JAPANESE ENTERPRISE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 304, 17 September 1921, Page 7

JAPANESE ENTERPRISE

EXPEDITION TO ANTARCTICA PLANNED. , As the United States has had its Peary and "England its Scott, .so Japan hopes to produce its Shirase as a great polar explorel*. Lieutenant N. Shirase, a retired officer of the Japanese Army, who made a trip toward the South Pole beginning November, 1910, and advanced as far as 80 degrees, 5 minutes, south latitude, is" planning to make another dash into the Antarctica regions, starting in July of this year (says the Tokio correspondent of the Sun-Francisco ’•Chronicle”). The .finding of the necessary funds remains a. problem'-for the Japanese officer, but he hopes to y;et a Government subsidy. The principal object of the new expedition will be to find a means of ..working the coal and other precious material, and to devise methods for their exportation., In Lieutenant Shiruse's first trip the -main object was geographical, but the object of the coming expedition is , to^determine more . definitely *the local!ties of tho natural rersources in which this region is said to be very rich. Talking , about his proposed trip, Shirase said he hoped to find coal in the region, about Mount Erebus,, which, .'he says, resembles the sacred mount, Fuji, of Japan, in volcanic, structure. A sensational feature of the forthcoming expedition is Shirase’s proposal to fly over the ice baiTiers by aeroplane. Some of the barriers which his party encountered before were more than 300 feet high, and the party, found these" almost insurmountable. . To conquer this difficulty an aeroplane is to be used. The expedition will include fourteen people, including an astronomer, a geographer, a ■ physician, a, moving-picture operator, a journalist, and also tlie , commander’w son. Captain Tonio Shirase, of the Janan- ' ese Navy. Two years are expected to be passed cn the trip. The party expects to sail first to the coast of South Argentina; gud then, romfding Cape Horn, to land somewhere in the neighbourhood of the South Shetlands. Lieutenant Shirase’s first ’expedition party was supported largely by Marconis Okiima and other members of the Japanese Antarctic exploring party. The voyagers sailed friim the Gulf of Shinagawa. on November 29. 1910. and, passing the Bonin, Merinnn, and Caroline Islands, finally reached New Zealand. I’hey voyaged in a small steamer called Open South, a ship of. only 200 tons displacement, and one of the smallest ever used on such an expedition. Eventually'th*; party erect-, "fed a wooden monument in the eastern ‘part of Edward VII Lund, and at south latitude SO degrees 5 minutes., they buried a list of Ihe names ofthe natrops of Jim p.'irtv in a copper box, crying "Banzai ’’ as it was lowered beneath the snow. On if# return the parly left'Hale Gulf '■.n Fehi'inrv 4, and arrived at Yokohama’ on .Tune 19. 1912. shortly before the death of the late Emperor M'utsuliite>.