Japanese Due At South Pole

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31866, 19 December 1968, Page 18

Japanese Due At South Pole

A Japanese party of 12 is expected to arrive at the Amund-sen-Scott South Pole Station today to complete a 1800-mile traverse from Showa Base on the Prince Olav Coast of Antarctica and Japan’s first trek to the South Pole. Leading the expedition is Japan’s foremost polar explorer and a former mountaineer, Mr M. Murayama, of the National Science Museum, Tokyo, who has been to the Antarctic five times.

The Japanese made their first attempt to reach the South Pole 58 years ago, but were unsuccessful. At the Pole Station to greet the traverse party will be three other Japanese who are in the Antarctic as guests of the New Zealand Antarctic research programme.

They are Dr T. Tori, professor of chemistry at Chiba Institute of Technology, Dr N. Yamagata, chief of the

Department of Radiation Environmental Science at the Institute of Public Health, and Mr I. Mukou, of the Kyodo News Service. Dr Tori was the leader at Showa Base last year. Since arriving at Scott Base he has kept in touch with the Japanese traverse party by radio.

The Japanese party set out from Showa Base in late September in four vehicles, one of which was designed to withstand temperatures of 140 degrees below zero and to drive more than 3000 miles at high altitude. It is equipped as a mobile laboratory and has four berths and a kitchen. Of the four vehicles used on the traverse, one had to be left behind with engine trouble before it reached the American Plateau Station on November 12, said Dr Tori in Christchurch earlier this month. Dr Tori made a vehicle traverse from Showa Base to Plateau Station last year in preparation for the present traverse.

The Japanese party had a four-day rest at Plateau Station before setting out for the Pole Station.

Fifty-eight years ago the first Japanese expedition sailed from Tokyo a few months after Scott and Amundsen had left for the Antarctic. The expedition's ship, Kainan Maru, a 200-ton wooden schooner reached Wellington on February 8. 1911.

The Japanese expedition was led by Lieutenant Choku Shirase. With him were 26 men, including three scientists. Shirase planned to reach King Edward VII Land about the end of February, winter there, and start for the Pole in September.

Less than three months after leaving Wellington the ship reached Sydney. She had encountered heavy ice, was badly battered, and in danger of being beset. All but one of the 30 dogs had died. The Japanese remained in Sydney for six months. They told Australian scientists that they had taken an oath not to return to Japan until they reached the South Pole even if Scott and Amundsen reached it before them. On November 19, 1911, the Kainan Maru sailed for the Antarctic. She reached the

Bay of Whales on January 16. There the expedition exchanged visits with the crew of Amundsen’s ship Fram. Amundsen was on his way back from the Pole, Scott and his party were struggling over the last few miles to their goal. The Japanese landed seven men, who were given the name “Dash Patrol.” Shirase, two companions, and two Ainui dog drivers made a dash inland with two sledges south-east across the Ross Ice Shelf.

The party started on January 20, and on January 28 reached a point 160 miles south-east of the Bay of Whales. They made a cairn, raised the Rising Sun flag,

and named the area round about, Yamato Satsugen, or Snow Plain of Japan. On January 31 the party returned to camp. The Kainan Maru picked up Shirase and his men, and reached Wellington on March 23, 1912. The Japanese left little traces in Antarctica of their abortive attempt to reach the Pole. Shirase died early in World War 11, and there are two Japanese names—Kainan Bay and Okuma Bay on the maps.

Since Amundsen and Scott reached the South Pole six other parties have arrived there by tractor—American, British, Russian and Argentinian.