Dutch East Indies, Its People, and Japan at The 1903 Osaka Exhibition
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This article examines the participation of the Dutch East Indies in the 1903 Osaka Industrial Exhibition and analyzes how the exhibition functioned as a site of negotiation between colonial interests, imperial ambition, and representational politics in early twentieth-century Asia. The study analyzes the motivations behind the Indies' participation and the representation of “Indonesianness” amid colonial concern over Japan's rise. Using historical methods, namely heuristics, criticism, interpretation, and historiography, the research finds that the motivation to participate in the exhibition was not only economic but also symbolic and diplomatic, as a Western power with a long history of friendship with Japan. At the same time, the exhibition, especially the Human Pavilion, revealed how Japan articulated its modern identity by adopting and modifying international exhibition practices previously developed in Europe. Through the Human Pavilion, Japan positioned itself differently from other Asian nations, including Java and Malay. This article argues that the Osaka Exhibition represented an early expression of a hierarchical worldview and colonial imagination that was in line with patterns later seen in Japanese imperial ideology, while also revealing the Dutch's ambiguous perception of Japan as both a modern partner and a potential threat to Western colonial domination in Asia.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
References
Akira, Matsumura. 1903. “Ōsaka No Jinruikan (The Human Pavilion of Osaka).” Journal of the Tokyo Anthropological Society, no. 205 (April).
Alatas, Syed Hussein. 1977. The Myth of the Lazy Native. Frank Cass.
Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad (Batavia). 1903. “De Tentoonstelling Te Osaka.” April 27.
Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad (Batavia). 1904. “Nederlandsch Indie.” February 9.
Bhabha, Homi K. 1994. The Location of Culture. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203820551.
Bloembergen, Marieke. 2001. “Koloniale Vertoningen : De Verbeelding van Nederlands-Indië Op de Wereldtentoonstellingen (1880-1931).” PhD Thesis, Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Cantor, Geoffrey. 2012. “Science, Providence, and Progress at the Great Exhibition.” ISIS 103 (3): 439–59. https://doi.org/10.1086/667968.
Daykin, Jeffer. 2015. “International Ambition of an Exhibition at the Margin: Japan’s 1903 Osaka Exposition.” In Cultures of International Exhibitions 1840-1940: Great Exhibitions in the Margins, edited by Marta Filipová. Ashgate Publishing.
Daykin, Jeffer. 2021. “The Evolution of the Exposition Form and Its Transfer from the West to Japan.” In Strands of Modernization: The Circulation of Technology and Business Practices in East Asia, 1850–1920, edited by David B. Sicilia and David G. Wittner. University of Toronto Press.
De Avondpost. 1903. “Onze Oost in Japan.” June 22.
De Nieuwe Courant; Dagblad van Nederland. 1902. “Tentoonstelling in Japan.” March 15.
De Nieuwe Courant: Dagblad van Nederland. 1902. “Tentoonstelling Te Osaka.” November 18.
De Zuidwillemsvaart (Helmond). 1904. “Een En Ander over de Ontwikkeling van Japan.” June 4.
Deli Courant (Medan). 1902. “Japansche Tentoonstelling.” March 7.
Demeulenaere-Douyère, Christiane. 2020. “Japan at the World’s Fairs: A Reflection.” Journal of Japonisme 5 (2): 129–51. https://doi.org/10.1163/24054992-00052P01.
Dhont, Frank. 2023. “Genocide in the Spice Islands.” In The Cambridge World History of Genocide. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108765480.009.
Djaoeh, Bintang. 1903a. “Nederlandsch-Indië Op de Niijverheidstentoonstelling Te Osaka.” Eigen Haard (Amsterdam), July 11.
Djaoeh, Bintang. 1903b. “Nederlandsch-Indië Op de Nijverheidstentoonstelling Te Osaka.” Eigen Haard (Amsterdam), July 18.
Elisonas, Jurgis. 1991. “Christianity and the Daimyo.” In The Cambridge History of Japan, IV. Cambridge University Press.
Farnida, Rifda. 2020. “Postcolonial Mimicry Of The Main Character In Richard C. Morais’ The Hundred Foot Journey.” Jurnal Pembelajaran Sastra 1 (2). https://doi.org/10.51543/hiskimalang.v1i2.29.
Goodman, Grant K. 2000. Japan and the Dutch, 1600-1853. Routledge Curzon.
Goss, Andrew. 2011. The Floracrats: State-Sponsored Science and the Failure of the Enlightment in Indonesia. University of Wisconsis Press.
Goto, Ken’ichi. 2003. Tension of Empire: Japan and South Asia in Colonial and Postcolonial World. Ohio University Press.
“Het Lied van Osaka.” 1903. Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad, May.
Het Nieuws van Den Dag (Batavia). 1902. “5e Japansche Nationale Nijverheidtentoonstelling Te Osaka.” April 16.
Houben, Vincent. 2013. “The Indonesian Eurasian Community and Japan.” Internationales Asienforum 2013 (3–4): 227–37.
Hur, Hyungju. 2012. “Staging Modern Statehood: World Exhibition and the Rhetoric of Publishing in Late Qing China, 1851-1910.” University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Kuntowijoyo. 2013. Pengantar Ilmu Sejarah. Tiara Wacana.
Kwon, Hyeokhui. 2017. “An Analysis of Korean Intellectual Responses to the Exhibition of Koreans at Japanese Expositions: Nationalism and the Discourse on Northeast Asian Solidarity at the Turn of the Century.” Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies 17 (1): 19–40. https://doi.org/10.21866/esjeas.2017.17.1.002.
Lukito, Yulia Nurliani. 2016. Exhibiting Modernity and Indonesian Vernacular Architecture. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-11605-7.
Mamiko, Itō. 2020. “Dissemination of Knowledge and Technology: The Extensive Range of Exhibitions in Japan in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.” In Technical Knowledge in Early Modern Japan. Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781912961016.004.
Mosch, H. Rud. du. 1903. Verslag: Eener Reis Naar Japan. Landsdrukkerij.
Murata, Mariko. 2019. “Toward Conceptualizing the Museums of Cities in Osaka.” In Celebrating CAMOC 2019 in Kyoto: Japanese City Museum Special Dossier, edited by Chunni Chiu. CAMOC: ICOM International Committee for the Collections and Activities of Museums Of Cities.
National Diet Library. 2011a. “First National Industrial Exhibition.” March 15. https://www.ndl.go.jp/exposition/e/s1/naikoku1.html.
National Diet Library. 2011b. “Japanese Industries in the Meiji Period - Seen from Exhibits.” March 15. https://www.ndl.go.jp/exposition/e/s3/index.html.
Netherlands-India Commission for the Osaka Exhibition. 1903. Netherlands-India at the Fifth National Industrial Exhibition of Japan: Held in the City of Osaka in the Year 1903. Kaneko Job-Printing Works.
Padiatra, Aditia Muara. 2020. “Jejak Sakura Di Nusantara: Pasang Surut Hubungan Jepang-Indonesia Tahun 1880an–1974.” SASDAYA: Gadjah Mada Journal of Humanities 4 (1): 1. https://doi.org/10.22146/sasdayajournal.54570.
Putnam, Walter. 2012. “‘Please Don’t Feed the Natives’: Human Zoos, Colonial Desire, and Bodies on Display.” In The Environment in French and Francophone Literature and Film. BRILL. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401208840.
Rizkinta, Bryna. 2022. “Pengaruh Pameran Dunia Di Tanah Koloni: Pameran Sains, Industri, Dan Seni Di Batavia 1853.” Sejarah Dan Budaya: Jurnal Sejarah, Budaya, Dan Pengajarannya 16 (1): 182. https://doi.org/10.17977/um020v16i12022p182-199.
Sayahdikumullah, Dikdik, and Miyuki Anai. 2025. “Rediscovering Art Exhibition Artefacts of Indonesia Pavilion at Osaka Expo’70 Japan.” PURBAWIDYA 14 (1): 1–20. https://doi.org/10.55981/purbawidya.2025.8190.
Shiraishi, Saya, and Takashi Shiraishi. 1993. “The Japanese in Colonial Southeast Asia: An Overview.” In The Japanese in Colonial Southeast Asia. Cornell University.
Shōgorō, Tsuboi. 1903. “Anthropology in the FIfth National Industrial Exhibition.” Journal of the Tokyo Anthropological Society 18 (206).
The Osaka Exhibition Guide Book for Tourists in Japan 1903. 1903. The Obun Printing Co.
Van Dijk, Kees. 2007. The Netherlands Indies and the Great War, 1914-1918. KITLV.
Vandenbosch, Amry. 1941. The Dutch East Indies: Its Goverment, Problems, and Politic. University of California Press.
Vandenbosch, Amry. 1959. Dutch Foreign Policy Since 1815: A Study in Small Power Politic. Martinus Nijhoff.
Vlastos, Stephen. 1989. “Opposition Movements in Early Meiji, 1868–1885.” In The Cambridge History of Japan. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521223560.008.
Ziomek, Kirsten L. 2014. “The 1903 Human Pavilion: Colonial Realities and Subaltern Subjectivities in Twentieth-Century Japan.” The Journal of Asian Studies 73 (2): 493–516. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911814000011.