Papers presented by Tsz Ho Wong since 2019

2024 Providence, Rhode Island

"The Mobilisation of Civilian Capital in the Wartime Japanese Empire"

Abstract:

The national debt is the lever used to finance Japan’s major expansions during the Second World War (1931-1945). It covered the cost of state arsenals, and spending on weapons, colonial and government investment, and railways and communications. The national debt was either absorbed by financial institutions on the government’s instructions or came from government reserves, whilst the capital of financial institutions and government reserves are heavily dependent on bank savings, insurance premiums, and postal savings and premiums. In other words, Japan’s war machine was financed by civilian capital. Drawing on Japanese newspapers, advertisements, propaganda, popular science magazines, and joint-stock company yearbooks, this research explores why civilians were willing to contribute their savings to support the Japanese war machine. When a ‘total empire’ was built on the homefront in a total war, it involved the mass and multidimensional mobilisation of domestic society. The Japanese government strategically used a variety of propaganda materials to link the homefront with the battlefront, and subsequently used them to mobilise civilian capital. This research therefore argues that civilians who deposited their savings with the government or financial institutions could imagine how they were being used, even if they were only attracted by the high interest rates promised by the advertisements. By examining Japan’s wartime economic, financial, and scientific mobilisation from a cultural perspective, it hopes to deepen understanding of the financing structure of Japan’s imperial expansion.

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2023 Detroit, MI, United States

"The Capital Networks of the Wartime Japanese Empire’s Non-Ferrous Metal Industry "

Abstract:

Non-ferrous metals, including lead, zinc, copper, aluminium and magnesium, are essential for producing dual-use items, which were vital to maintain a flexible wartime economy. During wartime (1931-1945), Japan operated numerous mines to manufacture non-ferrous metals, and the production reached its zenith in the twilight of the Empire, for instance, lead yields consecutively increased from 25,832 tonnes in 1942 to 32,031 tonnes in 1943 and 33,670 tonnes in 1944. Yet, how did these mines operate, and more importantly, how was the operation shaped by and cooperated with the war economy and mobilisation? This research uses Japanese, American and British military, intelligence and governmental archives to survey the business operators of the Japanese non-ferrous metals production-related mines at its homeland, its occupied Taiwan, Chōsen, Manchuria, coastal China and its wartime colonies in Southeast Asia during the early 1940s, and reconstructs the capital networks of these operators by utilising yearbooks of share companies published by the securities companies at that time. This research suggests that a majority of mines were controlled by zaibatsu and its subordinate companies, whilst the major stockholders were other zaibatsu, aristocracies, imperial household-related bureaucrats and national policy companies (国策会社), and they together formed and consolidated a ‘star network’ (the centre and the periphery parts of the network, and the networks in these two parts, were well-connected) through cross ownerships and intermarriages. Intriguingly, the zaibatsu who operated or invested in non-ferrous metals industry, its subordinate companies and affiliated laboratories were also engaged in researching, developing and producing dual-use items, which was funded by other zaibatsu, aristocracies, imperial household-related bureaucrats and national policy companies. Therefore, this research utilises the non-ferrous metals industry as an example, illustrating the patterns of the capital networks of the wartime Japanese Empire’s dual-use items industries.

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