- 白山人類学 = Hakusan review of anthropology (ISSN:13415980)
- no.21, pp.81-104, 2018-03
This research examines the historical process of how the pineapple industry propagated toOkinawa via Taiwan from Hawaii. Previous research studied the history of the pineapple industryby examining local history. This research goes beyond the influence of local regions and great power,but analyzes the process by shedding light on the international flow of a commodity and the peoplethat accompanied the propagation of the pineapple industry to various colonies of the world.This research reveals that the change of the regional order in the Asian-Pacific area had greatimpacts on the international flow in the pineapple industry. Firstly, the network transferring acommodity and the people that supported the propagation of pineapple industry to Okinawa viacolonial Taiwan from American territory was created because of the falling of the Hawaii and RyukyuKingdom at almost the same period by great power (the strong fortitudes) and also because Taiwanwas being governed by the Japanese Empire. Secondly, since after the collapse of the JapaneseEmpire and the reconstruction of the regional order of Asia-Pacific area due to the cold war system,the Philippines and Thailand, whose labor cost was cheap, eroded the world market share in Hawaii,Taiwan and Okinawa in the so-called open market.There are still discussions taking place that support the modernization theory, which claimsthat the economic growth in developing countries contributed to the transition of the base of thepineapple industry from Hawaii, Taiwan, and Okinawa to Philippine and Thailand. However, it issignificant in the history of the conversation about the pineapple industry to shed light on the peoplewho tried to stabilize their life while they were tossed about by the change of the local power betweengreat countries challenging the dominate arguments like the modernization theory. The importanceof research on the transition of a commodity and the people that connect the sphere of influence of multiple countries will be more and more recognized from now on.