Introducing a French Technological System: the Origin and Early History of the Yokosuka Dockyard1

EASTM 16 (1999): 53-72 Introducing a French Technological System: The Origin and Early History of the Yokosuka Dockyard1 Takehiko Hashimoto [Takehiko Hashimoto received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1991 for research on the history of aeronautical engineering. He now teaches the history of science and technology at the University of Tokyo.] * * * When we discuss the all-important aspect of technology in the modernization of Japan, reference to the Dutch or the British connection is usually in order.2 Before Japan opened its doors to the outside world at the end of the Edo period, contact with the West was mainly through the Dutch at Nagasaki. It was primar ily via this connection that Western writings, including military and industrial treatises, entered the country. After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, attention shifted from the Dutch to the more "advanced" British. Indeed, the new govern ment relied primarily on British engineering to build up a modern infrastructure. Central to this effort was the Ministry of Public Works, which hired several hun dred British engineers, some of whom served in the newly established Imperial College of Engineering, the precursor of the present School of Engineering of the University of Tokyo, where they taught-in English-a variety of engineering subjects and supervised senior theses-written in English.3 But there was also a French connection in modern Japan, though perhaps on a more limited scale. One of the most important links between France and Japan was found at Y okosuka, a city located about 60 kilometers south of Tokyo and now well known as the site of a United States Navy base. Before the Pacific War, the Yokosuka base housed a large arsenal as well as the technological center of I I would like to express my appreciation to Benjamin Elman for his kind encourage ment and to Richard Gunde for his numerous helpful comments. 2 On the modernization of Japan, see Morris-Suzuki 1994. On the theoretical frame work of the United Nations University research project on the modernization of Japan and for various case studies, see Takeshi Hayashi 1990. 3 Some of these senior theses are preserved at the libraries of the engineering depart ments of the University of Tokyo. The library of the Electrical Engineering Department, for instance, contains a complete set of senior theses, from the beginning to the present. 53 54 EASTM 16 (] 999) the Imperial Japanese Navy.4 The origin of the arsenal extends back to the Yoko suka Dockyard, founded at the end of the Tokugawa era and designed and con structed by French naval engineers. The planning, construction, and management of the Yokosuka Dockyard in its early years were all conducted under the directorship of a young French naval engineer, Fran¥ois-Leonce Vemy. What Vemy achieved in Japan was not only the construction of a dockyard and related manufacturing facilities but also the establishment of the whole technological complex necessary for the operation of a shipbuilding enterprise-the establishment of supply networks, iron foundries, an engineering school, and so on. In other words, Vemy introduced and imple mented an entire technological system. And he did so, albeit on a small scale compared to the burgeoning development after the Meiji Restoration, several years before British engineers arrived on the scene. An important feature of the dockyard in its early years was its school, where prospective engineers were instructed in basic mathematics and science as well as engineering subjects. Graduates from this school went on to form an important group of naval engineers who were instrumental in the development of the Impe rial Japanese Navy as it prepared for war against China and Russia at the tum of the twentieth century. Before turning to the history of the dockyard, a few words should be ad dressed to the name of this institution. The word seitetsusho !HI ffi as in Yoko suka seitetsusho, the original name of the dockyard, now means an ironworks, but it then had a broader meaning, implying a factory producing machines made of iron and other materials (Suzuki Jun 1996: 50). Although the Yokosuka seitetsusho had such a factory with machine tools, its obvious and primary pur pose was to build and maintain modem ships. In 1871 its name was changed to the more suitable Yokosuka zosenjo (Yokosuka Dockyard) and, in 1903, to Yokosuka kaigun kosho (Yokosuka Naval Arsenal).5 However, throughout this article I will refer to it as the Y okosuka Dockyard. Origins of the Yokosuka Dockyard The introduction of Western technology to Japan mainly revolved around mili tary exigencies. After the news reached Japan of China's defeat at the hands of the British in the Opium War, the Tokugawa government and powerful clans quickly grasped the implications of what had happened, and attempted to intro duce advanced Western military technologies and related knowledge and tech- 4 On the technological significance of the Yokosuka Arsenal, see Kozo Yamamura 1977. 5 More precisely, the Yokosuka zosenjo was renamed Yokosuka chinjufu zosenbu in 1889 and Yokosuka kaigun zosenjo in 1897. .

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