Historical investigation of Professor Shozaburo Watase’s outlook on nature and science throughout his career in relation to his introduction of the mongoose to Okinawa Islands, Japan, in 1910

Abstract

Professor Shozaburo Watase of Tokyo Imperial University (TIU) introduced the mongoose (Urva auropunctata), an alien mammal, to the Okinawa Islands, Japan, in 1910, despite Palmer (1899) cautioning against the dangers of its introduction. It was suggested that Watase performed its introduction under the following five situations. First, Watase did not adequately refer to previous studies and generalize his findings in his Ph.D. on the morphology of the compound eyes of Arthropoda at Johns Hopkins University, indicating his minor concern with the method of science. Second, Watase introduced the mongoose without realizing the current concept of “experiment” and “hypothesis”, when Watase used the term of “experiment” in Japanese and Japanese zoologists of TIU did not understand these terms currently as well. Third, around 1910, Watase regarded artificial power as overcoming the natural world, believing in simply nature as the more his favorable side of possibilities. Fourth, Watase felt that the habu (Protobothrops flavoviridis) could be exterminated by the mongoose on the Okinawa Islands after watching a cobra (Naja sp.) being captured by a mongoose in Sri Lanka. Fifth, Watase would assume the survival of mongooses in wild conditions because a pair that was introduced to Tonaki Island killed and ate a habu and produced offspring, indicating his typological thinking of a species without considering the population.