ABSTRACT
The contributors to this book examine and compare the colonial and decolonisation experiences of people in Taiwan and Nan’yō Guntō – 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 Japan’s '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 Japan’s defeat, Taiwan and Nan’yō Guntō became ruled by new foreign governments. How did Japan’s 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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|60 pages
Recognition of the Japanese colonial era
chapter 1|19 pages
The ‘Japanisation’ of the Taiwanese lifeworld during and after the colonial period
chapter 3|22 pages
Multi-layered ‘colonial experience’
part II|56 pages
Living after the war
chapter 4|18 pages
The ‘crossover generation’
chapter 5|18 pages
Christian nursing care for the Japanese-speaking elderly in Taiwan
part III|66 pages
Objects and memories