A Mysterious Enterprise: The Japanese "Shirase" Expedition of 1911

"I am, you will understand, no devout lover of the Japanese. As men, I don't like them, knowing them rather too well: they are sleek, deceptive, tawdry, shallow, treacherous, and cheap. As a nation, I like them even less..." —New Zealand journalist

In 1911, the same year that Scott and Amundsen began their race for the Pole, the Japanese "Shirase" expedition arrived in Wellington, New Zealand, to stock up on supplies for their own attempt on Pole. The Kiwi press had a heyday, few believing that the expedition would amount to anything at all. And it didn't: the Japanese barely made it across the Ross Ice Shelf, planted their flag, and returned. Overshadowed by the classic popular expeditions of Scott, Amundsen, and Shackleton, the Japanese expedition was the kind of failure that history shuns. Besides abandoning live dogs, for which the expedition faced excruciating public outcry upon its return to Japan (and the story of which probably served as the basis for Koreyoshi Kurahara's film "Antarctica" about two dogs that survive their abandonment by a polar expedition), the expedition would be almost entirely unremarkable, were it not also for the record left to posterity by the New Zealand (and Australian) press, which could barely contain its contempt for the party of clueless brownskins and their attempt to compete with the West in polar affairs.

The overt racism in these articles may signal to some how much Western society has developed, so that we can look back on those foolish 1911 Kiwis and think what a bunch of ignorant yokels they were. Besides that the Kiwis certainly are a bunch of ignorant yokels, a more important lesson from these documents is how good the journalism reads compared to today's journalism. These documents give you the feeling of standing around a shipyard, craning your neck to get a look at the crazed Japs wearing bearskins and headed for Pole, while most of today's journalism is so concerned with not appearing ignorant that every stroke of the pen is directed toward the path of least offense. These documents are still informative and entertaining, while most of today's journalism will later appear only as propaganda, which is not without its own charms, but hardly signals our own enlightenment relative to 1911.

I found this 30-page compilation in the Christchurch Canterbury Museum Library. Though I doubt the entire document will be of interest to anyone but diehard Antarctic geeks, I've extracted excerpts, printed below, and leave the 15M pdf here for unescorted perusal. (Note: there was a page missing from the original compilation, and there are some disconcerting omissions and repetitions of text.)

Shirase Expedition (.pdf--15M)

"Dr. Douglas Mawson...believes that the Japanese expedition is not intended for the South Pole at all, but that its object is the investigation of the Antarctic sealing grounds, with the view of establishing an industry in oil and skins. He is also inclined to accuse them of contravening the unwritten laws of etiquette, which forbid scientists poaching on one another's territory..."

"Most people thought the expedition would never gct as far even as New Zealand, let alone the Pole. Captain Scott, however, was inclined to treat his rivals with respect: "You never know what the Japanese can do," he said..."

"Officers and men were apparently glad to see some of their fellow human beings once more, and even though their skins were a different colour and they spoke a different language. The language difficulty was, however, not easily got over. The Japanese were able to report "No sickness" and "No losses," and they were a clean, sturdy, healthy-looking lot of young men, so there was no trouble about their landing....The Japanese talked to one another, smiled pleasantly, and waited patiently for the arrival of Mr Hwang, the Consul for China. and his secretary. Mr Hwang is able to write a little Japanese, though he cannot speak the language, and sheets of foolscap were produced and questions written and answered in writing. It was a laborious process, almost as slow as reading an ancient papyrus, and the net result of it all was that the expedition wanted coal and meat and provisions...."

"By intuition rather than language the reporter gathered that the party wished to visit the Post Office. The small procession wended its way through a curious crowd, which was naturally interested in the men who are going to do their best to solve the hardest geographical problem left on earth. If the explorers could have understood English, they would not have been encouraged by the comments. Certainly the commander, in his smart khaki uniform and cloak, with blue facings, a highly decorated sword and a pair of spurs, did not look ready for the hardships of the Antarctic, but his physique is good, and the uniform a man may wear upon landing in the capital city of New Zealand is not necessarily a sample of his Antarctic outfit....It is one thing to take a party of Japanese to the Post Office, but another and more difficult task to know what they want. Pointing to the automatic post-card machine, one of the visitors indicated quite confidentially, in the best English heard up till then, that he wanted three hundred. As inland postcards are strange equipment for Japanese visitors, the reporter substituted 2d stamps, with which the Japanese will be able to send letters back to their friends at home. Further efforts to comprehend the desires of the explorers resulted in discovering their anxiety to see the "city offices." This might have been with the object of paying a complimentary call upon the Mayor, but the appearance of five Japanese without power of explaining their intentions might have embarrassed even the thoroughly experienced gentleman who holds the civic position."

"A VISIT TO THE CONSUL.
The courteous Japanese bowed themselves silently into the Consul's office, and waited for his speech. It came in English, and they looked blank. A messenger was despatched in haste for a likely interpreter, but he proved to be a Chinese, and the consul remembered sorrowfully that his usual aid in awkward situations of this sort was four hundred miles away at the time. Mr Hwang, Chinese Consul-General, was telephoned for, and showed a kindly interest in the difficulties of the visitors. A ray of hope appeared when he suggested that one of the explorers might be able to read some of the characters he would write, and he commenced to make strange scrawling signs in a vertical file down the right-hand side of a sheet of foolscap. "What do you want?" he wrote. "We want to buy cow," was the quite unexpected answer. More scrawling of signs by the Consul and the commander and it became evident that the Japanese had heard of New Zealand beef and wished to take a supply of canned provisions with them. Their other requirements were coal, 15,000 gallons of fresh water and fish. "Oysters," remarked the Consul, in an unconvincing way." "Ah, oyster!" chorussed the commander and his aide with sudden enthusiasm. "And eels," added the Consul-General, reading the hieroglyphics of the Japanese lieutenant with difficulty. "Ah, eel!" responded the chorus encouragingly."

"This weirdly-equipped expedition will leave Wellington for the far south without flourish of trumpets or cheering crowds to-morrow."

"To met it seems perfectly incredible that these Japanese of good birth and type should be so utterly innocent of English. It is more incredible still that they should be innocent of the pidgin that is current all over the far East. And when you remember that their log book is written in English, and very passable English at that, well, the thing becomes a rather ludicrous mystery. I'm half inclined to think that these brown gentlemen have something up their sleeve. That masterly eye of Lieutenant Shirase, the dignified and gracious gentleman who speaks no English, haunts me. He is not the sort of man to do anything without due thought and a careful weighing of the chances. But when he has made up his mind to a thing, he will carry on with it, even though it leads him through the gates of hell. I don't like the Japanese, but I do like that spirit. It is that spirit what made England what England is, or was. And in proportion as that spirit shrinks, the glory of England will shrink and die."

"Since I began writing this letter yesterday, I have learned that my suspicions concerning Commander Shirase and his officers were well-founded. They do speak English. Shirase speaks it "like an Englishman." They went, a party of them, to a book kiosk, and purchased a big bundle of English novels. They discussed the merits of various authors with the bookseller, and for some whimsical reason talked English fluently among themselves. And at this very time, the wily Japs were looking blankly into the faces of perspiring reporters and shrugging their shoulders in deprecation of the idea that they spoke any English at all. Aha! ... didn't I tell you so? A few days ago all sorts of wise persons were smiling superior smiles at my assertion that it was pre-postures to suppose that a batch of educated Japanese had no solitary word of English among them. But in plain fact, Wellington has once again been hoaxed."