Geopolitics in political science in 20th century Japan: Tracing a strand of thought starting from Kiheiji Onozuka

HARUNA Nobuo

The history of geopolitics in Japan has mostly been explored by geographers as a phase of development within their discipline. What has been excluded from their sight is the reception and application of geopolitical concepts and theories by political scientists. This paper traces a strand of thought starting from Kiheiji Onozuka, a political scientist who incorporated the proto-geopolitical ideas of the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel into his teaching in the early 1900s. Transgenerational developments of geopolitical thinking in political science led several of Onozuka’s disciples to join two institutions founded during the Second Sino-Japanese war and right before the Pacific War: namely, the Pacific Association (Taiheiyō Kyōkai) and the Japan Association of Geopolitics (Nihon Chiseigaku Kyōkai). In spite of their prolific and authoritative activities to infuse the belligerent society with geopolitical ideas, the influence of these associations have fallen outside the scope of geographical historians due to its disciplinary roots in political science.and application of geopolitical concepts and theories by political scientists. This paper traces a strand of thought starting from Kiheiji Onozuka, a political scientist who incorporated the proto-geopolitical ideas of the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel into his teaching in the early 1900s. Transgenerational developments of geopolitical thinking in political science led several of Onozuka’s disciples to join two institutions founded during the Second Sino-Japanese war and right before the Pacific War: namely, the Pacific Association (Taiheiyō Kyōkai) and the Japan Association of Geopolitics (Nihon Chiseigaku Kyōkai). In spite of their prolific and authoritative activities to infuse the belligerent society with geopolitical ideas, the influence of these associations have fallen outside the scope of geographical historians due to its disciplinary roots in political science.