A Japanese Soldier's Ethnography of Molu Island (Tanimbar) : Ken Sasaki's Account (1944-1945) - article ; n°1 ; vol.66, pg 161-199

Peter T.Suzuki, Reiko Reikowatanabereiger

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Archipel - Année 2003 - Volume 66 - Numéro 1 - Pages 161-199
Peter T. Suzuki
Ken Sasaki est un soldat japonais qui, de juin 1944 à mai 1945, pendant la Guerre du Pacifique, fut posté sur l'île de Molu, dans le petit archipel des Tanimbar, aux Moluques. Il connut l'épreuve du feu et, avec ses six camarades, demeura constamment en alerte. Il avait beaucoup de temps libre, cependant, qu'il mit à profit pour receuillir des informations sur la population de Molu, ses origines, sa langue, ses coutumes et son artrisanat. Ses notes, abondamment illustrées de ses propres dessins, constituent une importante contribution à l'ethnographie de la région.
39 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Informations

• Publié par: ARCHIPEL0
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2003
• Nombre de lectures: 122
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Peter T Suzuki
Reiko Watanabe Reiger
A Japanese Soldier's Ethnography of Molu Island (Tanimbar) :
Ken Sasaki's Account (1944-1945)
In: Archipel. Volume 66, 2003. pp. 161-199.
Résumé
Peter T. Suzuki
Ken Sasaki est un soldat japonais qui, de juin 1944 à mai 1945, pendant la Guerre du Pacifique, fut posté sur l'île de Molu, dans
le petit archipel des Tanimbar, aux Moluques. Il connut l'épreuve du feu et, avec ses six camarades, demeura constamment en
alerte. Il avait beaucoup de temps libre, cependant, qu'il mit à profit pour receuillir des informations sur la population de Molu, ses
origines, sa langue, ses coutumes et son artrisanat. Ses notes, abondamment illustrées de ses propres dessins, constituent une
importante contribution à l'ethnographie de la région.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Suzuki Peter T, Watanabe Reiger Reiko. A Japanese Soldier's Ethnography of Molu Island (Tanimbar) : Ken Sasaki's Account
(1944-1945). In: Archipel. Volume 66, 2003. pp. 161-199.
doi : 10.3406/arch.2003.3789
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/arch_0044-8613_2003_num_66_1_3789Introduction by Peter T. Suzuki(])
Translation by Reiko Watanabe Reiger
A Japanese Soldier's Ethnography of Molu Island
(Tanimbar) : Ken Sasaki's' Account (1944-1945)
Introduction
A book published in 1999 that dealt in part with the Japanese colonial
experience in insular Southeast Asia as it related to anthropology provides
overviews by the co-editors Jan van Bremen and Akitoshi Shimizu. (2)
As their respective chapters look at Japanese anthropology and anthropolo
gists of this era, this perspective excluded the important publication by a
non-anthropologist, although this person's article appeared in the standard
Japanese anthropology journal Minzokugaku Kenyku, which both van
Bremen and Shimizu discuss in some detail.
Ken Sasaki was a soldier stationed on the island of Molu, some 30 km
north of the island of Yamdena, which forms the largest island of the
Tanimbar Islands, from June 1944 to May 1945. Japanese troops occupied on July 30, 1942, although this part of the Dutch East Indies was
under the command of the Japanese Imperial Navy. This area saw heavy
1. Prof. Peter T. Suzuki can be contacted at : School of Public Administration, University of
Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE 68182-0276, e-mail : <[e-mail]>, Fax :
+ 402/554-2682.
2. Anthropology and Colonialism in Asian and Oceania, Surrey, England : Curzon Press.
Shimizu, "Colonialism and the development of modern anthropology in Japan", pp. 115-171.
Van Bremen, "The Japanese and Dutch anthropology of insular South East Asia in the colo
nial period 1879-1949", pp. 362-381.
Archipel 66, Paris, 2003, pp. 161-199 162 Peter T. Suzuki
bombardment by the Australian Air Force starting December 23, 1943. (3) As
Sasaki notes, he was stationed there with 6 other soldiers plus "a cannon",
and apparently experienced combat (not on Molu, it seems) but for a certaint
y, like all troops in a combat zone, was constantly on duty. It was under
these circumstances that he made copious notes and asked a lot of questions
of the people of Molu about their culture to satisfy his curiosity. Not only did
he keep meticulous notes, he also drew 200 sketches, some of which
appeared in the original article, sketches which may also be found in this
publication. These sketches attest to his artistic skill as well.
The importance he put upon his observations of Molu culture is under
scored by the fact that when the soldiers had to withdraw from Molu, the
only items he took with him were his notes, sketches, and some examples of
Molu crafts.
That his observations are accurate may be seen, for example, by his note
on the language spoken by those on Molu as being Larat, which is a dialect
of Fordata (another term for this dialect is Molu-Maru and Vai-Tnebar), later
confirmed by the linguists Marshalls in their 1991 publication on Fordata. (4)
Obviously other things have changed however. In her book From a Shattered
Sun : Hierarchy, Gender, and Alliance in the Tanimbar Islands (Madison :
The University of Wisconsin Press 1991), the American anthropologist
Susan McKinnon, on page 11 notes that in 1980, Molu had a population of
1,352 among 4 villages (her fieldwork took place in 1979-80 and again in
1983, but she did not have the opportunity to visit Molu). On the other hand,
Sasaki counted some 3,000 among 8 villages, while a 1940 ethnography of
the Tanimbar Islands includes a map showing 7 villages.
Because McKinnon had focused her research on "hierarchy, gender, and
alliance", for the basic ethnography of the Tanimbar Islands, one must con
sult the numerous works of Father Petrus Drabbe (1887-1970), who spent 20
productive years there for earlier descriptions of the cultures and languages
of the Tanimbar Archipelago. He notes in his major ethnographic study of
the Islands published in 1940 that he did not have the opportunity
to visit Molu. Nor did he know how the island got its name, although
Sasaki's informants did supply him with this information. (5) He left the area
3. Edward J. Drea, 1984, Defending the Driniumor : Covering Forces Operations in New
Guinea 1944, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas (Leavenworth Papers #9).
4. Craig Marshall & Sarah Marshall, "Reduplication in Fordata", in Descriptive Studies in
Languages of Maluku, ed. by Donald A. Burquest & Wyn D. Laidig, pp. 23-30, Jakarta :
Jakarta-Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya, 1992 (Linguistic Studies of Indonesia and
Other Languages in Indonesia, 34). Cf. Craig Marshall, 1991, "A Phonology of Fordata",
M.A. Thesis. University of Texas at Arlington.
5. The standard ethnography by him is his 1940 book Het Lev en van den Tanembarees :
Ethnografische Studie over het Tanembareesche Volk, Leiden : FJ. Brill. On p. 4 he states
Archipel 66, Paris, 2003 A Japanese Soldier's Ethnography of Molu Island 163
in 1935. Therefore it was a happy set of fortuitous circumstances that, severa
l years later, a Japanese soldier with a great sense of curiosity, complement
ed with outstanding observational skills, and gifted with some artistic talent
should be posted on a fairly remote island in the Dutch East Indies, which
had not been the subject of any sustained study, and should feel a need to let
others know about the people and culture of Molu through his article in The
Japanese Journal of Ethnology, 1950, vol. 15 (1) : 22-34.(6)
Despite the fact that little is known about the author, it appears that rela
tions between the people of Molu and him, if not the other soldiers, were
good. Moreover, it is quite clear that Sasaki had a keen sense of humor and
was somewhat of a gourmand as he delights in informing his readers about
some of the foods and drinks he enjoyed prepared by the Moluans. This
includes sharing with his readers a recipe for one of the native fish dishes.
Because Sasaki's article originally appeared in Japanese, those not famili
ar with this language but interested in the Tanimbar Archipelago, could not
consult it, if they knew of its existence. However, I believe for the most part,
very few have known about this publication. Therefore it is my hope that this
English translation of Sasaki's article will prove to be of assistance to those
interested in this part of the world or who might be contemplating doing
fieldwork there. Furthermore, given the circumstances under which Sasaki
made his observations, his article is also of historic significance, in addition
to being the only ethnographic study of the people and culture of Molu.
Although his publication stands on its own merits, I have added as an
appendix a glossary of native terms found in Sasaki's text.
that he could not find the origin of the name Molu. For an excellent map of the Tanimbar
Islands, see the one attached to his publication. For other relevant publications by Drabbe, see
McKinnon, p. 306. For more recent publications on this area, the Moluccas, see the
following : Liem Soei Liong & Wim Schroever, 1988, Maluku : Geographise Geschiedenis
van de Molukkan sinds het Kolonialisme, Amsterdam : Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen.
G.J. Kanpp, W. Manuhutu, H. Smeets (eds), 1992, Sedjarah Maluku : Molukuse
Geschiedenis in Nederlandse Bronen, : Bataafsche Leeuw. Nico de Jonge &
Toos van Dijk (eds), 1995, Tanimbar : De unike Molukken-foto's van Petrus Drabbe,
[Berkeley, Ca.] : Periplus. W. Manuhutu, 1995, Hedendaagse Kunstnijverkheid van
Tanimbar, 'S-Gravenhage : Bintang Design & Communicatie. J. van Vuuren, 1995, Een
Begin tot Inventarisatie van Ikatmotiven van de Tanimbar-eiland, Privately published.
6. I gratefully acknowledge with thanks Mrs. Reiko Watanabe Reiger of Omaha for the
excellent translation that she made of a difficult text (because Sasaki wrote in a pre-war style
and because she is not a social scientist/anthropologist), one which I went over and made
some changes upon her completion of the translation by checking the original article.
Furthermore I thank Professor Yasumasa Sekine, chief editor of Minzokugaku Kenkyu (MK)
for correspondence rega