M. Greene

Megan Greene

Developing the Hinterland: Science, Scientists and the KMT during the Sino-Japanese War

Description of Research:

In this new project I am exploring how and why scientists, foreign advisers, and the KMT promoted scientific research in inland China during the World War II era. When the KMT, along with large numbers of coastal Chinese citizens, migrated inland in the late 1930s they relocated to territories that were less developed and that had been less clearly under KMT control than the coastal regions they had moved from. In order to develop industry and increase agricultural output, the KMT and its foreign advisers sought to promote survey natural resources, train technicians to implement modern agricultural and other techniques, and encourage scientists to undertake region specific research that could foster development. While the immediate aim of most of this activity was to strengthen the KMT's economic foundation and to put it in a better position to win a war against the Japanese, these explorations and exploitations resemble imperialist activities undertaken by Western and Japanese imperialists in the 19th and early 20th centuries. I am at a very early stage in this project, and have done some archival research in Nanjing, but I still hope to use archives in Chongqing, Chengdu, and possibly also Kunming and Lanzhou to complete this project.