War, New Zealand, and a Japanese scientist: A transimperial intellectual network across the Pacific, 1931–1959

This article examines the historical relationship between Japan and New Zealand from the 1930s until the 1950s by focusing on the transoceanic journey of a Japanese university student, Kawase Isamu, who crossed the imperial boundary to study agricultural science in New Zealand. The biographical analysis of Kawase reveals the underrepresented historical currents that drove the process of broader regionalisation of the Pacific at the grassroots level. It demonstrates the creation of transborder links between Japanese intellectuals and New Zealand, and, in turn, the impact of the ruptures that resulted from the outbreak of World War II across the Pacific. The article makes a crucial contribution to our understanding of the transimperial history of the Pacific across the North and South and the roles played by professionals (such as academics, students, and businesspeople) in bringing the two regions closer, as well as their politics in the face of, and in the aftermath of, World War II.