The Migratory Animal Pathological Project and the Emergence of Trans-Asian Ornithology in Cold War Asia

The Migratory Animal Pathological Project (MAPS, 1963-1973) was a long-term trans-Asian bird-banding project that the US military scientists initiated and that ornithologists and entomologists from “free-world” Asian countries, like Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, took part in. This paper examines how MAPS was devised and developed together with concerns about two crises in the 1950s-60s: the US military health crisis on the Asian front and the environmental crisis in Asia. It originated from the US military scientists’ epidemic research on the role of migratory birds in spreading Japanese encephalitis in Asia. This military entomology focus came to be expanded when Japanese ornithologists, like Nagahisa Kuroda (1916-2009) at Yamashina Ornithology Institute, became involved with the early planning of MAPS. While helping in recruiting Asian participants and fieldworkers via their networks of the International Council for Bird Preservation (ICBP), the Japanese ornithologists connected their bird conservation interests to the military entomology-centered project. Focusing on the academic and public careers of local fieldwork leaders in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan and the transnational networks they formed with US military entomologists as well as US conservationists, this paper will illuminate two points: first, MAPS contributed to raising conservation-minded ornithologists in Taiwan and South Korea and to supporting Japanese ornithologists’ conservation campaigns; second, ornithologists in the three Asian countries often hid the military entomology aspects of MAPS while emphasizing its contribution to the rise of environmental awareness in Asia, specifically related to endangered birds. Throughout this study, this paper will shed new light on the complicated relationship between the military, science, and environmentalism in Cold War Asia.