Barracks and Urban Transformation in Transwar Japan: Developmentalism and the Politics of Space in Kobe

This paper examines the origins and transformations of barracks in modern Japan. The legal foundation for barracks emerged after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, when their establishment was permitted to aid in the reconstruction of the disaster-affected areas. The immediate postwar period saw a resurgence of barracks in significant numbers. Focusing on the barrack areas in postwar Kobe, this paper argues that the criminalization of barracks is closely linked to the emergence of developmentalism, which is rooted in the prewar and wartime experiences of colonial spatial development.