Bridging the Pacific

Telecommunications started in Japan early in the Meiji Era (1868 - 1912). In 1869, Japan established its first telegraph line. It stretched about 800 meters from the Toumyoudai Office in the Benten neighborhood in Yokohama to the Yokohama Courthouse. Modern postal services wouldn't be established until 1871, the same year that the first undersea cables were laid. Nagasaki was connected to Shanghai in China and Vladivostok in Russia by the Great Northern Telegraph Company of Denmark (Det Store Nordiske Telegrafselskab A/S), which had itself only been established in June 1869 by Danish industrialist Carl Frederik Tietgen, who merged together three domestic telegraph companies. The facility in Nagasaki, which handled international telegraph traffic, was located in Ogakura Senbon and was called the 国際海底電線小ヶ倉陸揚庫 or "International Undersea Ogakura Senbon Cable Shed."

A special version of Morse Code was developed to accommodate the Japanese katakana syllabary instead of the Western alphabet. In January 1875, a postal exchange treaty was concluded with the United States, which allowed Japan to send foreign mail directly to its destination. In 1890, the first telephone service was launched between Tokyo and Yokohama. The charge for a five-minute call between Tokyo and Yokohama was 15 sen (approximately 2,250 yen today or about $14 US at current exchange rates). It is safe to say that early telephone calls were not used for casually catching up. Japanese phone use increased, but the first international telephone service wouldn't come until a shortwave service was instituted with Manila in the Philippines in 1934. The price of calls using this service was 35 yen per minute, which was half a monthly salary for starting civil servants at the time, so it was also not used for personal communication. In 1956, telex services were launched to support the rapidly growing economy, domestically by NTT, and internationally by KDD. Telegrams were the most common method of communication by ordinary citizens at the time. Until the mid-1960s, Japan averaged over 80 million telegrams per year. Just as American people used STOP instead of punctuation to save money, Japanese people had their own money-saving shortcuts. When Japanese people wanted to convey success (like passing an entrance exam to an elite university, for instance), they would send a message サクラサク, or "the cherry blossoms are blooming," to convey that something had gone successfully. Japan had planned to conduct its first television satellite relay experiment with the United States on November 23, 1963. President Kennedy was to share a message written specifically for the Japanese people. Instead, the broadcast broke the news that President Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas.

Around this time, the vast Pacific Ocean posed a daunting challenge for international communication. In February 1962, an agreement was reached to set the stage for technology to shrink the world and transform global connectivity. The “TRANSPACIFIC CABLE Construction and Maintenance Agreement” brought AT&T, the Hawaiian Telephone Company (HTC), and Japan’s KDD together. To lay a submarine cable system, the Trans-Pacific Cable-1, or TPC-1, linking Japan and Hawaii, thus connecting East and West in a way that had never been done before.

TPC-1 was envisioned as a conduit for transpacific telephone and other international communication services, bridging Japan and Hawaii to the mainland USA via cables between Hawaii and California and to Southeast Asia through the Guam-Philippines cable. This ambitious project was a $83 million (USD) endeavor, a testament to the era's cutting-edge technology and the collaborative spirit between nations.

On June 19, 1964, TPC-1 was officially launched with grand speeches from US President Lyndon Johnson and Japanese Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda. They emphasized the project's significance for fostering closer ties and mutual development between the USA and Japan. This cable system didn't just facilitate communication; it paved the way for a deeper cultural and economic partnership.

TPC-1 was a state-of-the-art project utilizing the “SD submarine cable system,” developed by AT&T's fabled Bell Laboratories. A new Japanese company, Taiyo Kaitei Densen (Ocean Undersea Cable Co., Ltd.), was established to manufacture the cables for the Japan-Guam link under AT&T's guidance. The SD system's reliability was paramount, achieved through rigorous quality control from Bell Laboratories, and it set the standard for future submarine cable systems.

The journey to laying TPC-1 wasn't without challenges. The cable had to traverse the treacherous Mariana Trench and the complex topography of the ocean floor. Joint efforts from U.S. and Japanese ocean floor geologists ensured a safe and stable route, blending academic expertise with business acumen. This meticulous planning laid the groundwork for future trans-oceanic projects.

TPC-1's impact was immediate and profound. It dramatically improved voice communication quality between Asia and the USA/Europe, replacing unreliable short-wave. The cable's capacity grew by over 50 percent annually, underscoring its critical role in social and economic activities. This success spurred the development of additional submarine cable networks across East and Southeast Asia, enhancing connectivity and fostering harmony between continents.

TPC-1 didn't just stop at linking Japan and Hawaii. It was cross-connected at Hawaii with COMPAC, the British Commonwealth cable system, creating an expansive Pan Pacific coaxial submarine cable network. This interconnectedness boosted international telephone quality, meeting CCITT recommendations and setting new standards for global communication. The technology and quality control methods pioneered by TPC-1 have continued to influence the design and maintenance of modern fiber optic submarine cable systems, ensuring that our world remains connected.

The story of TPC-1 is one of innovation, collaboration, and perseverance. It exemplifies how technological advancements and international cooperation can overcome formidable obstacles and transform how we connect and communicate. TPC-1 wasn't just a cable; it was a bridge across the Pacific, bringing the world closer together and setting the stage for the interconnected global community we live in today.