Distant Country, Paradise, Wilderness, or Mysterious World: The Changing Image of the South Sea (Nan’yō) Islands in Japanese Science Fiction

Abstract

For Japan, “Nan’yō” is a geographical concept as well as a historical and cultural one. Taking the mid-Meiji period, post-World War I and II periods, and the beginning of the 21st century as its nodes, this paper examines various texts and compares the historical background of the South Sea Islands as imagined in Japanese science fiction, with a focus on both literature and films. The works of the four periods, through a distant view, close view, reconstruction and retrospection of the South Sea Islands, respectively, portray “Nan’yō” as a distant country for ambitious expansion; an earthly paradise of colonial ideals; a dangerous and exotic foreign land; and a mysterious world overrun with primitive civilization, with the aborigines are portrayed as ignorant and backward, and sometimes even being cast as unfamiliar and potentially threatening Others. Unlike the typical (anti-)utopian narrative, the Japanese “Nan’yō fantasy” is based on the political discourse model of civilization-backwardness, in which the differing attitudes towards the natural environment and primitive tribes reflect Japan’s ambivalence in defining its self-positioning within the cultural crossroads of the East and the West. This portrayal of Nan’yō is a product of the close interconnection between the mass media and the spirit of the times: a reflection of personal ideals and national destiny, as well as a collective vision interacting with social reality.