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Let’s read newspaper－Contents of The Taiwan Shinminpo and Kounan Shinbun
Let’s read newspaper－Contents of The Taiwan Shinminpo and Kounan Shinbun

Publication date: 04 Jul 2022
Author: Lee Yi-ling |Staff member of the Archives of Institute of Taiwan History

The Taiwan Minpao, The Taiwan Shinminpo and the subsequent Kounan Shinbun (Kounan News) constituted the newspaper series published between April 1923 and March 1944. However, surviving copies of the daily published since 1932 were few. In view of the importance of this newspaper series, the Institute of Taiwan History began gathering remaining copies both in Taiwan and abroad, and discovered an exclusive collection of The Taiwan Shinminpo (1938-1941). The newspapers carried diverse contents, including political and economic affairs, local news, arts and new knowledge, which are rare and precious historical materials for research on Taiwan history during World War II.

Reviewing the daily newspapers published since April 1932, this article attempts to elucidate the layout format and language use as well as main contents and subject matters covered in the columns. Moreover, it further analyzes the particularity and variations in choice of contents as time evolved and the environment changed. This article provides an in-depth introduction to this newspaper of the Taiwanese, and invites you to read the newspaper and revisit major and minor happenings of Taiwan past.

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"The Diaries of Taiwan Governor-general Den Kenjiro" Now Online
2012-03-07

As a part of the "International Collaboration of Taiwan Historical Resources Acquisition Project," the Institute of Taiwan History acquired and published the diaries of Den Kenjiro, Taiwan’s eighth Governor-general. In 2011, digitized annotations and full-text of 610,000 words of the diaries were collected in the "Taiwan Diary Knowledge Bank." Den’s diaries from 1919 to 1923 are now available online.

Den Kenjiro (1855-1930), born in Hyogo prefecture, was the first civilian Governor-general of Taiwan with a deep understanding of Sinology. Before being appointed to Taiwan, he served different posts, including the Chief of Police Department of the Kanagawa Prefecture, Director of Railway Bureau, member of House of Peers, Minister of Post and Communication, etc. During his term as Governor-general (1919-1923), Den promoted the policy of assimilation and carried out various reforms: he reformed the locality system, legalized Taiwanese-Japanese intermarriage, abolished caning as a criminal punishment, and expanded the public education system. He even recruited Taiwanese for high civilian positions as well. All these implementations are important issues for research on Japanese colonial rule.

Among the 19 Japanese governor-generals of Taiwan, Den Kenjiro was the only one who kept detailed records of his daily life and personal viewpoints on state affairs in Chinese for 40 years. Hence, his diaries are definitely valuable primary sources for studying modern Japan and Taiwanese history. You may explore Den Kenjiro’s diaries through the "Taiwan Diary Knowledge Bank."


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