Research On Japan’s Looting And Destroying Chinese Literature

The research on Japan’s looting and destroying Chinese literature is an intersecting field of the History of the Anti-Japanese War, library science and archive science, which has been studied for 30 years. This research is closely connected with records and historical materials, and they depend on each other mutually. On the one hand, records and historical materials serve as important research materials, which are necessary for research progress. On the other hand, research advancement may facilitate new needs for historical materials, which will boost the development and utilization of records and historical materials. After the introduction of the history of Japan’s looting and destroying Chinese literature, the author collect and integrate all the related records and historical materials according to the principle of provenance, which include government records, newspapers, journals, manuscripts, diaries, memoirs and compilation of archives. In addition, there are almanac, local chronicles and school history that can be supplementary to the collection of records and historical materials. Further more, the author summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of each kind of historical materials, and also analyzes the utilization of them in recent studies. At last,4 strategies about collecting and integrating records and historical materials are provided in order to push the research for further development. This article consists of 6 parts as follows.Chapter 1:Introduction includes the research background, the significance of this subject, the research review during the last 30 years, research approach, methods, and the innovation points.Chapter 2:This part gives interpretation of related concepts and theories. It will help readers get a preliminary understanding of Japan’s looting and destroying Chinese literature. Make sure readers understand what kind of "literature" are looted by Japanese, which objects can be treated as "records and historical materials" to prove Japan’s aggressive activities, and what is a "special collection" made up of kinds of records and historical materials. The principle of provenance and the theory of archival appraisal are also introduced as the theoretical foundation of the article.Chapter 3:This part reviews the history of Japan’s looting and destroying Chinese literature, and the whole process is divided into three steps including preparation period, development period, climax period. Background information is provided in this part for the collection of records and historical materials in chapter 4. And it also provides more clues to discover new records and historical materials in the future.Chapter 4:this part plays a role as the core of the whole article. According to the principle of provenance, the sources of records are divided into government, social organizations, and individuals. This part summarizes records and historical materials from each category, such as government records from the Second Historical Archives of China, newspapers and journals from National Index to Chinese Newspapers and Periodicals and Dacheng Old Journal Database, and private manuscripts, diaries and memoirs. All of those has initially formed a small-scale special collection.Chapter 5:this part is about the advice for collecting and integrating records and historical materials as much as possible. It not only suggests several methods for collecting records and historical materials, but also puts forward that all those stuffs should be scientifically integrated together considering the needs of researchers. The special collection about Japan’s looting and destroying Chinese literature should be built following two dimensions of content and structure.Chapter 6:the conclusion section summarizes research results and the insufficient of collecting historical materials. The author also makes expectations that more records and historical materials should be discovered, especially records from Japan. Further more, those records and historical materials should be orderly integrated, and a special collection should be established as soon as possible in order to promote the research development.