Coastal Fisheries Development and Management in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia
  Tatsuro MATSUOKA, Adam LEBEHN and Mike ABRAHAM

Part 3. Community Health of the Islanders

• Report 1: Blood Pressure and Mineral Contents in Inhabitants of Pohnpei Island
  Seiji MIKAMI, Susumu NIHIRA, Koichi TAKEMORI, Calvin M. BURGOYNE and Simao NORMAN

Part 4. Development of the System of Administration and its Relationship to Cultural Autonomy

• Report 1: Several Features of Rural Houses in Pohnpei
  Mitsuyosi TSUCHIDA

Part 5. Some Biological Aspects of Oceanography

• Report 1: Distribution of Nutrients and Dissolved Oxygen in the Subtropical Western Pacific Ocean in 1994
  Toshihiro ICHIKAWA and Nobuko KAWAMURA
• Report 2: The Oceanographic Condition in the Section from the South of Honshu to Pohnpei in 1994
  Masataka HIGASHI, Kiyoshi SHIMADA, Sunao MASUMITSU and Yasutaka YUWAKI

June 26, 1995
Commercialization of Agriculture in the Philippines: Case Studies in Three Philippine Villages

The economic structure of rice growing villages in the Philippines has been changing substantially since 1960s, after the green revolution was initiated. Farmers, who used to reproduce their own seed and seldom use any kind of commercial agricultural inputs, now have to buy the seeds of high yielding varieties of rice, chemical fertilizer and insecticides from agricultural traders. Furthermore, the agrarian reform implemented in rice fields under President Marcos increased yields enough for cultivators to sell some of their harvest to rice traders. Thus, the green revolution and agrarian reform have commercialized the economy of rice farmers. This report discusses some current changes in rice farming villages involving class differentiation and land holding systems, based on field research in three villages. It also discusses some trends of the Philippine macro economy, which has been influencing village economy under consideration.

In village A, some beneficiaries of the green revolution and agrarian reform were so successful in capital accumulation that they started contract farming of cucumber for a large scale food processing company during the dry season, when most farms were idle. This contract farming generated employment and income opportunities. In village B, which is located in a rather depressed area, low and unstable production increased the dependence of farmers on their former landlords, and the traditional share cropping system has been resurgent. Population growth in the village has led to a new share cropping system, which is more disadvantageous to the cultivators. In village C, farmers have benefited a lot from an economic boom in the sugar industry in Negros in the 1970s and some of them have become rice traders themselves. However, these farmers have shifted their interest from agriculture to education and have been sending their children abroad since mid 1980s. Their farms are now just used as collateral to borrow money from the rice farmers in the village. Here, Philippine low economic growth is decisive in the village.

There seem to be few villages in the position of village A, which is experiencing positive trends in terms of agricultural production. The regressive villages (village B and Village C) experiencing many negative trends seem to be more common. If the labor market expands and pulls population from rural areas, the ruthlessly exploitative cropping system in village B will be terminated, and the farms in village C will be put into production again.

July 11, 1995
Reproduction and Life-Cycle of Aosa

(The Editor regrets that the English summary of this semminar was not made available by the time of editing this issue of South Pacific Newsletter. We hope it will appear in the next issue.)

October 26, 1995
Open Lecture: The Story of Women's Suffrage in New Zealand

In 1893, New Zealand women won the right to vote in national elections ﾑthe first nation in the world. Why did New Zealand achieve this reform, long before any other country? And why was this great achievement virtually forgotten?

After 1893, suffragists all over the world tried to use New Zea1and's formula ﾑbut the experiment could not be repeated. Most countries had to wait till after World War I before their women could vote.

The time was right. In the late nineteenth century the world was buzzing with modern economic and social theories. It was a time of idealism and hope. New Zealanders had immigrated with the deliberate intention of creating a "Better Britain", without the horrors of the British class system: poverty, illness, exploitation, crime, and drunkenness.

New Zealand in the 1890s was regarded as the most radical country in the world. Even so, votes for women was not on their agenda. Most people thought the idea was utterly ridiculousﾑ and shocking, too.

But the right woman was there to press for the cause. This woman was Kate Sheppard, intelligent, witty, diplomatic and charmingﾑ and much admired by men. Later, she said that organisation was the secret of success, and she learned how to organise women in the Ladies' Association of her small church.

Then in 1885 an American woman preacher, Mary Clement Leavitt, toured New Zealand, starting branches of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. W.C.T.U. became a pressure group for women's suffrage.

Temperance united women. Women had no legal protection from drunken husbands because women were not even "persons" in the eyes of the law. They wanted the vote to protect their children.

Kate Sheppard used modern methods to change public opinion and the law: She used the media, lobbied politicians, and took opinion polls. And she used petitions. In 1891, the women's petition had 10,000 signatures. It was rejected. In 1892, they had 20,000 signatures. In 1893, 30,000 ﾑand they won. Democracy could not resist such pressure.

Kate Sheppard liked men, and men liked Kate Sheppard. If they hadn't liked her, women would not have won the vote. She loved the stimulation of intellectual debate with clever and powerful men. Men friends helped her: Two politicians, and William Lovell-Smith, a printer. Men had the power. Only men could give the vote to women, so the leader of the campaign had to please them. She loved to dress in mauve velvet and cream lace and feather boas. Feminists at the time were widely abused as "half men" and "monsters." Kate Sheppard readily proved she was feminine, which robbed these insults of their power.

After the triumph of 1893, a radical new women's organisation pressed the government for further reforms like the Old Age Pension. But by 1906, Kate Sheppard had virtually retired. She was soon almost forgotten.

Why? There was a huge scandal in her life.

Kate Sheppard quietly left her husband and moved in with William Lovell-Smith, his wife Jeannie, their ten children and his sisters. The menage-a-trois caused an uproar. Yet feminists often advocated marriage for love, easier divorce, and economic independence for married women.

William's wife Jeannie was made very unhappy by Kate's presence in the marriage, but Kate stayed for about twenty years, and married William after Jeannie died.

Sixty years later, the mneage-a-trois still worries people. When my historical novel Farewell Speech was published in 1990, New Zealand feminists were delighted to discover a true heroine in Kate Sheppard; but some were naturally confused by the fact that she knowingly made another woman unhappy. Many would prefer to see Kate Sheppard as a saint. The truth is that Kate Sheppard was brilliant, brave, idealistic ﾑand fully human. Whether her menage-a-trois was physical or intellectual is not the point, for it was an authentic expression of Kate Sheppard's radical spirit.

The real Kate Sheppard was far more daring ﾑand more disturbingﾑ than any idealised woman. It was a nineteenth century stereotype that all women were pure (except for some, who were evil). Kate Sheppard's life work helped to free women of the impossible obligation to be saints. The moral of her life, for me, is this: It is better to be brave than to be perfect.

Novermber 21, 1995
Traditional Houses in Japan and China

Japanese traditional houses comprise two systematic types; houses with unfloored space, and houses with board floors. Japanese traditional houses with unfloored space belong to lower society, and traditional houses with board floors belong to higher society .

The unfloored space is separated from the board floor in Japan. Chinese people sit down on the unfloored place, but Japanese people sit down on carpet which was laid in the unfloored place. It is thought that Chinese unfloored place spread into the garden and is equivalent to the ground.

There are rural houses with high board floors in Yun Nan Cheng. There is nothing beneath the high board floors except for tools for husking rice and domestic animals. The washing room (Photo 1), the kitchen and the fired range (Photo 2) are located on the board floor.

People live only on the board floors and sit down on chairs around sunken hearths. The board floor in Yun Nan Cheng is used like the unfloored spaces of Chinese traditional houses. It is different in Japan, where, unlike China, chairs are not used.

Photo 1:
The unfloored place to wash clothes in Yun Nan Cheng.

Photo 2:
The sunken hearth on the board floor in Yun Nan Cheng.

December 11, 1995
Images of Islanders in Pacific War Photographs

The Pacific War affected the social and individual lives of thousands of South Pacific Islanders. Over the course of the war, the Allied and Japanese militaries produced multiple and conflicting photographic images of Pacific Islanders that they deployed for various purposes. The war generated enormous photographic archives. Still photography was the essential medium for reporting and representing the Pacific War just as, a generation later in the U.S., television was in Vietnam. No one knows the exact number of WW2 photographs that exist today. The Imperial War Museum in London today archives nearly two million negatives. By the end of 1945, U.S. Army Signal Corps photographers alone had sent more than 500,000 negatives back to Washington, DC. In these collections today, we can read wartime imagery of the "native" by paying attention to the ways in which military photographers posed their subjects.

Pacific Islanders played small but important parts in military photographic narratives. The war's thematics of patriotic drives, welding allies, and widening the gap between friend and enemy required that Islanders assume a number of poses. And these photographic poses diversified images of Island men and women. By war's end, the pictures collected in military archives presented multiple and contradictory images. Wartime poses helped subvert earlier facts about South Sea savages. Justification of the war to oneself and to others eroded the boundary between civilized self and native other. This instability and plurality of native postures also reflected altered colonial realities whose political effect soon became clear in the postwar political struggles of onetime European dependencies.

War historians have explored the racist and other rhetorics that the Allies and Japanese used to make sense of themselves in conflict. Standing back in the referential shadows are Pacific Islanders whose homelands were invaded by Japanese and Allied forces alike. These Islanders only occasionally appear and move across the narrative screen, assigned small roles in the larger struggle between the warring camps. They were to enjoy co-prosperity; they were victims to be saved from either vicious European colonialism or an evil Japanese empire; they were exotic and primitive jungle dwellers; and they were loyal allies in a good war. These were roles that Islanders did not always choose for themselves. The Japanese and Allied militaries in the main controlled the scripting and the production of wartime images--at least those that remain available to us in libraries and archives. Multiple and heterogeneous images of Pacific Islanders exist in the photo archives because they once served the military politics of the 1940s. And these stances continue to be recycled by military historians as well as by tourist entrepreneurs in the new Pacific states who hope to convert war memories into dollars.

War photographs position the native in a number of key poses. These postures reflect shifting bounds of European self vis-a-vis na tive other. They compose what might be called a continuum of affinity: Sometimes natives are unlike, and sometimes like, us. (This "us" comprises the photographer and the military and civilian communities he (or sometimes she) served.) Starting at the dissimilar pole of the continuum, these photographic poses move from (1) native as exotic savage; (2) native as servant; (3) native as victim; (4) native as pupil; (5) native as loyal ally; to (6) native as like us, like the self.

A selection of photographic slides from military archives illustrates each of these poses and how the war's narrative imperatives pulled imagined natives down along this continuum so that, by war's end, new images of the native as like "us" partly overlaid prewar depictions of the exotic and savage South Pacific Islander.

Symposia in 1995

Symposium: Tropical Fisheries
February 24, 1995

Introduction

The tropical waters surrounding island developing countries in the South Pacific region are the fishing grounds accustomed to the distant water and overseas-based fisheries of Japan as well as those from which seafood imported for our daily diet is harvested. There are many Japanese firms directly involved in the development of domestic fisheries in those countries, and technical cooperation in fisheries is actively conducted by the Japanese Government. Because of these activities, the region might be regarded as a fishing ground to be secured for Japanese fisheries or an area identified for development-and-import type of projects. From the viewpoint of the tropical developing countries in the region, however, these waters are appreciated for their own development potential. Those countries aim at both development for promoting employment opportunities, earning foreign exchange and producing import substitutes through fisheries, and conservation of marine resources and environment for future generations. Developed fishing nations such as Japan may be regarded as potential investors, fishing fee payers and potential markets for their marine products. It is regrettable that the respective views and goals on each side are neither coincident nor successful in this critical time of the drastic reorganization of the world fisheries framework.

A symposium entitled as "Tropical Fisheries" was held with approximately ninety participants meeting at the Inamori Hall of Kagoshima University. This was organized by the Research Center for the South Pacific and was supported by the Faculty of Fisheries, Kagoshima University. This symposium aimed at reconsidering and seeking new approaches to tropical fisheries from a variety of standpoints which were definitely different from conventional views, such as southern fisheries for Japanese. The four presentations compared Japanese and island views on technical and socio-economical issues. It is difficult to reach a unified conclusion in this kind of symposium; however, it is believed to be important to clarify the problems, future directions and required measures in tropical fisheries, from different perspectives on the basis of reported facts and common information ascertained through discussion. A forum was opened at the end of the symposium and a discussion on the present issues as a whole was held among many of participants, including people actually involved in tropical fisheries. This report summarizes the four presentations at the symposium, which are anticipated to contribute to better understanding of tropical fisheries for all interested people.

The organizer extends his gratitude to Prof. Akio Inoue, the Research Center for the South Pacific and its staff members who provided advice and support for the symposium continuously and generously. The organizer's hearty thanks are also extended to Prof. Shozo Hayasaka, Chancellor of Kagoshima University and to Prof. Masaaki Chaen, Dean of the Faculty of Fisheries, who kindly addressed the symposium. Finally, I thank Prof. Gunzo Kawamura who chaired the open forum ensuring its fruitful discussion.

1. Development of Coastal Fisheries and Conservation of Fishing Grounds in Tropical Developing Countries

Most island countries in the South Pacific region give the high priority to fisheries in their national development strategies, while aiming at conservation of marine resources and environment for the next generation.

The fisheries industry in Papua New Guinea, for example, is categorized into four components; subsistence fishing, small-scale business fisheries, industrial fisheries and fishing conducted by foreign vessels. Since the collapse of the domestic tuna industry in the 1980s, tuna resources have been utilized by means of collection of fishing fees from foreign vessels. The remaining industrial fishery is prawn trawling in the Gulf of Papua, where the discard of the by-catch matches or exceeds the total amount of landing in coastal fisheries around the country. The gillnet fishery for barramundi (Lates calcarifer), which is a typical small-scale business fishery, is managed under a national policy. Its fish and net mesh size regulations are, however, uncompliant and, therefore, not respected by coastal fishermen. Dynamite fishing illegally conducted is destructive of coastal fauna and coral reef. Papua New Guinea faces such problems to the policy, while development of its fisheries industry has in general not been a success.

The strategy to develop modern fisheries by the introduction of industrial fisheries has not been feasible as indicated by the failure of the domestic tuna industry. Technology transfer directly from developed countries may provoke unforeseen problems as has been the case in prawn trawling. Even traditional fishing techniques suitable to local conditions may not be ecologically conservative when they are used for the purpose of cash earning. The experiences of Papua New Guinea indicate that fishing technology adapted specifically to tropical fisheries must be rapidly developed.

The code of conduct for responsible fishing encouraged by FAO proposes to guide the world fisheries in the next era. This will give a basis for technical cooperation to be offered to developing countries to promote their fisheries which ensure the conservation of the marine environment and biodiversity, for which promotion of selective fishing techniques are defined to decrease waste of resource species and discard of by-catch. Technical cooperation to develop fishing technology suitable for the management of tropical fisheries, in line with responsible fishing, is required for Japan to build its fishing industry to be respected among world fisheries.

2. Marine Resource Use and Its Transformation in Small-Scale Fisheries in Southeast Asia and Oceania

Three cases studies of small-scale fisheries in Indonesia and Solomon Islands are examined in terms of marine resource management.

In the Moluccas of eastern Indonesia, customary practices to control access to resources are generally known as sasi in which harvest of selected coastal and land resources are subject to particular regulation. The function and history of sasi are diverse. For instance, sasi lola (trochus shell) spread extensively throughout the Moluccas in the mid 1970s when economic demand for the shell neccesitated control over its harvest while sasi lompa (sardine-like fish) is found only on Haruku Island and its origin may be traced back several hundred years.

In northeast Malaita of the Solomon Islands, the Lau people living on man-made coral islets are known as expert fishermen who employ nearly one hundred fishing techniques. Extensive barrier reefs are mostly owned by particular individuals or lineages. Fish resources are either locally consumed or exchanged for shell money or taro when requested by hill tribes of the mainland. While fish-freight networks between rural fishing villages and the town of Honiara, which began around the late 1970s, have urged people to earn more income than before, they have also brought about over-exploitation and a failure to observe reef tenure and other traditional customs.

In the Riau Islands of western Indonesia, the Malays and the Orang Laut have utilized reef and mangrove resources for subsistence as well as commercial purposes. Since the 1970s, export of live groupers has become one of the promising business in the archipelago. In Indonesia, fish-pens for live fish located throughout the country are organized by Chinese and Buginese trading networks. While the export of live fish to Singapore and Hong Kong is increasing, grouper stocks may be threatened due to over-exploitation.

These three cases clearly show that resource use in small-scale fisheries of Southeast Asia and Oceania is diversified and rapidly changing. Therefore, comparative studies of indigenous models of the sustainable resource use are recommended.

3. Japanese Tuna Fishing Industry and Its Operation in the South Pacific

The Japanese tuna fishing industry has undergone many structural transitions throughout its history, being regulated by the fisheries law according to vessel type, operational areas (pelagic, coastal etc.) and other criteria for each type of fishing method (type of fishery). These historical changes and institutional issues have come to be strongly influenced by international factors as: (1) the tuna species targeted by the Japanese tuna industry are distributed throughout the vast temperate and tropical ocean regions of the world and are highly migratory species, or migrating through high seas and many national coastal waters under national jurisdiction; (2) the fishing grounds targeted by Japanese tuna vessels encompass most ocean areas of the world; and (3) Japan is the only market for sashimi tuna while the raw tuna for canned products is internationally marketed. Japanese methods of the industrial and stock management on the basis of fishing method are supposed to shift toward a quota system regime in line with the recent international stock management debate at FAO, etc. The Japanese industry is facing a fierce battle in reorganizing the international framework to incorporate fundamental issues and recent conditions such as: (1) sharp falls in fish prices due to the recession and a sharp rise in imported products; (2) low catch rates over the past few years centered on the Eastern Pacific region; and (3) the year-by-year strengthening of international stock management regimes. These conditions have provoked the worst situation in the history of the Japanese tuna industry.

4. Fisheries Technical Cooperation by Japan

In the South Pacific island countries, economic development is greatly dependent on fisheries development. It is necessary for these countries, therefore, to make the best use of their fishery resources in 200 nautical mile zones and they are strongly requesting to increase access fees for distant water fishing nations as a mean of increasing revenues. In tandem with this approach, they are encouraging the introduction of joint ventures and foreign investment, and shifting the industry from tuna fishing operations to the processing of products on land to produce additional revenue and expand foreign markets. A good example might be the joint venture in Solomon Islands. In the outer islands of these countries, however, many residents are still engaged in subsistent fishing. Accordingly, it is an important political objective to promote and up-grade fisheries in order to raise their standard of living and improve nutrition. On the other hand, in urban areas where consumer demand is expanding, there is a need to further develop commercial fisheries. To meet these needs, the countries in the region request various types of cooperation from Japan and its Overseas Fisheries Cooperation Foundation (OFCF), as well as other organizations, which are extending versatile forms of cooperation, such as technical cooperation for coastal fisheries development, personnel training in various courses, provision of equipment and materials through Japanese fishery organizations, technical rehabilitation and maintenance of fishery facilities, etc. Many remarkable results have been achieved which are highly appreciated by recipient countries. Reflecting on the results of some projects that were terminated, however, transferred technologies are not always found to have been effectively utilized in the project site, despite the great efforts of dispatched experts. Some of this is attributable to the lack of technical knowledge of regional personnel, weak back-up systems of regional governments, insufficient maintenance of facilities due to insufficiency of running budgets, etc. It is necessary, therefore, to have clear insight and understanding of the socioeconomic circumstances of the region or country where a project is being implemented.

Symposium: Modern Japan's 'Nanpo Kan'yo (Participation towards the South)'
September 16, 1995

Hajime SHIMIZU
Faculty of Economics, Nagasaki Prefectural University

Shinzo HAYASE
Faculty of Letters, Osaka City University

Sumio HATANO
Institute of Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba

1995 is the golden anniversary of the end of World War II in Japan. There was much discussion about the 50 years since the war in Japan. However, we historians are afraid of ignoring the origin of the war. Therefore, we planned this symposium to discuss the roots of the war in pre-war Japan.

Firstly, Hajime Shimizu (Nagasaki Prefectural University) discussed "'Asianism' and 'participation towards the South'." He concluded that a source of the ideology the Daitoa-kyoei-ken (The Great East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere) emerged during World War I. This ideology was connected to the 'participation towards the South', which was more a tendency of anti-Asianism rather than Asianism during the Meiji period (1868-1912), and later became the ideology of invasion towards the South.

Secondly, Shinzo Hayase (Osaka City University) discussed the relations between "the theory towards the South" during the Meiji period and "the Great East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere" from the viewpoint of Japanese emigrants in the Philippines. Emigrants to the Philippines were encouraged as an advance party for the future colonization during the Meiji era. The Japanese population of Davao grew to 20,000 by the beginning of the war. However, they were not well-organized under the Japanese military government, because these emigrated Japanese were considered "lesser Japanese" by newly coming Japanese from Japan.

Finally, Sumio Hatano (University of Tsukuba) discussed "the new order of Asia during the war and post-war conception." Japan showed these new conceptions in the conference for Great East Asia and so on in 1943-44. One of main themes was how to decolonize and how to create a new international order after the war.

Through these three papers we recognized that the Japanese view of the South has not changed much even 50 years after such a disastrous war, revealing a concealed view of the South among modern Japanese.

Public Lecture Series: The South Pacific--Countries and Peoples--
August 5 and 6, 1995

Introduction

The public lecture series of the Kagoshima University Research Center for the South Pacific was held on the campus of Kagoshima University during two days, August 5 and 6, 1995. Last year's series basically followed the preceding and was again entitled "The South Pacific ﾑCountries and Peoples." That is, the lectures mainly focused on the introduction of the following four countries and one region, and their peoples in Melanesia and Polynesia: Western Samoa, French Polynesia, Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In addition to the introduction of those countries and region, in celebration of the participation of the Research Center in the Internet Communication System, an attempt to display information about the South Pacific on computer monitors and to let participants at the lectures themselves operate these computers to acquire information was made.

Last year, the number of participants was considerably more than that in previous years. Therefore, the attitude of the lecturers was especially enthusiastic. Besides the full and part-time campus staff of the Research Center, Miss Grace Hilly, a Solomon Islander and first year student of the National Institute of Fitness & Sports in Kanoya (which is also located in Kagoshima Prefecture), made a contribution to the meeting. She read her text in Japanese which she had been learning only for somewhat more than one year. Every one, however, was highly impressed by her good Japanese.

As with the preceding year, an hour was allotted for overall discussion between the staff lecturers and participants. This discussion time was very useful, because participants' knowledge was deepened and points from the respective lectures were fully elucidated. Subjects and abstracts of the lectures are as follows:

1. French Polynesia

French Polynesia is one of the French overseas territories and occupies the eastern part of Polynesia with a vast area nearly equivalent to the whole of Europe, but with a population of only about 170,000. The territory consists of five island group, the Society, Marqueses, Tuamotu, Mangareva and Austral Islands. Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia, is located at the north-west corner of Tahiti Island, Society Islands, which is the largest island in the area. Tahiti became famous through the paintings of Paul Gauguin. The area has attracted worldwide attention since the resumption of nuclear tests in Mururoa Atoll in 1995.

The people of French Polynesia, along with those from other tropical areas, have suffered from fish poisoning, ciguatera, caused by coral reef fish which become toxic after having consumed large amounts of a toxin-producing benthic dinoflagellate. The causative organism for intoxication was found to live throughout the area with different degrees of concentration. Practically no fish had been caught for almost ten years since the end of 1970s without danger of intoxication on one of the Mangareva Islands that are located in the eastern end of French Polynesia.

2. Fiji: the Country and the People

The lecture on the nature, civilization and culture of Fiji was given on the basis of the speaker's experiences in Fiji through the Nautilus survey carried out in 1983 and 1986.

The Fiji Islands are located in the area across the 180 line of longitude and have daybreak earlier than all other countries in the world. Fiji is composed of four main islands, Viti Levu, Vanua Levu, Taveuni and Kadavu, and 840 small islands. Fiji has a total land area of about 18,000 km2, twice as large as the area of Kagoshima Prefecture, and has a population of 771,000 in 1994, less than half of the population of Kagoshima Prefecture. The Fiji Islands are composed of mainly Cretaceous and Tertiary sedimentary rocks and volcanics, though some of the smaller ones are formed by limestone. Coral reefs surround almost all the islands. The major export crops are sugarcane, coconuts, bananas and copra. Mining is important, and gold and manganese are exported.

The people of Fiji are mostly Indians and aboriginal Fijians. According to population statistics for 1993, Fijians account for 47.8% and Indians account for 47.4% of the total population. Fijians who settled first, are thought to be from Melanesian New Guinea, and to be of racially mixed blood of Melanesian and Polynesian peoples. About 45 percent of the people are Christians, chiefly Methodists, and 35 percent are Hindus.

In Fiji, articles of luxury, for example cars and electric machines, are very expensive, though the necessities of life, food, clothing and housing, are inexpensive and abundant. They did not have television broadcasts in 1986, although it does now. If people wanted to watch television, they had to borrow a videotape from a videotape rental shop. From Saturday afternoon to Sunday, most stores are closed. People spend their time going to church, playing sports or doing as they please on the weekend.

The speaker felt the current of time passed gently in Fiji, and that people enjoyed life. We, Japanese people, should perhaps learn from their lifestyle.

3. Solomon Islands

At the beginning of this lecture, I presented fundamental data regarding this country, such as its location, land area, population, and so forth. At the next stage, Miss Hilly, a student from the Solomon Islands, gave a speech about her mother country based on her own life and experience. The main points of her speech were that the nation is composed of many ethnic groups and languages despite of the tininess of the islands, that all people living there, including aliens, are treated without discrimination and, furthermore, that they spend their lives, in contrast to Japan, particularly Tokyo, in an atmosphere of rest and comfort and lack of hurry. She also stated that she immensely enjoyed the country life that she had spent in the home villages of her parents during her childhood, and that life in Kanoya (a town in Kagoshima Prefecture) was considerably similar to such. In her speech, she mentioned the fact that, in her country, although English is recommended as the formal national language, Melanesian Pidgin is spoken generally amongst all the nation. Pidgin is also spoken in Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu and is chiefly derived from English.

After her speech, with the help of slides and quantitative data through tables and figures, I displayed scenes and analyses illustrating the content of her remarks. In the presentation, I explained the main reason for the wide distribution of Melanesian Pidgin in Melanesia. That is, it was because tens of thousands of Melanesians went to earn cash income on the sugar-cane plantations of northeastern Australia as laborers in the latter half of the 19th century. I also mentioned that, in the home villages of her parents that she liked so much, the staple food is sweet potato produced in slash-and-burn fields. Using data obtained from my field surveys in one island of this country, I explained that people in the villages need not work hard to maintain their everyday lifestyle.

4. Traditional Life and Modernization in Papua New Guinea: with Specific Emphasis on the Lives of Onshore People

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is the largest island country in the South Pacific region, which includes more than 1,400 islands of a variety of sizes located between the equator and 12｡S of latitude. The land area is approximately 460 thousand square kilometres, which is slightly greater than that of Japan. PNG gained independence in 1976 and is currently a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations on the basis of its democratic constitution.

The aquatic environment of PNG has a range of variation, from coral reefs and mangroves in coastal areas to a variety of inland rivers. Onshore people have developed specific life styles and techniques adapted to particular aquatic-environmental conditions. Canoes with easily broken outriggers to protect the hull from structural damage, and the high floored houses of the Sepik River region useful against seasonal flooding are good examples.

Related to the increasing involvement in the cash economy due to development since independence, onshore people have started market-oriented fishing where they harvest aquatic organisms to sell at nearby markets. These activities remain, however, within the range of artisanal fishing and have not changed the general life style of people. Industrial fisheries, such as modern prawn trawling, have been technically transferred from overseas. However, they have little impact on the people's life. A weak inter-relationship between traditional and modern activities and their on-going co-existence are widely observed in contemporary PNG.

Observers from developed countries commonly assess the people and society of PNG from an urban-oriented viewpoint. It is, however, important to recognize the bi-facetted characters of the society and how the behaviour of people is affected by traditional patterns that still firmly exist within the urban context. The people and society in PNG are poorly understood from a superficial view point of level of economic development or acceptance of European commonsense.

5. Western Samoa (Samoa I Sisifo): Nature and People

The State of Western Samoa, one of the Polynesian countries, is located just east of the dateline in the South Pacific area, and consists of beautiful volcano islands surrounded by a beautiful sea (the South Pacific). The population of Western Samoa is about 170,000 and its density is distinctively high in Apia, where approximately 50,000 people live. Apia is the capital city of this country and is located on the Island of Upolu.

Western Samoa became independent in 1962. Before this it was a trust territory of New Zealand. Since its independence, a good relationship has been maintained between both countries and much aid has been provided to Western Samoa by New Zealand, although Samoa's political, economic and social infrastructures are still developing.

The people of Western Samoa, together with American Samoa, covers a common basic cultural and historical traits in this relatively narrow area of Polynesian world. Most Samoans belong to their original families of which caps are called as Matai.

Western Samoa, as well as American Samoa, had not been deeply influenced by Japan until the end of the last War. Since the 1960s, Western Samoa has increased contacts with Japan, especially in the fields of business, science, sightseeing, through ODA, JICA, and also the UN especially WHO, etc. The people of Western Samoa are very friendly to Japan and Japanese people today.

6. The South Pacific through the Internet

The Internet connects computers located all around the world and thus enables us to access information and data which until recently could be reached only with great difficulty. In this session, I demonstrated how to access the Internet, particularly the World Wide Web, and obtain information on the South Pacific by using a personal computer. Three Macintosh computers (LC630) connected to the Kagoshima University's LAN were made available: one for the instructor and two for the participants. Associate Professor Kuwahara and Professor Tsukahara volunteered as assistants (many thanks to the two). The emphasis was more on practice than on theory. Thus time allotted for this session was longer than others (one and a half hour), and also prior to the session questionnaires were given to the participants to determine their field of interest and computer familiarity. In the first half of the session I explained the fundamental principles of the personal computer and the Internet, and the basics of how to use a personal computer to access the Internet. The participants then had hands-on experience with e-mail and the WWW. After some initial confusion, they soon managed to obtain information and data on the South Pacific, reading texts, seeing images and hearing sounds characteristic of the region.