Coffee Production in Colonial Taiwan: The Establishment of a Diasporic Network between the Inside and Outside of the Japanese Empire Mariko Iijima Sophia University Introduction Along with sugar and tea, coffee has been one of the most popular research topics for global historians in recent years. Due to its limited production areas to the former European colonies, history of coffee production/consumption in Asia has been relatively overlooked. However, from the 1920s, when it experienced a rapid increase in domestic consumption resulting from the westernization of food culture, the Japanese Empire embarked on the “domestic” production of coffee in its tropical colony Taiwan. Although coffee production in colonial Taiwan failed to achieve its status as a main cash crop in the Japanese Empire, unlike sugar, rice and pineapples, the trajectory of its planting and production is worth examining. Similar to other colonial agricultural products in Taiwan, coffee was not native to the Island; therefore, the development of coffee industry was not accomplished without such external factors as migrations of people, knowledge, skills and capitals. What characterizes the history of coffee planting in Taiwan are that one of the routes can be traced back to Hawai„i, which was annexed by the United States in 1898, and that one of those who had experienced immigrating there contributed to the establishment of coffee farms in Taiwan. This fact suggests two new insights on the global food history. In his examination on sugar, Mintz describes the networks and systems established through a worldwide circulation of helped promote the Western imperialist expansion on a global scale (Mintz, 1985; Ochoa 2012, p. 25). While much research on food history has been used agricultural commodity as a means to examine and prove the master-subordinate relationship between the metropole and its colonies, which is represented by Mintz‟s work, the case study of the coffee network between Hawai„i and Taiwan indicates the presence of “inter-imperial” migration, namely, movements from one colony of one empire to one colony of another empire. Furthermore, this inter-imperial movement was sustained and activated by the Japanese immigrants and traders serving as agents, which enable coffee plants, capital and skills to transcend imperial borders. Azuma has already probed a similar case of the imperial crossing by examining the process in which the experiences of Japanese immigrants in the US had been formulated as a way to justify and idealize the 1

colonization of Manchuria (2008, p.1187). The next insight is that oftentimes, in the field of coffee production history, Asians (Chinese and Japanese) have described as coolies or contract laborers substituted African slaves after the abolition of slave trades and systems. Due to its nature of the work they had to engage in, a very few Asians became coffee plantation owners in European colonies before WWII. In their edited book, The Global Coffee Economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America 1500-1989, Clarence-Smith and Topik introduce coffee smallholders in Asia in order to “challenge” the model of large-estate farming in Latin America, but it hardly discusses experience of Asians as owners of coffee farms (2005, p.15, p.101). Accordingly, the coffee history of Taiwan demonstrates the fact Japanese people have been actively involved in coffee production as developers, managers and owners of coffee farms. Therefore, this research highlights two elements that have little attention in previous work regarding global food history: the existence of the “inter-imperial” network supported by Japanese diaporas and the focus on Japanese leading role in the dissemination and development of coffee production in Asia. Shifting attention from coffee production history to colonial history of Taiwan, there has been a considerable accumulation of research on the topic at home and abroad. The Island of Taiwan, which was incorporated into Japan after the conclusion of the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, became the very first tropic colony of the Empire. Blessed with abundant arable soils and a tropic weather that were suitable for the cultivation of various agricultural products, Taiwan quickly established its status as one of the prominent sugar-producing areas in Asia. In addition to sugar, other commodities including rice, bananas and canned pineapples were produced to satisfy the appetite of its colonial master. On the other hand, some products represented by tea, camphor and coals were exported widely to China, America and Europe (Chen, 2014, pp. 6-7). Those products have been interpreted as significant financial sources to support the economic foundation of Taiwan and thereby their importance has been primarily discussed in the context of colonial economy and international trades. This case study instead attempts to demonstrate the influences of Japanese agricultural and business experiences abroad on the development coffee farming in Taiwan by tracing back its roots to Hawai„i. History of Coffee Production in Taiwan during the Japanese Occupation Period The production of coffee in Taiwan started in 1884 when one English trader brought coffee plants from Manila, the Philippines. Although the coffee production was once successful, it did not come into bloom as an industry (Taiwan Sōtokufu Shokusankyoku, 1929, p.12). In 1902, seven years after the colonization of Taiwan, Yasudata Tashiro, 2

botanist who was appointed as an engineer at the Bureau of Production at the Office of Governor-General of Taiwan from 1895-1924, test-produced coffee at the Hengchun Tropical Plants Experimental Station and other branch stations in South Taiwan (Taiwan Sōtokufu Shokusankyoku, 1915a, p.249). In addition to the coffee trees originally brought by the Englishman, he also obtained seedlings from Ogasawara, Hawai„i and Brazil, and experimented three different species of coffee, Arabica, Liberica and Canariensis (Taiwan Sōtokufu Shokusankyoku, 1911, pp.211-13). Due to its successful production, coffee harvested at the Experimental Station was displayed at the National Industrial Exhibition in 1907, followed by its presentation as “domestically-produced coffee” to Emperor Taisho at the coronation ceremony (Taiwan Sōtokufu Shokusankyoku, 1929, pp.12-3). In the 1910s, various species of coffee continued to be test-produced at experimental stations all over Taiwan, and it proved that Arabica, the most popularly consumed kind of coffee plants, had the promising future as a commercial agricultural product (Taiwan Sōtokufu Shokusankyoku, p.13). In addition to the experimental productions, coffee farming was introduced to those Japanese agricultural settlers who resided in the Japanese villages in Hualien, the eastern part of Taiwan; these are Toyota-mura, Hayashida-mura and Yoshino-murai, (Sato, 1938, p.12). These so-called imin-mura, Japanese colonial villages, were established in the early 1910s and required settlers to cultivate the land from scratch to produce rice and sugar as main cash crops (Sato, pp.28-29). Accordingly, coffee was one of the crops that helped diversify agricultural products in order to avoid possible damages caused by heavy dependence on the monocultural production. In Toyota-mura, Arabica coffee seedlings were distributed through the village‟s advisory office for Japanese farmers from 1911-1915, the formative stage of the colonial villages. According to the 1929 report published by the Bureau of Production, coffee was cultivated on the land of a total of 17 acres (seven kanpo)ii by more than 15 households (Taiwan Sōtokufu Shokusankyoku, 1929, p.14). When divided those numbers by the entire number of households and the overall area of the village land in the same yeariii, it shows eight percent of households cultivated coffee by using less than 10 percent of the total area of the village. Although a small proportion of the land devoted to coffee indicates that it was a subsidiary crop, by 1930, coffee harvested in Hualien was sold as a souvenir. The spread of a rust disease in the area, however, conduced to wipeout of coffee trees in the villages by 1933 (Taiwan Keizainenpō Kankyo Kyokai, 1942, pp. 398-9). Whilst a great majority of coffee production was operated on either an experimental or small-farming scale, the 1930s saw a drastic change in its production method and 3

system. In 1930, the first coffee plantation was established by Osaka Sumida Bussan Company on the land of 400chō (980 acres) leased from the Office of Governor-General. In the following year, Kimura Coffee Company in Tokyo opened a plantation in East and West Taiwan respectively (Taiwan Keizainenpō Kankyo Kyokai, p. 399). Several factors incented the commercial production of coffee by these mainland-based companies. One of them was the successful coffee production at experimental stations and Japanese villages. Also, from the early 1930s, the diversification of agricultural crops was encouraged by the Office of Governor-General. When the policy to curtail rice production in Taiwan was implemented in 1934, several tropical commodities including pineapples, bananas, tobacco and coffee expanded quickly the plots cultivated and they were exported to Japan (Saito, 1969, pp.120-121). Thirdly, since the Japanese government promoted the “domestic” production of agricultural commodities in the 1930s, coffee in Taiwan could satisfy not only the consumers‟ desire but also the national intension. Indeed, a sharp rise in coffee consumption in the metropole increased the dependency of on its importation from foreign countries such as the Dutch West Indies (Java) and Brazil. The amount of coffee imported in 1920 was 516,830kin (some 816.4t), but it reached 3,144,300kin (5240.5t) in 1930 and 14,285,317kin (23,808.8t) in 1937(Taiwan Keizainenpō Kankyo Kyokai, pp. 394-5). To reduce the coffee supply from foreign countries, Taiwan was counted on as the only coffee-producing colony of the Empire. The mass-production of coffee thus was expected not only to provide the mainland companies with a business opportunity but also to further westernize the Japanese Empire by demonstrating its self-sufficient ability of coffee, one of the typical “imperial” commodities. Inter-Imperial Migrations of Coffee Plants and People In his report, Coffee, Sakurai noted some farmers from Toyota-mura imported the plants from Hawai„i (Taiwan Sōtokufu Shokusankyoku, 1929, p.153). It is not clear when and how they gained the seedlings but the report also points out the fact that Yosokichi Funakoshi had observed coffee farms in the US before his settlement in the village and had a brother who lived in Hawai„i (Taiwan Sōtokufu Shokusankyoku, 1929, p.14, p.154). Although much examination is required, it suggests Funakoshi‟s possible utilization of his (familial) connection with Hawai„i to develop a coffee farming in Taiwan. Being the owner of the “largest” coffee farmiv and a producer of his own coffee brand, Funakoshi took a leading position in coffee production in Hualien‟s Japanese villages (Taiwan Sōtokufu Shokusankyoku, 1929, p.154). Hawai„i has already been reputed for Kona coffee since the late 19th century, and by 4

the 1910s, as many as 90% of the coffee farmers in the Kona coffee district were dominated by Japanese immigrants (Wesley, 1933, p.110). Around 1927, Funakoshi sent the green coffee he produced to his brother in Hawai„i and asked to get an opinion by a “foreign” expert concerning the quality of coffee; the result was “medium equality” (Taiwan Sōtokufu Shokusankyoku, 1929, p. 154). Around the same time, Funakoshi also contacted Bunji Shibata, one of the founders of the present Key Coffee Company to request an evaluation of his coffee, which result turned out the same “medium quality.” Although the quality was not excellent, but satisfactory enough for Shibata to predict a tangible achievement when considering the fact that he launched his own coffee plantations later in 1931. Funakoshi‟s actions became one of the incentives that induced Japanese coffee companies to expand their business in Taiwan. The other important figure that contributed to the Taiwan‟s development of coffee production is previously-mentioned figure, Tadajiro Sumida, a founder of Sumida Product Company. He had immigrated to Hawai„i in 1898 and established himself as a businessman before he started coffee farming in Taiwan; while being in Hawai„i, he founded Honolulu Sumida Trade Company in 1904 followed by the setup of the Pacific Bank and in 1908 a first commercial production of sake, Japanese rice wine (“Nihonjin no Kaigai-hatten,” 1930). After his achievements in the Islands, he decided to return to Japan and founded his product company in 1918. Primarily engaged in transporting Japanese products to overseas communities in the US, Hawai„i and Nan‟yo, Sumida also promoted Kona coffee to trading companies in Tokyov. In 1926, Sumida extended his business to coffee producing and his first attempt was to establish coffee farms in Saipan in Nan‟yo, a Japanese mandated territory from 1919. He founded the Nan‟yo Coffee Company Limited with Japanese coffee farmers residing in Kona including Torahei Ikeda, Eita Matsumoto, Naotarō Yamagatavi. According to the company‟s business report, as of 1935, 14 out of 35 stock holders were Japanese residing in Kona and three were in Honolulu (Iijima, p.15)vii. This fact indicates there was an inter-imperial network of capitals through coffee production between Hawai„i of the US territory to Saipan of the Japanese Empire. Besides, this network was underpinned by two diasporic networks combined; one is consisted of the Japanese overseas migrants with experience of coffee production and the other was established by Sumida, who was equipped with business insights from his experience of trading in Hawai„i and Nan‟yo. Coffee cultivated in Saipan achieved a desirable result and by 1930, it produced the coffee of 50-million-yen market value (“Taiwan ni kofi saibai,” 1930). Following the successful plantation management in Saipan, Sumida decided to 5

operate a coffee plantation on a larger scale in 1930. 11 December, 1930, Sumida sailed out from Moji, Japan to Keelung, Taiwan with 16 of his staff including coffee engineers. In his interview by Jiji-Shimpo, a Japanese daily newspaper, Sumida recounts his project with excitement: I have leased 1,500 chōho (3,675 acres) of the fertile land for coffee production in a suburb of Karenkō-chō (Hualien) from the Office of Governor-General. My company planted coffee seedlings, which were harvested from the 400-chōho plantation (owned by his company) in Saipan, Nan‟yo, to rich soils in the outskirts of Karenkō-chō and it proved that the harvested coffee was far better in quality than coffee produced in Nan‟yo. After a decade-long trial production proved a success outcome, I have decided to launch a large-scale coffee plantation this time by employing around 1,000 natives…I expect coffee in Taiwan excels the one in Nan‟yo in a few years (“Taiwan ni cofi saibai,” 1930). (translated by author) In operating his coffee plantation, Sumida also imported coffee plants from Hawai„i, which at the time had a low risk of rust disease. Four years later, about 420kg of coffee was shipped to Osaka (Zen Nihon Kofi Shōkōkumiai Rengokai, 1980, p. 205). In contrast to Sumida‟s high expectation, however, the mass-production of coffee was far from achieving the self-sufficiency of coffee production to fulfill desires of the Japanese Empire. One of the reasons for the failure was a lack of workers, which only reached 20 percent of the required labour force. Also, natural disasters and coffee diseases attacked the young coffee plants (Zen Nihon Kofi Shōkōkumiai Rengokai, p.188). Lastly, the outbreak of the Asia-Pacific war prevented the coffee industry from continuing and developing its operation; eventually, it led to the end of production of “made-in-Japan coffee.” Concluding Remark This paper attempts to probe the existence of inter-imperial network by examining the process of the dissemination of coffee production from the outside to inside of the Japanese Empire. To conclude, the question of what possibly new perspective inter-imperial network would bring us is to be discussed. As a catalyst of the inter-imperial network, Japanese diaporic connection between Hawai„i and Taiwan cannot be ignored. This is attributable to the unique and usual process of Japan‟s Empire building that coincided with sending immigrants to territories of European and American Empires, which challenges the Western model of imperial construction. As 6

Sumida‟s case shows, the diaporic network provided Japanese people who sought business opportunities with mobility from one periphery of one Empire to another periphery of another Empire. More importantly, movements of coffee plants, production skills and capital conveyed through the diaporic network seem to have contributed to a smooth launch of the coffee mass-production project in Taiwan. As Barclay points out, despite the Japan‟s first tropical colony, its “successful” colonization of Taiwan lies in the relatively late onset of Empire building, which benefited Japan to learn lessons from successes and failures other contemporary Empires had already experienced (Barclay, 1945, p. 56; Saito, p. 110). This view is also applicable to the case of coffee farming in Taiwan in that (former-) immigrants in Hawai„i, some of whom produced a highly-reputed coffee, were involved in introducing coffee production in Taiwan on both small and large scales. Furthermore, my preliminary research indicates that the development of other imperial commodities—sugar and pineapples—had also much to do with (former-) Japanese immigrants in Hawai„i, which would be elaborated in the futureviii. Including an Asian aspect in the discussion of global food history would allow us to transcend multifaceted borders that have been set by previous research—national, regional and imperial boundaries and it also enables us to reveal the complexities of migration routes and network from a further global perspective. i

These three colonial villages were established in the following years respectively. Yoshino-mura was founded in 1911 and as of 1929; it had 302 households with a population of 1,383. Two years later, Toyota-mura was established and in 1929, it was inhabited by 175 households with 843 people. The smallest village among the three was Hayashida-mura, where 163 households with 691 people resided in 1929, was founded in 1914. (Karenkō-chō, 1930, pp.23-32). ii Sakurai estimated a maximum of 3,000 coffee trees were able to be planted on one kampo (2.4 acres) of land (Sakurai, p. 158). iii The statistic is based on the Directory of the Hualien Office; as of 1929, Toyota-mura had 175 households with 708 kō of the land (Karenkō-chō, 1930, p. 32). iv Funakoshi owned two kampo (4.8 acres) (Sakurai, p.154). v While Sumida was in Tokyo to sell Kona coffee to trading companies, he got acquainted with Ken Moriyama, founder of Moriyama Dairy Company Limited. Having informed Moriyama that people in Hawai„i sometimes had coffee with cream, Sumida asked him to spread (Kona) coffee in Japan. Later in 1920, Moriyama succeeded in the product commercialization of kofi gyunyū, in which milk and sugar were added to coffee to compromise its bitter taste with sweetness. (Moriyama Nyugyō Kabushiki Gisiha, “Ganso kofi gyunyū (The original coffee with milk) ”) vi Naotaro Yamgawa, a coffee farmer in Kealakekua in Kona, was listed as one of the activists in Hawai„i in 1917. It suggests that he is one of the important community leaders in Kona. (Takei, 1917, p. 54). vii For Japanese coffee farmers in Kona, the period around the Great Depression in 1929 was one of the difficult times due to a sharp decline in coffee prices. From 1921 to 1928, the Kona green coffee experienced a graduate increase from $ 0.17 to $ 0.27 per pound. However, the overproduction of Brazilian coffee in 1929 caused a sharp drop in the Kona coffee to $0.18 in 1930. (Nippu-jiji Hawai Nenkan,1932-33, pp.104). Since then, the Kona coffee industry had experienced a long spell of economic crisis until the outbreak of WWII, when the US government decided to exclusively purchase Kona coffee for a military use. It is not a decisive factor, but the economic stagnation of the 7

Kona coffee industry might have induced some relatively well-to-do Japanese coffee farmers to invest in the Nan‟yo Coffee Company as hedge against the further decrease in coffee prices. viii For example, Sekiya Yoshitaro, a Japanese immigrant called as “King of Pineapple Production,” in Hawai„i had provided the Office of Governor-General of Taiwan with technical advice and assistance on pineapple production since 1915 (“Nihonjin no Kigai Hatten Shokai,” 1930). References Books and journal articles Azuma, E. (2008). “Pioneers of overseas Japanese development: Japanese American history and the making of expansionist orthodoxy in Imperial Japan,” in The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 64, no. 4. 1187-1226 Clarence-Smith, W.G., and Topik, S. (eds). (2005). The global coffee economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America 1500-1989. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chen, T. (2014). Kindai Taiwan ni okeru bōeki to sangyo: Renzoku to danzetsu (Trade and industry in modern Taiwan). Tokyo: Ochano mizu shobō Karenkō-chō. (1930). Karenkō-chō yōran (The directory of Hualien). Kozuka Honten Insatsu Kōjō Kawarabayashi, N. (2003). Kindai ajia to Taiwan: Taiwan chagyō to rekishi-teki tenkai (Modern Asia and Taiwan). Kyoto: Sekaishisousha. Iijima, M. (2011). “Senzen nihonjin kofi saibaisha no gurobaru histori (Global history of Japanese coffee farmers before WWII).” Imin kenkyū (Immigration Studies), no.7. 1-24 Mintz, W. S. (1985). Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern World history. New York: Viking Books. Sato, H. (1938). “Taiwan ni okeru kofi saibai no genjō to shōrai (The present situation and future of coffee production in Taiwan).” Taiwan kin’yu Keizai geppō (The monthly reports of financial economy) no.99, 1-18 Sato. K. (1969). “Taiwan ni okeru nogyō to keizai no hatten: Ajia no beisaku koku ni okeru keizaihatten ni kansuru jirei kenkyū (Agricutural and economic development in Taiwan).” Nōgyō sōgō kenkyū, vol. 23, no.2. 103-145 Taiwan Sōtoku-fu Shokusan-kyoku. (1911). Kōshun nettai shokubtsu shokuiku jigyō houkokusho-Sen’i denpun, and inryo shokubutsu no bu (The business reports on tropical plants experimental station in Hengchun). no.2, jōkan (vol.1) Taiwan Sōtoku-fu Shokusan-kyoku. (1915) a. Kōshun nettai shokubtsu shokuiku jigyō houkokusho (The business reports on tropical plants experimental station in Hengchun). no.5, jōkan (vol.1) Taiwan Sōtoku-fu Shokusan-kyoku. (1929). Kohi (Coffee). Taiwan: Taipei insatsu kabushiki geisha. Ochoa, E.C. (2012). “Political histories of food” in Pilcher, J.M. (ed.). The Oxford handbook of food history. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 23-40. Okihiro, G.Y. (2009). Pineapple culture: A history of the tropical and temperate zones. Berkeley: University of California Press. Paige. J.M. (1997). Coffee and power: Revolution and the rise of democracy in Central America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Taiwan Keizainenpō Kankyo Kyokai (ed.). (1942). Taiwan keizai nenpō (The annual report of Taiwan economy). Tokyo: Kokusai Nihon Kyōkai. Takei N. (1917). Hawai katsudo no yamato minzoku (Activities of Yamato people in Hawai„i). Hawai„i: Nippu-jiji sha Wesley, J.W. (1933). The land utilization in Hawaiian Islands. Honolulu: The Printshop Co. Zen Nihon Kofi Shōkōkumiai Rengokai Nihon Kofi-shi Henshū Iinkai(ed.). (1980). Nihon kofi-shi (History of Coffee in Japan). Tokyo: Zen Nihon Kofi Shōkōkumiai Rengokai Newspaper articles “Nihojin no kaigai hatten shoukai: Hawai no hanei o kataru (Introduction of overseas expansion of Japanese people: Prosperity of Hawai„i).” 24 September, 1930. Osaka Asahi Shimbun. “Taiwan ni kofi saibai (Cultivation of coffee in Taiwan).” 13 December, 1930. Jiji-Shimpo.

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Internet resources Moriyama Nyugyō Kabushiki Gisiha, “Ganso kofi gyunyū (“The original coffee with milk”). Retrieved from http://www.fujimilk.co.jp/about/story.html

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