Colonialism and Spatial Recognition - Imperial Japan and Asia for Taiwan and Korea

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26370916
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Human geography
• Research Institution: Ibaraki University
• Principal Investigator: YEH CHIENWEI 茨城大学, 人文社会科学部, 教授 (30242332)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 地理教育 / アイデンティティ / コロニアリズム / アジア / 空間認識

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research focused on the geographical recognition of the Taiwan and Korean subjects under the Japanese rule by analyzing Japanese colonial policy and geographical education. The geographical textbooks of Taiwan, Korea and Japan share the same structure, which stressing the geography of Japan the most and the geography of each area the next. However, after the 3.1 movement occurred in Korea 1919, the geography curriculum in Korea excluded the topic on rural geography of Korea, in order to avoid stimulating the ethnic consciousness.
Through the colonial policy, education and media, Japan attempted to foster the patriotism among its imperial subjects and established the sovereignty. At the same time, Japan must to prevent to evoke the nationalism of the colonized people. Geographical education had two contradicting tasks; developing the patriotism for Japan on the one hand and controlling the nationalism of the subject people on the other hand.

Free Research Field

人文地理学