Academic literature on the topic 'Sōtokufu'

The origins of Korean archaeological heritage management can be traced to 1916, when Japan's Resident-general Government in Korea (Chōsen Sōtokufu: 1910-1945) promulgated the first comprehensive laws of historical preservation called the ‘Regulations for the Preservation of Korea's Remains and Relics’. They reflected a combination of late Meiji and early Taishō era laws tailored to the Korean peninsula such as Lost and Stolen Antiquities (1909); Temples and Shrines Protection Laws (1911); the Preservation of Stone and Metal Inscriptions (1916); and most significantly, the establishment of an administrative apparatus, the Committee on the Investigation of Korean Antiquities (1916). The Chōsen Sōtokufu Museum laws governing art exhibitions and display were compiled from Imperial Museum laws (Tokyo National Museum 1976) dating from 1890-1907 (Chōsen Sōkufu 1924: 215-30).

Between Meiji 41 and Meiji 44 (1908–1911), the Japanese colonial government implemented a fishermen migration project in five prefectures and six ports in Taiwan. This was set up earlier than the Japanese migration project for farmers. The latter was not formally kicked off until Meiji 43 (1910). Comparing these two Japanese government-run migration projects also shows the following differences: First, the fishermen migration project started at the time when detailed surveys and assessments of Japanese colonial migration to Taiwan had not yet been completed. Second, the later farmer migration project, unlike the fishermen migration project, was under the leadership of the Taiwan Sōtokufu (Office of the Governor-General, Taiwan). The fishermen migration project was basically an agenda set up by local prefectures. Third, it aimed at improving Taiwan’s coastal fisheries through recruiting Japanese fishermen to migrate to Taiwan. The idea was that these Japanese fishermen would be exemplary fishermen who would generate incentives for Taiwanese to compete with them. Therefore, in contrast to agrarian migrants, fishermen migration was more of an economic colonial project than a political one. Given that the fishermen migration project in Taiwan was initiated by inexperienced local prefectures while the Taiwan Sōtokufu played only a passive role, its limited achievements are not a surprise. The only successful case was in Donggang (東港), where the geographical location and personal cooperation among local and Japanese fishermen helped it become an ideal place for Japanese fishermen migrants. The migration project failed in all the other five ports. In this paper, I will analyze how the fishermen migration project operated. I will show the different governmental strategies implemented between local prefectures and the colonial government at the time when the implementation of fishing reforms was still in the trial-and-error stage of colonial experiments. At the same time, I will argue that the project failed because of the existence of unfavorable structural factors that worked against the development of the migrant industry. The Taiwan Sōtokufu might have been aware of these unfavorable factors in Taiwan, which did not support the promotion of fishermen migration policies focused on coastal fisheries in Taiwan. Out of concern for colonial rationality, the colonial government had to call off the project. Nonetheless, the Taiwan Sōtokufu then expanded spending on fisheries and related industries, and became active in promoting the fishing industry. The industry thus developed during the Japanese colonial era. (This article is in English.)

In recent years, much attention has been given to people affected by Hansen’s disease who write about their experience of the illness and quarantine policies in Japan. Scholarship has been focused on “popular” writing, by authors who became relatively well-known, such as Hōjō Tamio (1914-1937). However, the treatment of a few exceptional male writers as representative of all patient experience erases the multiplicities of diverse patient experience. One literary coterie that has received no critical attention is the work produced by writers institutionalized in the Japanese colonial hospital in Taiwan, Rakusei Sanatorium for Lepers of the Governor-General of Taiwan (Taiwan Sōtokufu Raibyō Rakusei-in, today Lesheng Sanatorium). The colonial government opened this hospital in 1930, and the hospital magazine began publication in 1934. Rakusei-in was one of three colonial hospitals established by the Japanese government and it was the only one to have a small, active group of writers producing work in the Japanese language. This paper introduces writing by people diagnosed with Hansen’s disease and living in Rakusei-in as a site of affective communities, looking at the way residents negotiated their institutionalization and colonial status in the official hospital publication. Ultimately, I demonstrate that in colonial Taiwan, writing by those suffering from Hansen’s disease served to create an affective community of Hansen’s disease patients. They participated in the reproduction of the ideologies underpinning Japan’s imperial project, while at the same time creating a space for some negotiation of their own identities on the margins of empire.