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The Taiwan Shinminpo News Special – Reopening Ceremony of the Taichung Railway Line in 1938
The Taiwan Shinminpo News Special – Reopening Ceremony of the Taichung Railway Line in 1938

Publication date: 1 Dec 2023
Author: Lee Yi-ling, Kawashima Naoko |Staff member of the Archives of Institute of Taiwan History

The Taiwan Shinminpo was the only newspaper published by Taiwanese during the Japanese colonial era, representing the voices of the Taiwanese people in contrast to the official stance of the Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpo. Its reports covered a wide range of topics, making it a rich source for diverse research subjects.

On July 14-15, 1938, Taiwan Shinminpo published a special issue for two consecutive days titled "Celebrating the Restoration of the Taichung Line," totaling four full pages. This commemorated the reopening of the Taichung railway line, which had been severed since the 1935 Hsinchu-Taichung earthquake. This earthquake caused numerous casualties and severed north-south transportation, significantly affecting local society and economy. Through archived newspapers, diaries, photos, old documents, and maps, this article revisits the scene of the 1935 earthquake, reviewing Taiwan's most severe natural disaster in history and the subsequent reconstruction efforts.

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Digital Content Value-added System

On the basis of research done by the Institute of Taiwan History of Academia Sinica, the ITH Archives established publicly accessible digital value-added systems including the Taiwan Collectanea Search System, Taiwan Diary Knowledge Bank, Taiwan Sotokufu Personnel Directory, Taiwan Government-General Passport Issuance System and Taiwan Collectanea Online. Access to all systems is free of charge. The content and usage are as follows:

  1. Taiwan Collectanea Search System
    The System collects the Taiwan Collectanea published from 1957 to 1972 by the Economic Research Office of Taiwan Bank. There are 311 kinds of books with near 50 million words in the database. This system serves users with full-text search and e-book browsing. We fully welcome everyone to utilize Taiwan Collectanea Search System.

  2. Taiwan Diary Knowledge Bank
    The ITH Archives established Taiwan Diary Knowledge Bank by applying the techniques of Wiki platform. This database includes the full-text and annotations of diaries which were published by the Institute of Taiwan History and other relevant institutions. There are 15 personal diaries and 1 organizational journal open for public to access so far. The whole content is composed of over 16 million words and about 56 thousands articles. The diaries will keep editing and uploading in the future. Anyone who already registers an account with a valid e-mail can view the diaries online for free.

  3. Taiwan Sotokufu Personnel Directory
    This database includes the personnel directory published by Taiwan Government-General (Taiwan Sotokufu) in the Japanese colonial period from 1896 to 1944. This personnel directory recorded the appointment information of the Taiwan Governor-General, administrators, local employees and so on. Detailed information includes the staff’s department, name, position, wage, registered birthplace, address, etc. This database contains 950 thousand names of the employees. The system is mainly used for browsing organizational structure, searching names and viewing the personnel directory through an e-book mode. It is open to the public and free of charge.

  4. Taiwan Government-General Passport Issuance System
    This database contains more than 200,000 records of application for passports by citizens in Taiwan for overseas travels between 1897 and 1942, and around 4,000 records of passports issued by the Japanese consulates in China from 1926 to 1944. These registries are first-hand historical records of overseas travels of Taiwanese during the Japanese colonial era. The catalog and the full-text are open to the public and the system provides basic, advanced and extended search, post categorization, as well as passport browsing by piece and by year.

  5. Taiwan Collectanea Online
    This database was revamped and opened in 2024. It includes the existing ‘Taiwan Collectanea Search System,’ which contains nearly 50 million words of full-text data. Additionally, it integrates digital content from recent years related to the ‘Taiwan Shinminpo,’ encompassing news headlines, author contributions, editorials, essays, and overseas travel accounts. The total word count exceeds 12 million words, and new data will continue to be added.

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