COLONIAL LITERATURE

COLONIAL LITERATURE: translation

   Following Japan’s victories in the SinoJapanese and Russo-Japanese wars, the territories of Korea, Formosa (Taiwan), Manchuria, and the Sakhalin, Kuril, and various South Pacific islands were made effectual colonies of Japan, and this state of empire lasted through the end of World War II. Japanese expatriates settled in these new colonies, and many Japanese authors, including Abe Kobo, Endo Shusaku, and Nakajima Atsushi, wrote of their experiences there. The colonized Imperial subjects were taught Japanese language, and a number of them wrote literary works in Japanese. For example, in Taiwan, some writers, such as Lu Heruo (1914–51; Japanese: Ro Kakujaku) and Chen Huoquan (1908–99; Japanese: Chin Kasen), wrote stories in Japanese. These stories contain elements of resistance as well as the tensions that come from assimilation and colonization. Japan’s neglected colonial literary heritage is beginning to receive scholarly attention in Japan.

   See also MILITARISM; NATIONALISM; RYUKYU LITERATURE; ZAINICHI LITERATURE.