This presentation examines transnational cooperation among scholars from Japan, Korea, the US, and the Eastern Bloc in developing econometric modeling theories for industrial planning during the Cold War. Focusing on the early history of the Regional Science Association (RSA) and the involvement of Japanese and Korean scholars in this international community, I argue that while a variety of econometric models were deployed in Japan and Korea as tools in the economic battle against Communism, some were, in fact, borrowed from or created in collaboration with scholars from the Eastern Bloc. Intellectual exchanges at the RSA’s international conferences involved extensive translation across national, political, and ideological borders, drawing active participation from both the US and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. East Asian scholars were enthusiastic participants in these meetings, especially as the national governments announced a consecutive series of comprehensive national planning throughout the second half of the twentieth century. By examining these connections between East Asia, and their counterparts on the other side of the Iron Curtain, this presentation highlights the overlooked role of East Asia in East-West scientific cooperation.

In one of Japanese miners’ collective lawsuits against coal mining companies, the lung from a deceased miner was presented as evidence. The lung was preserved in formalin according to the wishes of the miner on his deathbed. Judges and attendees could observe black spots covering the lung, and they could also feel that the lung was as hard as the rubber bottom of a shoe. By using lungs exposed to mine air, either through x-ray scans or dissected samples, the miners and their relatives highlighted the quality and danger of the air in mines.
This paper explores how the miners and medical practitioners collaborated to counter the mining companies’ studies and presentations of air quality, and how grassroots activities employed various unconventional forms of evidence to make the dusty air perceptible and legible to a larger regional and national audience. This collective movement of miners is a critical episode as their interpretation, utilization, and mobilization of air as evidence became a common strategy for subsequent social movements in Japan against industrial pollution. Moreover, the miners’ and medical scientists’ investigations into air quality in mines and its associated health risks led to later studies on air quality and the development of dust-reduction devices. These efforts also promoted revisions of industrial regulations and laws regarding occupational illness and on-site protections. My emphasis on how miners produced and presented knowledge on air shows how air, as a material, plays a crucial role in challenging and reshaping social power and politics.