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Paper short abstract

This presentation critically examines ornithological specimens collected in colonial Korea, currently held at the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology in Japan and the National Science Museum in South Korea, as “natural archives.”

Paper long abstract

This presentation critically examines ornithological specimens collected in colonial Korea, currently held at the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology in Japan and the National Science Museum in South Korea, as “natural archives.” These collections were products of intersecting agendas between mainland Japanese ornithologists and Japanese settler naturalists, such as Yamashina Yoshimaro, Mori Tamezō, and Orii Hyojirō. While digitization initiatives—like the Yamashina Institute’s database—have improved global accessibility and stewardship , they also provide a crucial opportunity to historicize the development of these archives to evaluate their past and present significance.

The core of this study focuses on the “depoliticization” of these natural archives following the 1945 liberation. Despite the inextricable link between colonial knowledge-making and imperialism, postwar actors in both Japan and Korea have systematically obscured the colonial contexts inherent in these specimens. By constructing narratives centered on scientific objectivity, nationalism, or nature conservation, these actors have effectively masked the archives’ origins as tools of empire.

By tracing the “post-colonial” afterlives of these bird specimens, this presentation seeks to repoliticize natural history collections that are often overlooked in debates regarding cultural property due to their perceived neutrality. Evaluating their historical development uncovers how the professionalization of science under Japanese settler colonialism integrated natural archives into the political projects of empire- and nation-building. Ultimately, this research offers a critical perspective on the decolonization of museums and contributes to the trans-imperial history of science by revealing the overlooked political afterlives of seemingly objective scientific objects.