Empire’s Currents: Energy “Transition” in Colonial Manchukuo

• In Event: 21068 - Global and Transnational Sociology of Climate Change

Abstract

In 1937, the Japanese-controlled colonial state of Manchukuo (today’s Northeast China) initiated a transition from thermal to hydroelectric power as the main energy source for grid electricity, despite controlling one of the world’s largest coal reserves. Why did the Japanese colonial state invest in hydroelectricity instead of relying solely on its abundant coal resources?
This research examines the political economy of energy transition in Manchukuo under the colonial regime. Through extensive archival research from Japan, China, the US, and Taiwan and closely analyzing the processes of mining, industrial production, and power engineering in colonial Manchuria, this study finds that the shift in energy mix for electrification did not displace coal. Instead, it intensified coal extraction for steel production and oil conversion. Furthermore, Japanese engineers in the 1940s began to theorize a distinct Asian approach to energy, as they realized that the fossil fuels (particularly coal) extracted in Japan and Manchuria differed qualitatively from those in the United States and Germany. Therefore, a completely new set of powering technologies and strategies was necessary.
This paper makes three arguments with this paradoxical outcome. First, it posits that energy transitions can reinforce fossil-based production rather than replace it. Secondly, it argues that to fully understand climate change and energy transitions, one has to consider the interdependence and symbiosis between different energy sources as “feedstocks”, which lead to their collective metabolic intensification. Third, by situating Manchukuo’s case within the transnational history of industrialization and colonialism, this research seeks to rethink the global narrative of energy transition beyond the trans-Atlantic sphere.

Author

• Wei Zhou, University of Chicago