“Crossing the Border” of the Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature from the Soviet Union to Japan

This study examines Japan’s movement toward the Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature, which was implemented in the Soviet Union until the mid-1950s. Since the Great Plan was comprehensive in nature as a national land development program, it drew considerable interest from Japanese intellectuals in various scientific fields, such as river engineering, geography, meteorology, agronomy, genetics, Russian culture, Soviet affairs, military, and government agencies. Newspapers and journals belonging to a wide range of categories published numerous articles on the plan, peaking in 1952 and 1955. These articles proposed characteristic discussions of the Great Plan that were associated with major topics and events of the same period, such as the United States’ TVA program, T. D. Lysenko’s involvement in the afforestation program, the introduction of his nestsowing method in Japan, the propaganda of the peaceful use of nuclear power, and Japan’s Science Council members’ visit to the Soviet Union in 1955. This study examines three types of discussions based on those articles: (1) those focusing on the issues of the introduction of the Great Plan to Japan, (2) those focusing on the imitability (practice) of the Great Plan in Japan or using the Soviet case as a reference for Japan’s land planning, and (3) those dealing with the political aspect of the Great Plan, especially propaganda for pacifism. By examining these issues, this study explores the Soviet Union’s intellectual influence on Japan through the grandiose scientific enterprise of the transformation of nature.