Nostalgia for Japanese colonialism: Historical memory and postcolonialism in contemporary Taiwan

Abstract

Taiwan is unique among postcolonial societies today for a widespread social nostalgia for Japanese colonial rule. Contrasted with anti‐Japanese sentiment in neighboring East Asian societies like South Korea and China, Taiwan seems to present a puzzling instance of “pro‐colonial” nostalgia. This article discusses this phenomenon through reviewing recent scholarship of Japanese and Guomindang rule of Taiwan and Taiwanese postcolonialism. Nostalgia for Japanese colonialism in Taiwan emerged after the traumatic experiences of later Guomindang authoritarian rule and the politics of democratization and decolonization that followed the end of Guomindang martial law. While some of this social memory is shaped by a generation who lived through Japanese rule, much of the reshaping of Taiwan's historical memory is more complex than merely “pro‐colonialism.” Colonial nostalgia reflects a historical memory shaped by contemporary social experiences of trauma, counterhegemony, and postcolonial agency.

Historical geographies of Japanese colonial urbanism

“…Although it was not until 1932 that Japan established a colonial regime in Manchuria, it had separate areas attached to the Japanese South Manchuria Railway Company (SMRC) in Manchurian cities such as Changchun, Siping and Fengtian (now Shenyang) as early as the 1910s. Scholars have referred to the Japanese colonization of Taiwan, Korea and Manchuria collectively as 'developmental colonialism' and have acknowledged the results of the colonization in economic terms (Booth & Deng, 2017; Landes, 1998; Lin, 2022). Especially in Manchuria, Japan's colonial work was not confined to the plundering and processing of raw materials, but actually carried out developments that had the significance of expanding the country's industrial economy and giving Manchuria an advanced system of industry and mining (Man Shi Hui, 1988).…”

“…The official and mainstream folk narratives of Manchuria (China) and Korea, on the other hand, have long emphasized the cruelty of the Japanese colonialists and the trauma inflicted on the nation. Scholars have attributed this to the post‐colonial history, particularly the Nationalist dictatorship of the 1950s–1990s (Lee, 2020; Lin, 2022).…”

“…Concluding postcolonial geographies of these cities was not an easy task. There is limited scholarship on Taipei and Seoul (Kang, 2011; Lin, 2022). In Changchun, the only studies available were mostly from the perspective of urban planning and architectural aesthetics (Sewell, 2000, 2019; Tucker, 1999).…”

“…The removal of Japanese shrines from the city (Lee, 2020), the rewriting of history and geography textbooks (Roy, 2003;Simon, 2003), and the renaming of streets and places (Lee, 2020) have all helped to reshape the "Chinese consciousness" of Taipei. But the KMT's efforts seem to have been unsuccessful, as Taiwan became one of the few regions in the Japanese colony to show nostalgia in the post-colonial period, which has been attributed by scholars to the KMT's authoritarianism and violence in the post-war period (Lin, 2022).…”

“…Existing publications on Japanese colonialism are either historical or sociological studies, with only a few appearing in geography journals. Although historical geography is an inherently integrative discipline, and historical and sociological studies of Japanese colonialism can also be geographic (Kang, 2011; Lin, 2022), there is a dearth of English language work on historical geographies of non‐western Asian empires. This might be a result of Anglocentrism.…”