Expansion of Japanese Telegraphic and Meteorological Observation Facilities in the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese War Eras

Abstract

In 1873, an international exchange of meteorological data in East Asia was proposed by Robert Hart, Inspector-General of China’s Imperial Maritime Customs. His plan was to consolidate observation data using telegraphy, which had been extending its service to this area including Japan, based on data from Chinese Maritime Customs. However, the Japanese government was unable to respond because it did not have a public office in charge of meteorological observations. Meanwhile, Anton Geerts, a Dutch chemist at Nagasaki Medical School, who had started meteorological observations privately in 1871, accepted a proposal by the Great Eastern Telegraph Company to exchange data with harbor masters in Shanghai, Amoy, and Hong Kong. The data from these four cities were published under the title “China Coastal Meteorological Register” in English-language newspapers in China. In 1881, this exchange was succeeded by the Nagasaki Meteorological Station, a national observatory established in 1878, and the data from China were transferred to Tokyo.

Along with the formation of a national observation network and establishment of the Central Meteorological Observatory as a national agency in 1887, Japan promoted data exchanges with foreign countries. While exchanges with Vladivostok and Manila were initiated, a request to the Korean Maritime Customs, which commenced observations in the late 1880s, was refused, because Korea did not yet possess a meteorological agency to exchange data with other countries.

The Sino-Japanese War was an important turning point for Japanese meteorological observations. The Navy required the Central Meteorological Observatory to submit daily weather charts and provide storm warnings from overseas. However, the only additional weather station established was at Port Arthur, where the Japanese Navy established a provisional observatory. In addition, as a replacement for meteorological data from the former Maritime Customs of Chinese Taiwan, data were requested from newly established stations in Japanese colonial Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands after the war by the Royal Hong Kong Observatory and the Zikawei Observatory operated by French Jesuits, which served as hubs of meteorological service for the southern coast of China.

From the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, Japanese ministries such as the War Department and Navy Department were eager to establish new weather stations in Korea and China. Telegraph cables including submarine cables laid for military use expanded the networks of these stations. Weather forecasts and storm warnings based on these data including those from new stations were transmitted using coastal watchtowers equipped with telegraphic wires and a special boat to which submarine cables could be linked. Warships and other vessels received military information including weather forecasts via signals and short-range wireless messages, which had just been put into practical use, from these watchtowers and special boat.

Notably, these new stations that were established during the war era were transferred to the new colonial governments of Korea and Kwantung province. Most of the stations that had been set up at consular offices in China were maintained by technicians from the Central Meteorological Observatory.