A Research Of Japanese Writer Nishikawa Mitsuru’s Writing On Taiwan

During the time of Japan colonizing Taiwan,lots of Japanese writers,Nishikawa Mitsuru being the most representative,travelled around or immigrated to Taiwan creating a large quantity travel notes,novels and poems with Taiwan as the theme.These literary works,rather than being a part of "Taiwanese Literature",are the overseas continuation of modern Japanese literature,and are the most important development of Japanese literature in the colony.The Japanese writers wrote works about Taiwan based on the reality of Taiwan being a modern colony of Japan and inspired by the writers’ experience in Taiwan,so their works were rather complicated and thoughtful.When researching Taiwan’s colonial understanding and historical review,exploring Japanese writers’ works on Taiwan will help us think,investigate and criticize Taiwanese identity in the post colonial period and find the theoretical value and practical significance of the research.Among these writers,Nishikawa Mitsuru is the most prominent.First of all,he had a special experience of Taiwan.He came to Taiwan in 1910 with his father and returned to Japan in 1946,the year after Japan lost the war,so he spent his whole childhood and youth there,as well as his most important creative period.Secondly,Mitsuru created a great number of poems and novels with Taiwan as the theme and won the Taiwan Culture Prize and Summer Cozy Rock Prize.His works contained the history of Taiwan,the modernized construction of Taiwan during the colonial period and his memory of Taiwan after his repatriation,which form the entirety of Writing on Taiwan.His works make a great difference when studying Japanese writers on the subject of Taiwan.Thirdly,although Mitsuru once took an active part in the political activities of Japan’s press conference,and was once regarded as a war criminal as the"supreme leader of Taiwanese culture" after Japan’s defeat,which made Mitsuru’s literary creation colonial,and exactly because of the interweaving of politics and literature,the alternate presentation of "inland" Japan and "foreign" Taiwan,or the binary opposition structure between "gorgeous"Taiwan and "hellish" Japan,"heroes"of Japan and the people of the Qing Dynasty and the people of Taiwan,the works of Mitsuru were full of a sense of incomprehensible and indescribable suspense and so research into and exploration of Nishikawa Mitsuru’s literature continued.This research,based on cross-cultural image theory,taking Mitsuru’s writing about Taiwan,namely his works Chi Kan Ji,Cai Liu Ji,Taiwan Longitudinal Railway and The Bottom of Hell as subjects,combined with Mitsuru’s biography and letters,especially those relating to Taiwan,explores Mitsuru’s writing on the restructuring of history,exploration of customs,portration of people,the modernized construction of Taiwan and his memory of the colony through the means of text interpretation and cultural comparison.Thus,we can disclose Nishikawa Mitsuru’s real intention when writing about Taiwan.The first chapter explains the origin of the problem and reviews the previous studies in Japan,Chinese mainland and Chinese Taiwan.Based on that,it clarifies the objective,significance,methods,content structure and basic conclusions of this study.The second chapter takes the novel Chi Kan Ji as the subject and analyzes the historical narration in Mitsuru’s work.First of all,it summarizes the general situation of the publication and the previous studies,combs out the genealogy of Taiwan’s hero stories under the strategy of historical reconstruction,and points out that the novel not only continues this genealogy,but also gives a unique perspective of "Japan Ⅱ" in Taiwan.Secondly,it takes the hero image as a subject,and analyzes the fate of Zheng Chenggong’s family and the great desire of the family for "Nanyang",management,and reveals the "consanguinity" problem contained in this grand novel,that is to say,Zheng Chenggong and his descendants are related to Japanese people,thus connecting the history of Taiwan with that of Japan.Thirdly,with the theme of the "female image"in the novel,this paper explores how Mitsuru details and romanticizes the historical story under the dual opposition framework of female vision and male power,and then reconstructs a kind of "exotic" general truth.The fourth section reveals that Mitsuru essentially adopts a "nested" narrative structure to discover,intervene with and reconstruct the history of Taiwan,so as to achieve the real purpose of seizing the right to interpret "Taiwanese History".The third chapter focuses on Cai Liu Ji,discussing the exploitation of foreign land.Exotic things form a special part of Nishikawa Mitsuru,s work.Mitsuru describes more of natural scene,folk customs and historic people,it’s not definitely real style but exotic.Firstly,the novel portrays Taiwan as tropical area with malaria,a poetic area and the southern part of the empire,constructing Taiwan as a physical,emotional and political combination.Secondly,Mitsuru depicts Taiwanese native"Fan Ren",as uncivilized Fan Ren an object for comparing civilizations as partner Fan Ren and as rebellious Fan Ren.Through the changing image,Mitsuru establishes Japan’s identity as a pioneer and makes the Japanese more enthusiastic and determined to exploit Taiwan.He also makes a good cover for Japan colonizing Taiwan.The fourth chapter concentrates on Taiwan Longitudinal Railway,studying the modernization narrative in Mitsuru’s work.The modernization narrative plays a major part for the Japanese when constructing their identity and is a main theme in his works.Through a series of story descriptions of railway construction,especially the narration of railway modernization and the sketch of characters in "Taiwan Longitudinal Railway",Mitsuru places the Qing people as the other,the Westerners as the technologists or investors,and the Japanese as the builders in the historical event of Taiwan Railway construction,so as to build a framework of cultural comparison.Moreover,Mitsuru sets up a transfer of "power" and reasons a modern logic that Japan replaced the Qing Dynasty,surpassed the west,and took the railway construction as the core for Taiwan’s development.The fifth chapter focuses on The Bottom of Hell,written after Mitsuru repatriated to Japan,discussing Nishikawa’s repatriation experience and memory of the colony.The hero in this novel is a repatriate from Taiwan after Japan lost the war who,just like Mitsuru during the colonial period,developed their own business using their"talents" and lived a glorious life.However,when they are sent back to Japan,they are successively "received",displaced,unemployed and killed.Mitsuru recalls the colony,on the one hand,missing the wonderful "home" of Taiwan,while on the other hand,he reproaches "hellish" Japan.Under the framework of taking a repatriate as a"victim",the history of colonial Taiwan is beautified,distorted and even lost.For Mitsuru,without the "colony",he had no space for the "self".The sixth chapter is the conclusion,starting with "what’s history",summarizing the core content of Nishikawa’s works about Taiwan and his narrative strategy of creation.This reveals the genealogy,constructed by Nishikawa Mitsuru.of Zheng Chenggong-Zheng’s descendants-Yu Yonghe-Prince Nengjiu of Beibaichuan Palace,is not trustworthy due to historical tempering and restructuring of Taiwan,and its purpose is to seize the right to interpret Taiwanese history,bringing the Japanese colonial rule into the historical chain.Not only that,but under the narrative framework of "beauty,barbarism and liberation" of Nishikawa Mitsuru,exists the bandit logic and aggressive consciousness of modern Japan existed.It is a kind of"modernization" that gives high priority to the national interests of Japan,not the will of the Taiwanese,and so is a kind of "colonialism" disguised as "modernization".