Excavating Colonial Education in Manchukuo: Education journals, 1932-1945

2023 Fiscal Year Research-status Report

• Project/Area Number: 23K00882
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Hall Andrew 九州大学, 比較社会文化研究院, 准教授 (60599603)
• Project Period (FY): 2023-04-01 – 2026-03-31
• Keywords: Beijing / Tianjin / Dalian

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

I went on a research trip to Beijing, Tianjin, and Dalian in September 2023, where I gathered a large number of copies of Manchukuo education journals from libraries. I have worked on cataloging all of those copies, creating an index of each of the journals, and analyzing them to determine their content, and how they clarify our understanding of Japanese colonial policy.
Also, I have been in contact with an academic publisher, and have begun the process of republishing the journal 『建国教育（日文）』, published in 1939 to 1944. It will include high resolution photos of each page, as well as a detailed essay about the history and content of the journal.
I also presented a paper, 「「満州・満州国」教育史研究の史料紹介」at the 日本植民地教育研究会 in March 2023, and submitted it to be published in the 2024 issue of the journal. I will be publishing another article on colonial textbooks in a scholarly anthology in 2024 as well.

Current Status of Research Progress

2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.

Reason

The first research trip to China in 2023 went well, we found many of the materials we hoped to find. Wang Shiqi, a graduate student at Kyushu University, accompanied me, and we vital in helping me do my work.
I found that local Chinese contacts often did more to drain my time than to help me. I have not yet needed to spend money on personnel costs that I was expecting. I expect that I will do that in the 2024 year, as I will need more help from research assistants to catalogue all of there material that I have found.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

I will take a second research trip to China, this time focusing on Changchun, in September 2024. I hope to complete the gathering of materials at that time, and then shift towards cataloging and analysis. Also, I will move forward with the republication of 『建国教育』.
I have found that I need more help reading the large amount of Japanese and Chinese material that I have gathered. So I plan to buy a scanner and translation software in 2024 as well. That will help to increase the pace on my translation activities.