ABSTRACT
Some Japanese colonial-era buildings in Taiwan are utilised as historical sites presented as part of a positive experience unique to Taiwan or as stylish café-restaurants irrespective of their colonial history. Such utilisations are rare in the former Japanese colonies of South Korea and Palau. Kamizuru clarified the seven factors of these differences through a comparative study of Taiwan, South Korea, and Nan’yō Guntō. These factors include, for example, the development of feelings of affinity towards Japan, based on the close political, economic, and cultural relationships of the two countries, the rivalry between Chinese civilisation and Japanese-style modernity, the Republic of China’s status as a country both victorious and defeated in war, and so on. This chapter takes into account the cases of other former Japanese colonies. Comparison with these countries is not an attempt to once again view these former colonies through an imperialist prism. Rather, as this chapter shows, comparing the mechanisms by which views and ways of using Japan are formed makes it possible to open up the issue of colonial rule to political, economic, and cultural spheres, and to deconstruct its strong influence.
