SUGILITE : THE HIDDEN FORTRESS

In 1944, at the height of the Asia-Pacific War between the United States and Japan, a serious military conflagration if ever there was one, when most of the adult male population of the Japanese Empire was either engaged in the fighting, or in industrial production and science research for the war machine, a 43 year old Professor of Petrology, Ken-ichi Sugi was busy digging up rocks and exploring the geology of Iwagi Islet, Ochi District of Ehime Prefecture on the Island of Shikoku, southern Japan. An islet few people had ever heard of except a handful of locals. The result of his work, as much as was then officially known at the time, was the discovery of some tiny crystals of an unknown, seemingly unimportant mineral which later became famous and was given his name… Sugilite!

These are the facts of the matter. A tale that seems so strange, so unlikely, that you’d have trouble making it up! What was a Japanese professor of rocks doing hammering away on some tiny islet in the Japanese Inland Sea when he could easily have found himself making bombs for the military? To any outsider his work there was unimportant. Far removed from the realities of the time. The place had nothing worth digging for. Crystal healing and spirit energy were things of a far distant future so that for all the man knew he could have found jack. In that sense, given the war and the fanaticism with which the Japanese fought it the contradiction seems glaring. One is therefore at least entitled to ask what he was actually doing there?

Curious isn’t it. Well to mince up a metaphor a bit of digging cuts both ways and that’s what I did. It was strange and I wanted to know more. My first breakthrough came with a careful look at his short life, 1901-1948. At first glance it was all very conventional until I came across certain facts, unimportant in themselves but altogether more interesting when taken together. During his early years he developed a keen amateur interest in archaeology. This undoubtedly coalesced with his studies of Japanese history during his schooldays which came at the height of the Meiji Dynasty that reached its peak in the first years of the 20^th century. This was a time of the extraordinarily swift and monumental modernization of Japan. The pace of industrialization knew no bounds as did the progress of all forms of education and research in the sciences.

Secondary school education in particular surged ahead and certainly befitted the young Sugi but those who gained from the process were inevitably taught to look back to Japan’s imperial past as a solid ground on which to base its headlong leap into the future. This was nothing new. The rise of Germany from 1871 and its phenomenal industrialization and rapid programs of science research and formal education created much the same effect. The new Germany’s youth were taught to look back to Germany’s ancient history as suitable ground for propelling their nation into the future. In music the arch-nationalist and mythologizer Wagner prepared the ground for the Nazis. It was much the same for the youth of Japan in the early years of the 20^th century as it was for those of Germany. A keen eye on national history and an interest in literally digging it up.

This backward look at Japanese history was entirely normal for pupils at the time of Sugi’s schooldays and may have helped cultivate his interest in archeology which to me initially came as a surprise. An interest in history and digging things up however are certainly pointers for studying the age and composition of rocks so the fact that he became a Geologist is not altogether surprising… but a Geologist with a background interest in Japanese history and its active exploration says even more! Points the way perhaps to something even more fascinating. Was it just for the rocks that he came to Iwagi Islet or was the new mineral he found there only a bonus? A chance discovery? Just an additional find to what he was really looking for!

Iwagi Islet. Let’s consider the place for a moment. There’s no reference to it on any map and no grid references to it either. Research however shows that it’s one of a small group of tiny islands located north-east of the top of Ehime, the closest city to it being Imabari. It’s pretty small, its total area being eleven point five-one square kilometers with an estimated population of two thousand people. During Sugi’s time it had a degree of political independence but not anymore In 2004 it was merged with the small town of Yuge and other villages to form a new town of Kamijima. That said, the islet is tiny so it all begs the question, when Sugi arrived in 1944 what rock formations did he think he’d find worthy of geological exploration and research on such a peanut of a place, if that’s what he was actually looking for!

The mystery can only be answered by reference to geographical location, then to Japanese history and finally to a fascinating discovery about the family background of the man that takes us back many centuries. Only when taken together will they answer the question at issue. Why was he there?

Let’s start with location. The island chain of which Iwagi is a part forms a barrier across the great Inland Sea of southern Japan. It’s potential value is therefore military. Directly west lies Japan’s second largest city with its famous castle, The Fortress City of Osaka. Historically the city and its surrounding area played a pivotal role in the continuing conflicts between rival dynasties and clans so its value cannot be underestimated. It was captured by the Emperor Ieyasu from the Toyotomi in 1615 soon after which Japan became completely isolated from the rest of the world for over fifty years. During this time the power of the ruling clans in the south extended west to Nagoya, north to Kyoto and due east to the city of Kobe. Less well known however was the ambition of Osaka’s rulers to extend military influence and control south and east through the island of Shikoku all the way down to Kyushu and the southernmost tip at Kagoshima. The first step in this process in fact was the conquest and fortification of the chain of islands across the Inland Sea beginning with Iwagi, which Professor Sugi visited three hundred years later!

Indeed, exploration of the waters off the rocky shores facing north-east, along with excavations recently undertaken further inland, reveal an astonishing level of construction. However unlike the fortifications of Osaka those on the island are altogether more subdued. Unlike of the towering magnificence of Osaka Castle, the defensive system across Iwagi lay more underground, hidden in a well-connected system of garrison posts among the rocky outcrops, the historic significance of which we now recognise today as The Hidden Fortress of Iwagi. Looked at another way it may be seen as an advanced outpost of the Osaka Region. Both as a springboard for an attack towards the Southern Prefectures and a defensive line in case of any invasion east from the south.

To any straightforward Professor of Geology the ancient ruins of The Hidden Fortress of Iwagi would have presented themselves as a matter of curiosity. A matter of passing conjecture, nothing more. Only Ken-ichi Sugi, with his interest in archeology and Japanese history was not such a man and his interest was not merely geological. He was there on the island with a purpose. Geological enquiry was one thing, his ancient family lineage quite another. Patient research has uncovered something altogether more surprising. His ancestry indeed goes back to the time of the clans under the great Emperor Hideyoshi where a family member may have served in some important military or political capacity, something he was almost certainly aware of. In short he had a very real personal connection with Japanese imperial history.

Now let’s return to more modern times. From early 1944 Japan’s cities were being blasted and destroyed on a daily basis by the American Army Air Force. The country was going down fast. The United States Navy now ruled the seas around Japan and its ruler Emperor Hirohito and the military oligarchy around him which he controlled were expecting an invasion at any time which would certainly come from the south. The Emperor was no ordinary man. To the people of Japan he was a god. His grandfather was Emperor Matsuhito, i.e. Meiji “the Great” whose written constitution to his people proclaimed that he was successor in an unbroken sacred blood line and that any government was subordinate to monarchy and that he was the sacred and inviolable head of the Japanese Empire, head of the armed forces and as the source of all law his position transcended that of all law and the constitution. 

In 1944 Emperor Hirohito WAS Japan. HIS country’s highest spiritual authority and the entire military oligarchy around him of politicians, army, navy and air force his personal fiefdom. His rule was more absolute than any British monarch’s had ever been. From 1941 he and the clique around him became caught up in the Nazi fervor of territorial expansion and war sweeping Europe. By 1944, with Japan’s power declining, he still believed there was time to check the American offensive, the invasion by sea that must come from the south.

In that respect, as we know now, he was entirely ignorant of American military intentions. His aim and therefore that of his military advisors was to prepare against that invasion. One which would inevitably be naval and come across water. Looking at their maps early in 1944 he and his advisors would have noted the English Channel and made comparisons with that and the Japanese Inland Sea. It was the naval route for Osaka and then onwards to Tokyo. The point of access into the heart of Japan for ships and landing craft was the Inland Sea. For defence purposes its fortification now became a strategic priority. On those maps, entry through the Bungo Straits west of Shikoku Island would have seemed a more likely option than an attack further east of the Island through those of Kii. Capturing the two southern-most islands of Kyushu  and Shikoku would provide an initial springboard from which to launch a land based attack west towards the industrialized regions and cities around Osaka.

Once through the Bungo Straits though and heading east their ships would meet the chain of small island with Iwagi at its center. IWAGI ISLET! The name must have rung a bell somewhere! Certainly in Imperial Circles! The place had already been fortified hundreds of years back! From military dossiers released over time since the end of the conflict we now know where Imperial interest was directed. Implausible as it seemed, towards the tiny chain of land that stuck out of the water north of Ehime Prefecture on Shikoku. Iwagi Islet now seemed a natural choice to begin the defence of Japan.

Now, as we know, the Americans began their initial thrust elsewhere, on Iwo-Jima and Okinawa. Then, as is now clear, the Japanese thought it would be elsewhere. Iwagi Islet and its earlier Hidden Fortress! The place, however, had sunk into oblivion in the preceding centuries. An immediate appraisal was needed!

Whether he was the dupe of Imperial military intentions or an earnest patriot of his country we shall perhaps never know. Perhaps as a genuine scientist he was in some way a mixture of both. What is certainly the case is that if he was required, as a command of his Emperor, that he carry out ‘research’ on Iwagi Islet at that time in 1944, Professor Ken-ichi Sugi would have felt greatly honoured. We do not know exactly what his instructions were but we can certainly hazard a guess. That together with a small team of military officials he exam the geology of the rock formations with a view to establishing the most viable defensive positions based on the fortifications already there.

Even to have been commanded by the Emperor would have been deemed the greatest honor. And to obey, unquestionable!   

No record of any words, instructions or discussions between the Imperial hierarchy and Professor Sugi remain. Perhaps this was because nothing was ever put on record. The Emperor’s requirements or commands never were. Word alone was deemed sufficient. He would have been called before some official. Almost certainly senior. Suggestions put to him. Instructions. A matter of patriotic duty. Coming from the highest source. That would have been more than enough. He was a good choice. A professor of rocks, a keen amateur archeologist, someone personally connected through family history with the Imperial history of Japan. A man of understanding. He was almost certainly told what was required.

He almost certainly made a report.

There is a surviving record of the geological notes he made on the rock formations of Iwagi Islet and the hitherto unknown small yellowish crystals he found. Of his other report nothing is known. It may have survived in Imperial Archives, most of which, with post-war American connivance, have never been made public, or been destroyed in the turmoil of post-war Japan.

This is the most likely outcome of the most likely explanation of what a Japanese Professor of Geology, Ken-ichi Sugi was doing on a tiny islet in the southern Inland Sea of Japan in 1944. His mind curious in many directions. Looking around, taking notes of things that he saw. Hammering away on some rocks. Thinking his destiny lay with his time and all too soon knowing how he’d been wrong. Hiroshima and Nagasaki followed just a year later. Clouds that weren’t far away. That he’d have certainly seen at the time.

He gave his name to the yellow non-gem form crystals. Thirty-five years later the mineral took off with the discovery of the first gem grade deposits at the Wessels’ Mine near Kuruman, Cape Province of South Africa and its entry into the pantheon of crystal healing wonder minerals. Delighting endless numbers of the faith around the world.

What a fate! In 1944, Ken-ichi Sugi would have been happy doing his research, serving his Emperor and spooning away on a bowl of rice. Maybe noodles if he was lucky. Around him was death, the Americans and destruction. Never mind the Emperor! Today his name is part of a new spiritual pantheon of heroes. The new Gods of the Sacred! From one world to another. A future he’d never know.

But through it all, from that time to this, is the excitement and thrill of being a geologist. A scientist going about their work. Finding out and learning new things. Being part of what it means to be human.