The contributors to this book examine and compare the colonial and decolonisation experiences of people in Taiwan and Nanyo Gunto Micronesia who underwent periods of rule by the Greater Japanese Empire. Early anthropological theory of Western imperialist countries focused on transforming 'savage' cultures by ruling in a high-handed manner. When Japan asserted its hegemony through sudden colonisation, its culture was perceived as inferior to the civilisation indices previously experienced by those it ruled. How did these ruled nations construct their cultural and historical awareness in areas where the strategic design of Japans 'civilising mission' was not convincing? After the end of World War II many emerging countries in the Third World achieved independence through various negotiations or struggles with their former colonial powers and built new relationships with their erstwhile rulers. However, after Japans defeat, Taiwan and Nanyo Gunto became ruled by new foreign governments. How did Japans reign and transplanted Japanese culture affect the formation of historical awareness and cultural construction of present-day communities in these two regions? This book provides a fascinating ethnographic insight into the effects of empire and colonisation on the historic imagination, which will be of great interest to historical anthropologists of Taiwan, Japan, and the Pacific.
The contributors to this book examine and compare the colonial and decolonisation experiences of people in Taiwan and Nanyo Gunto Micronesia - who underwent periods of rule by the Greater Japanese Empire.
Introduction PART I Recognition of the Japanese Colonial Era
1. The
Japanisation of the Taiwanese Lifeworld during and after the Colonial
Period: With Reference to Nany Gunt
2. The Realities of Palauan Colonial
Experiences
3. Multi-layered Colonial Experience: Collisions, Contacts, and
Re-encounters of the Bunun with Japan PART II Living after the War
4. The
Crossover Generation: Residents of Taiwans East Coast under Multi-layered
Foreign Rule
5. Christian Nursing Care for the Japanese-speaking Elderly in
Taiwan: Analysis of the Official Newsletters of Gyokulansou
6. Palau Sakura
Kai: An Association of Palauans of Japanese Ancestry PART III Objects and
Memories
7. Significance of Heritage in Decolonisation: Taiwanese Colonial
Experiences and their Appropriation of Japans Imperial-Era Buildings
8. Two
Monuments in Majuro Atoll and Economic Development: A Case Study of the East
Pacific Monument to the War Dead and the Seion-Kinenhi
9. Multi-layered
Realms of Memory: A Diachronic Study of the Commemoration of the the Mudanshe
Incident in Taiwan
Yuko MIO is Professor at Keio University. She specialises in the anthropological study of East Asia, with an emphasis on folk religion, and the social memory of subjects of the Japanese administration in Taiwan. Her publications include Historical Ethnography of Wang Ye Worship: The Dynamics of Han Chinese Folk Belief in Taiwan (in Chinese, 2018), written Introduction to: The 5th JASCA International Symposium The Internationalization/Globalization of Anthropology in East Asia: Taiwan and Japan (2019) and Domestication of Colonial and War Experience: A Case Study of a Japanese Deified in Taiwan, (in Japanese, 2017).
