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Relationship Between Industrial Development and City Planning in Company Towns of the Japanese Steel Industry During World War II

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Relationship Between Industrial Development and City Planning in Company Towns of the Japanese Steel Industry During World War II Urban and Regional Planning Review Vol. 3, 2016 | 163 Relationship Between Industrial Development and City Planning in Company Towns of the Japanese Steel Industry During World War II ~A case study of Muroran, Kamaishi, Hirohata and Yahata~ Nakano Shigeo1, Kaku Satoru2, Nakae Ken3, and Koyama Yusuke4 Abstract Japan’s wartime city planning and housing policy was the prototype for city planning in the postwar-era. The greatest issue for wartime city planning was the construction of military plants in local regions. This study aimed at clarifying the relationship between industrial development and the legal city planning of the Nippon Steel Co. Ltd. (NSC) during World War II, with a focus on the cases of the Muroran, Kamaishi, Hirohata and Yahata (Yawata) Works. The Japanese steel industry originated with NSC, which was founded as a national policy company through the consolidation of steelworks in 1934. Legal city planning was developed in relation to the construction of four huge steelworks: Muroran, Kamaishi, Hirohata and Yahata. City-planned streets were instituted in four cities with steelworks. However other legal city planning was different. The result of this research represents legal city planning for industrial development during World War II. The cases of industrial city planning during the war shared the principle of an air defense system. In contrast, advanced city planning notions such as “planning unit” and “regional planning” were introduced in accordance with the sizes of the respective cities. Keywords: Planning history, Nippon Steel Co. Ltd., Industrial development, Company Town, Planning unit, Regional planning Introduction 1) Background City planning during World War II (WWII)(1) is said to have been the prototype for city planning in postwar Japan.1) Planning standards (Ministry of Home Affairs, 1933) and government subsidies were introduced in 1933, which was the tantamount to extending the application range of legal city planning.2) Consequently, legal city planning was introduced in all cities. The issue of national defense was important during WWII, and city planning became related to the national land plan and regional planning. Under these circumstances, the “decentralization of industry” developed as a national policy from the standpoint of national defense. Together with a sense of restraint toward the construction of large cities during the war,3) the industrialization of local cities can be viewed as an important consideration for clarifying the characteristics of city planning in Japan’s modern era.4) Above all, heavy industry involved in defense industry showed notable progress, and the steel industry discussed in this 1 Professor, Graduate School of Science & Engineering, Shimane Univ., Ph.D. in urban and regional planning, [email protected] 2 Assist. Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido Univ., Ph.D 3 Assoc. Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Kobe Univ., Dr.Eng. 4 Assoc. Professor, Graduate School of Science & Engineering, Kagoshima Univ., Ph.D. (C) 2016 City Planning Institute of Japan http://dx.doi.org/10.14398/urpr.3.163 Urban and Regional Planning Review Vol. 3, 2016 | 164 paper was the largest of these industries. The Japanese steel industry originated with Nippon Steel Co. Ltd. (hereafter, NSC), which was founded as a national policy company through the consolidation of steelworks in 1934. This paper discusses city planning during the war, with reference to the history and industrial development for NSC’s four major works: the Muroran, Kamaishi, Hirohata, and Yahata (or Yawata) Works. Existing researches on city formation processes emphasize the development of company towns using a specific town as a case study of NSC’s prewar industrial development and city planning related to company housing; 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) however these researches did not relativized city formation processes through a comparative analysis. Because previous studies (except in the case of Yahata) have already explored company strategy throughout the industrial development process, this study focuses exclusively on legal city planning for industrial infrastructure with reference to prior research. Given that the study’s subjects were principal steel-manufacturing cities, they were expected to develop similar infrastructures for their production systems. However, the differences in city formation processes suggest differing circumstances under which legal city planning was introduced in each of these cities. This study focuses on the four most common items of city planning in the prewar period: city-planned streets, land use zoning, city planning parks and green spaces, and land readjustment. This study also examines the implementation of legal city planning in urban areas with the same premise but different urbanization processes and reveals the characteristics of industrial city planning during wartime. In terms of comparative studies on legal city planning in the prewar period, mainly prefectural capitals and castle towns have already been analyzed.10) No current comparative studies exist on industrial cities. Hence, city planning problems were believed to be very different in the prewar and wartime periods. 2) Purpose Given these above facts, this paper examines the major cities of the steel industry (include iron-manufacturing), the key industry during the wartime period. Case studies are used to clarify how legal city planning—positioned as the most important way to facilitate improvements to industrial infrastructure— was formulated and projected. Subsequently, using a comparative analysis of each case, this research clarifies the characteristics of city planning during the war for the industrial development of heavy industry cities that were closely linked to the air defense system. 3) Subject and method In 1934, NSC was established as one Government Works and five private enterprises: Muroran, Kamaishi, Kenjiho (presently in North Korea), Kawasaki and Yahata. Subsequently two companies in Tobata and Osaka were incorporated into NSC. In Hirohata, a new steelworks was constructed in 1937. We select Muroran, Kamaishi, Hirohata and Yahata because these four cities formed a company town during the war, allowing us to easily understand the relationship between the industrial development and legal city planning given the simple spacial framework of a company town. In contrast, two steel works (located in Osaka and Kawasaki) in the complicated industrial zone are excluded from this study because clarifying the relationship between industrial development and legal city planning is difficult. Kenjiho Works was constructed in North Korea during WWII and is not included in this study. Concerning the research method, first, the historical processes of improvements to industrial infrastructure are outlined, which are prerequisites for this research and include references to the companies’ histories and newsletters. Given this prerequisite, the specific contents of legal city planning are clarified using official documents on city planning and materials published by local Urban and Regional Planning Review Vol. 3, 2016 | 165 Table-1 Background of Nippon Steel Co. Ltd. major steelworks Japan Steel Steelworks Muroran Works Kamaishi Works Hirohata Works Yahata Works Works City name Muroran Kamaishi Hiro Shikama Yahata Tobata 1907 Japan Steel 1874 government steelworks 1901 government 1917 Tobata Works Ltd. 1909 Wanishi established Yahata Steel Works of Toyo established Works Co. Works Iron Works Co., established 1883 government steelworks established Ltd. established abolished 1917 Hokkaido 1918 Kyusyu Steel Works 1887 Tanaka Mining Ltd. Steel Co., Ltd. established established established 1919 Japan Steel Works and Wanishi corporate Steel Works united 1914 Kamaishi mining Co., development 1931 Japan Steel Ltd. established Works Ltd. 1931 Wanishi separated Works Co. separated 1934.1.29 Nippon Steel Co. Ltd.( NSC ) established 3rd expantion - 4th expansion 1st-2nd expansion 1950.4 Fuji Iron & Steel Co., Ltd 1950.4 Yahata Iron & Steel Co., Ltd 1892 : Hokkaido Colliery and 1857 : Oshima Takatou was 1937 : Hirohata Works was the first 1901 : Yahata Steel Works, a Railway Company developed a coal the first to succed at using a steelworks constructed by NSC. government entity, was constructed embarkation port. modern method of iron Hirohata Works was the first to be through reparation after the making. locatid near a consumption area. Japanese-Sino War. Yahata steel 1907 : Japan Steel Works Ltd. was works was located to receive coal established by Hokkaido Colliery 1874 : A government from Chikuho and iron ore from and Railway Company at a navy site steelworks was established Daiya, China. under a government policy. by the Ministry of Technology. Because this 1917 : Tobata Works was 1909 : Wanishi Works Co. was operation was near Kamaishi established by Toyo Iron Works Co., background established by Hokkaido Colliery port, importing iron ore was Ltd. and Railway Company through an easy. ex-legionary settlement. 1934 : Yahata Steel Works and 1887 : Tanaka Chobei Tobata Works were affiliated with 1919 : Japan Steel Works Ltd. and established the first private NSC. Wanishi Works Co. was merged. iron company, Tanaka Mining Ltd. 1931 : Japan Steel Works Ltd. and Wanishi Works Co. was separated. 1934 : Kamaishi mining Co., Ltd. was affiliated with NSC. 1934 : Only Wanishi Works Co. became affiliated with NSC. company housing official member houses : 200 - white-collar houses : 170 - plan factory worker houses : 3,000
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