Rethinking ‘Dôka' (Assimilation) in the Japanese Colonial Empire: On Experiences of Okinawan Migrants in Colonial Taiwan

Event details
Speaker : Dr Hiroko Matsuda
               Postdoctoral Fellow, Asia Research Institute, NUS
Date      : Friday, 5 October 2007
Time      : 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue    : AS4/03-28 (JS Meeting Room)

Abstract

Assimilation (dôka) policies and the process of assimilation have been frequently discussed in both Okinawan and Japanese colonialism studies, especially in relation to the imperialisation (kôminka) of the 1930s and 1940s. The Japanese notion of ‘dôka' is usually translated as ‘assimilation', but this English concept does not effectively indicate the discourse and practice of ‘dôka' in the Japanese colonial empire. In this seminar, I reconsider the particular discourse and practice of ‘dôka' in the Japanese colonial empire, with comparison to other colonial discourses of assimilation such as French colonialism. In considering the issue from a different viewpoint, I explore the experiences of migrants who came from the Yaeyama region of the Okinawa prefecture to colonial Taiwan. After Taiwan was ceded to Japan in 1895 as a result of the Sino-Japanese War, Yaeyama, which is located at the southern end of the prefecture, became the border zone that demarcated the Inner Territory (Japan) and the Outer Territories (Taiwan and other occupied territories). Since then, Yaeyama has established a close social and economic relationship with Taiwan. Additionally, from the 1920s, migration became popular among some groups of the islanders. I will explain the background and circumstance of the migration, and explore how they lived and worked with both Han Taiwanese residents and Japanese colonialists. The status of Yaeyama migrants was ambiguous. While they were technically colonialists from the Inner Territory, they had to live with the label of Okinawans, which had a negative connotation. By investigating their particular experiences and identity formation in Taiwan, I will discuss how both the colonial and colonised subjects shaped their identity under ‘dôka' discourses.