Subodhana Wijeyeratne, "The Islands and the Stars: A History of Japan's Space Programs" (Stanford UP, 2026)

·49 min·4 clips

A Japanese submarine sailed 15,000 miles from France to Singapore carrying stolen German rocket technology.

Historian Subodhana Wijeyeratne discusses his book on Japan's space programs, tracing their origins from 1920s comics through WWII rocketry, postwar development under Itokawa Hideo, the creation of competing agencies ISAS and NASDA, and eventual consolidation into JAXA in 2003. The conversation explores how Japan's unique cultural and political context shaped a space program focused on economic utility rather than Cold War prestige.

As heard by us

Japan's space story is framed through wartime fear, public suspicion, and the careful presentation of rocketry.

Japan's space story is set against wartime fear and memory. Subodhana Wijeyeratne links rocketry to firebombing, bombers overhead, and the sense that death could arrive from the sky, which gives the discussion its core tension.

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If you want Japan's space history through wartime memory, press play.

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