The Japanized Taiwanese: A Study on Government Controlled Literature in the late WWII Period
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Hou, Chi-An
Abstract
In 1985, Taiwan became part of the Empire of Great Japan as its first colony. For the people in the mother country and colony, they’d shared a common history for fifty years. However, during the final period of Japanese rule in 1937, Taiwan began with the eruption of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Until the end of the Pacific War, the Taiwanese people were treated unjustly as the Colonial Government aimed at Japanizing Taiwanese society. They’ve tried to build the “Japanese spirit”, the Japanese identity, and encouraged participation in the war effort. Even though the pain of war had been recorded in history, as one of colonial’s posterity, the pursuit of justice was our mission; and the premise was to build a complete and objective conception of history. In order to understand how the Taiwanese people were molded into Japanese likeness, this thesis focuses on the “Government Controlled Literature” which was popular during the later phase of the Pacific War. Whether the works conformed to the nation’s policy or were written from the order of official authorities, they were a part of the Government Controlled Literature. The standards which I’d chose for the works of Government Controlled Literature divides the authors into three categories. These are “Japanese”, “The Japanese who lived in Taiwan”, and “Taiwanese”. These works became known as: The decisive battle in Taiwan: collection of short stories, Behind the war by Marui Taeko, The breath of Taiwan by Niwa Fumio, and The journey in Taiwan by Sata Ineko. By reading and researching through novels, essays, and three additional perspectives of various authors, we could observe how these authors maintained the balance between arts and policies. Furthermore, we could explore how they’ve depicted the Taiwanese confrontation during the “Kominka movement”. According to the analysis, at first, blood relation was strongly connected to national identity. But the movements in geographical space and different living environment became the overriding influences in these authors’ description of their characters. Therefore, the symbolisms used by these authors in their own works could be thought of as “real image”. Their created characters could be deemed as “virtual image”. Second, when analyzing authors in how to create the ideal Japanized Taiwanese, I’ve collected evidence based on two methods. The first is the analysis of the mind, and the second is physical reformation. After all, the methodologies the authors used in their work selections would reflect their understanding about Taiwanese’s Japanization.
Subjects
Government Controlled Literature
Colonial Literature
Taiwan under Japanese rule
Pacific War
Japanization
national identity
literary image
Type
thesis
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