Becoming One 6827_Book_V4.indd 1 12/5/18 10:11 AM 6827_Book_V4.indd 2 12/5/18 10:11 AM Becoming One Religion, Development, and Environmentalism in a Japanese NGO in Myanmar Chika Watanabe University of Hawai‘i Press Honolulu 6827_Book_V4.indd 3 12/5/18 10:11 AM © 2019 University of Hawai‘i Press Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Watanabe, Chika, author. Title: Becoming one : religion, development, and environmentalism in a Japanese NGO in Myanmar / Chika Watanabe. Description: Honolulu : University of Hawai'i Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018037380 | ISBN 9780824875268 (cloth ; alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Organization for Industrial, Spritual and Cultural Advancement-International. | Non-governmental organizations—Japan. | Agricultural development projects—Burma. | Agricultural assistance, Japanese—Burma. Classification: LCC JX4845 .W38 2019 | DDC 338.109591—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018037380 The open-access version of this book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means that the work may be freely downloaded and shared for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. Derivative works and commercial uses require permission from the publisher. For details, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. The open-access edition of this title was made possible with generous support from the University of Manchester. The ISBNs for the open-access editions book are 9780824886646 (PDF) and 9780824886639 (EPUB). Contents Acknowledgments / vii Note on Transliteration / xi Glossary and Abbreviations / xiii Introduction: The Moral Imaginations of Becoming One / 1 Chapter 1 A History of the Nonreligious / 27 Chapter 2 The Politics of “Shinto” Environmentalism / 60 Chapter 3 Making a Universal Furusato (Homeplace) / 87 Chapter 4 Muddy Labor / 119 Chapter 5 Being Like Family / 144 Chapter 6 Discipline as Care / 165 Conclusion / 186 Notes 193 / Works Cited / 203 Index 233 / v 6827_Book_V4.indd 5 12/5/18 10:11 AM 6827_Book_V4.indd 6 12/5/18 10:11 AM Acknowledgments WHEN I FIRST MET Saitō Yūko from OISCA’s Myanmar of­ fice in Yangon in 2008, I did not realize the profound extent to which her initial description of OISCA as a “mud-smelling” (dorokusai) organiza­ tion captured the NGO’s central ethos. I am deeply indebted to her for presenting me with this phrase as a key way to understand not only OISCA (Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement) but also Japanese approaches to development aid in general. Subsequently, numer­ ous people associated with OISCA generously welcomed me into their worlds and spent valuable time answering my questions: everyone at the Tokyo office; staffers and trainees at the training centers in Chubu, Nishini­ hon, and Shikoku; members and officials at the Ananaikyō headquarters; staffers at the Gekkō Observatory in Shizuoka; staff members and students at the OISCA Technical College; and staffers and trainees at the OISCA Myanmar training center. There are too many people to thank individu­ ally here, but in Japan, Chō Hiroyuki, Kakinuma Mizuho, Kamino Yukio, Kano Masumi, Kurono Yoshikane, Nagaishi Yasuaki, Nakano Toshihiro, and Sugawara Kōsei facilitated much of my fieldwork and understanding of OISCA. At the Myanmar training center, Fuji’i Keisuke, Khin May Thi, May Zar Myint, Htay Htay Sein, Saw Myat Htwe, and Za Min Aung are due special thanks for their help and friendship. In particular, Khin May Thi’s warmth and thoughtfulness made me feel at home at the training cen­ ter, for which I am eternally grateful. I also thank the staffers and trainees at the Asian Rural Institute (ARI, or Ajia Gakuin) in Tochigi Prefecture and the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) training center in Nagano Prefecture for hosting me during my visit. My life in Yangon over the years would not have been possible with­ out the generosity of Susan and Court Stewart, Ma Yi Yi, and Ko Aung Mo and the friendship and support of Fujino Yasuyuki and Yasuko, Ma Htet Htet, Ma Julia, the Shalom Foundation’s Ja Nan Lahtaw and staff members, Kubota Kazumi, Rhoda Linton, Sue Mark, Neichu Mayer, Pat McCormick, vii 6827_Book_V4.indd 7 12/5/18 10:11 AM viii Acknowledgments Joah McGee, Rose Metro, Min Ye Paing Hein, Ōtsuyama Mitsuko, Seng Pan Lasham, Uchiyama Fumika, Liz Webber, Matt Walton, and Mikami Yasushi. My thanks also go to staff members at Terra People Association (TPA) and especially Shibata Kyōko for showing me around TPA’s project sites, and to Seng Raw Lahpai and everyone at the Metta Development Foundation for letting me help at their offices and visit their project sites. At Cornell, Hiro Miyazaki, Annelise Riles, Marina Welker, and Saida Hodžić helped me turn the fieldwork material into the analyses that consti­ tute the basis for this book. My friends in the dissertation writing group— Gökçe Günel, Aftab Jassal, Melissa Rosario, Saiba Varma, and Courtney Work—were essential in nurturing the seeds of many of my ideas. Saiba and Gökçe, in particular, have read most of my work over time and know my project (and me) inside out. David Rojas has also been an important interlocutor and friend in developing my thoughts in the pages that follow. The “Cornell mafia” in the Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) taught me how to understand the region in historical perspective. Tom Patton and Chie Ikeya offered vital advice on conducting fieldwork in Myanmar, and I thank them for their patience in answering my questions. My research would not have been possible without the extraordinary skills of my Burmese- language teachers: San San Hnin Tun at Cornell, John Okell and Than Than Win at the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute in Madison, and Ma Hay Mar in Tokyo. The book went through many incarnations, and Maia Green, Gökçe Günel, Jolyon Thomas, and Saiba Varma read full drafts or substantial por­ tions of it at different stages. Their insights helped me refine and focus my arguments. Audiences at the University of Oslo gave valuable observations on chapter 3, Yamaura Chigusa and audiences at the University of Sussex offered helpful feedback on chapter 4, and Gillian Evans, Lorenzo Ferra­ rini, Connie Smith, Tony Simpson, and Marina Welker constructively com­ mented on the introduction at critical times. Lissa Caldwell shepherded one of my articles for Gastronomica, which became the basis for chapter 6, and also gave extensive suggestions on my book proposal. I cannot overstate the value of receiving advice from a senior academic on the murky process of book publishing. In this sense, I am immensely grateful to Niko Besnier for also commenting on my book proposal and to Theodore Jun Yoo for introducing me to Pamela Kelley at the University of Hawai‘i Press. Many other colleagues and friends contributed to the development of this book. My thinking benefited from several conversations with R. Michael Feener, Maura Finkelstein, Philip Fountain, Kate Goldfarb, Sarah Grant, Soyeun Kim, Kimura Shuhei, Aike Rots, and Takahashi Satsuki. 6827_Book_V4.indd 8 12/5/18 10:11 AM Acknowledgments ix My colleagues at the University of Manchester have offered feedback on my work over the years, and I feel extremely fortunate to be in such a collegial and productive environment. Erica Baffelli and Aya Homei have made me feel at home in Japanese studies, beyond my “home” discipline of social anthropology. Nathan Hopson, Tomomi-san, Ran Zwigenberg, and Chikako-san were my support network when I was writing the first draft of the book at Yale, and I thank them for their friendship. I also thank my hosts, participants, and audiences of various work­ shops, conferences, and talks at the Australian National University, Durham University, the London School of Economics, Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies at Oxford University, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Sogang University, Stockholm University, the University of Colo­ rado at Boulder, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Hong Kong, the University of Oslo, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Sussex, the University of Texas at Austin, Western Michigan University, and Yale University. Numerous other friends and anthropologists, Japanese studies scholars, Burma studies scholars, and development studies scholars have helped me refine my ideas further: Anne Allison, Niko Besnier, Erica Bornstein, Mary Callahan, Karin Eberhardt, Harri Englund, Judy Han, Heather Hindman, Inaba Keishin, Khin Zaw Win, Koga Yukiko, Jon Mair, Emma Mawdsley, Ramah McKay, Levi McLaughlin, Jamie Monson, Mark R. Mullins, Nemoto Kei, Nozawa Shunsuke, Okuyama Michiaki, Elayne Oliphant, Lisa Onaga, Juno Parreñas, Peter Redfield, Ryan Sayre, Juliane Schober, Amanda Snellinger, Nico Sternsdorff-Cisterna, Tosa Keiko, and Nakano Tsuyoshi. I also thank the anonymous reviewers of my published articles and book chapters, whose comments assisted me in rethinking not only those pieces but many of the arguments in this book. My gratitude also goes to the two anonymous reviewers of the book, whose comments prompted me to sharpen my discussions. The research for this book was funded by the Lee Teng-hui Fellow­ ships in World Affairs and the Robert J. Smith Fellowships in Japanese Studies (both at Cornell) and by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). The SSRC has had a long-term impact on my research, funding a dissertation fellowship and a post-fieldwork dissertation workshop (“Reli­ gion and International Affairs”) and co-funding my postdoctoral fellowship at Yale. In bringing this book to life, I thank Pamela Kelley for her expert editorial guidance and Debra Tang, Grace Wen, and Rosemary Wether­ old for their indispensable help in the process. Sections of chapter 4 ap­ peared in “Muddy Labor: A Japanese Aid Ethic of Collective Intimacy in 6827_Book_V4.indd 9 12/5/18 10:11 AM x Acknowledgments Myanmar,” Cultural Anthropology 29, no.