Japan's Involvement with Southeast Asia in the Period before World War II: Kazue Tsutsumibayashi

Abstract

 This article aims to clarify an important facet of Japan's relations with Southeast Asia, referred to as "Nanyo." As a case study of how the patterns of Japanese involvement in the region changed, the life history of Kazue Tsutsumi-bayashi will be analyzed.
  Tsutsumibayashi went to Java at the age of thirty-eight in 1910, with fifteen young Japanese he had selected. In contrast to those Japanese who had been in Java earlier, he was strongly marked by a sense of mission and moral conduct, Starting as a petty peddler, he eventually succeeded in establishing a chain of toko djepang "Nanyo-shokai" all over Java.
  Tsutsumibayashi's case was a very significant departure from the earlier pattern of Japanese presence in Southeast Asia, which was more or less characterized by unique and limited professional orientations like prostitution. This departure was made possible by Tsutsumibayashi's dedicated belief in Protestantism, which contains ethical elements conducive to rational economic conduct as propounded by Max Weber.
  In this paper, the author aims to clarify two aspects of Tsutsumibayashi's intellectual life. His thinking is examined to determine the influence of his religious beliefs, and the process of his transformation from a dedicated Protestant to a dedicated supporter of Japan's expansion into Southeast Asia must be clarified. For this, the diaries he kept during his trip to Java are used.