The World Whole: An Environmental History of Japanese Space Power

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Conley, Maximilian
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History

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This thesis explores the history of Japan's interactions with outer space, largely in the 20th century. It argues for a conception of "Earth-space" wherein the porous boundary between the atmosphere and outer space is a site of rich interactions between society, nature, and technology. Using the topics of Tokyo's urban heat island, satellite meteorology and remote sensing, and Japanese spaceflight in the 1990s, this thesis argues that history must become posthuman, as solar energy, concrete, physical maps, satellites, frogs, and robots play as important a role as humans in the development of the events and changes explored. This theses therefore owes much to the new materialist theory that has been written in the last decade. Ultimately, this thesis argues for a relational conception of agency wherein historical change emerges as a byproduct of the contingent and active relationships that hold between individual people, forces, and objects. Arguing from a deeply interdisciplinary perspective situated between history, philosophy, the applied physical sciences, cognitive science, critical theory, and sociology among others, this thesis finds itself primarily within environmental historiography. In imagining "the world whole," this thesis seeks to synthesize and create a picture of the historical world that is appropriate to the climate regime and blurred metaphysical boundaries that characterize the 21st century.

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