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Livestock Operations Conducted by the Taiwan Development Company on Hainan Island during the Sino-Japanese War
Get PDFThis article describes the actual circumstances surrounding the provision of live hogs to the Canton region by the Taiwan Development Company (TDC) at the early stage of the Japanese occupation of Hainan Island. In the research to date, it has been argued that the TDC’s livestock operations on Hainan Island were profitable, despite the Company falling into management difficulties under the Japanese military administration. While historians have emphasized business management difficulties within the framework of the ideals and reality of policy regarding government-sponsored colonial enterprises during the War, it has not yet been clarified how military cooperation and profit acquisition were achieved. Therefore, what actual measures were carried out on the ground to generate profits needs to be thoroughly discussed by analyzing TDC inhouse reports and other contemporary documents.
The TDC showed a very positive attitude toward its livestock operations, giving the Hainan Island endeavor the leading role among a wide variety of industries, the most successful being the live hog business. Facing competition from Mitsui & Co., the TDC continued to provide a steady flow of Hainan hogs to Canton following the occupation to meet the Canton Garrison’s need for a constant source of meat. Here the TDC staff developed their operations carefully, while observing the mood of the Army, thus attaining profitability. That is to say, by raising abundant amounts of hogs on Hainan and delivering them live, it eliminated the need for meat processing plants, thus significantly reducing production costs, while at the same time targeting the popularity of pork in the Army’s mess halls.
The success of the Hainan operation was largely due to the TDC’s ability to overcome fierce competition by dispatching skilled experts in livestock operations in the south at the onset of the Occupation, combined with clever strategies based on proper identification of local conditions facing customers. The benefits achieved from quickly maturing, fertile hogs indicates that by showing loyalty to the army and sacrificing its own interests, the TDC was able not only to maintain but also increase profits. The author concludes that the case of the TDC’s Hainan livestock operations surely presents an extremely important opportunity to examine Japanese enterprise management in occupied South China from a wide variety of perspectives.journal articl
