Imperial Gateway: Colonial Taiwan and Japan's Expansion in South China and Southeast Asia, 1895-1945

by Seiji Shirane

Overview

In Imperial Gateway, Seiji Shirane explores the political, social, and economic significance of colonial Taiwan in the southern expansion of Japan's empire from 1895 to the end of World War II. Challenging understandings of empire that focus on bilateral relations between metropole and colonial periphery, Shirane uncovers a half century of dynamic relations between Japan, Taiwan, China, and Western regional powers. Japanese officials in Taiwan did not simply take orders from Tokyo; rather, they often pursued their own expansionist ambitions in South China and Southeast Asia. When outright conquest was not possible, they promoted alternative strategies, including naturalizing resident Chinese as overseas Taiwanese subjects, extending colonial police networks, and deploying tens of thousands of Taiwanese to war. The Taiwanese—merchants, gangsters, policemen, interpreters, nurses, and soldiers—seized new opportunities for socioeconomic advancement that did not always align with Japan's imperial interests. Drawing on multilingual archives in six countries, Imperial Gateway shows how Japanese officials and Taiwanese subjects transformed Taiwan into a regional gateway for expansion in an ever-shifting international order.

Open Access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501765575
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	12/15/2022
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

Seiji Shirane is Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Affiliated Faculty Member in the Asian Studies Program at The City College of New York. Follow him on X @SeijiShirane.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part One: Overseas Subjects as Gateway Actors
1. Opening a Gateway into China
2. Taiwanese in South China's Border Zones
3. Taiwanese in Southeast Asia
Part 2: The Wartime Gateway
4. Mobilizing for War
5. Colonial Liaisons in Occupied South China
6. Advancing into the Southern Regions
Epilogue: Postwar Legacies

What People are Saying About This

Pär Cassel

"Drawing on archives, official documents, newspapers, and personal accounts of the era, Imperial Gateway presents a multifaceted and meticulous analysis of Taiwan's role in the extension of Japan's empire into Southeast Asia."

Evan Dawley

Powerful and original. Shirane's new vision of Taiwan and its position in Japan's empire—one in which the colony is an originating site for colonial policy and practice—effectively challenges prevailing ideas of Japanese imperialism as something exported from the metropole.

Yuma Totani

Imperial Gateway is a must-read for those who find the binary account of southern- vs northern-expansion doctrines unsatisfactory and are searching for an alternative explanatory framework to make sense of Japan's contradictory expansionist policies since the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) through World War II.

Wen-hsin Yeh

This lucid account places at its center the people of Taiwan and their intermediating roles in Japan's expanding empire in the Chinese-speaking world of South China and Southeast Asia. It draws on multi-lingual voices to depict the liminal status of those who were ascribed second-class colonial subjecthood in an ethno-imperial hierarchy. A history written from the commanding height of Japan's imperial policies and politics, the book raises powerful questions about agency, intent, and colonial complicity, challenging post-war constructions of victims and victimizers, patriots and collaborators.

Jun Uchida

A pivotal addition to scholarship on Japanese imperialism and war. This carefully researched, lucidly written book uncovers the role of colonial Taiwan and its overseas subjects, who molded Japan's southern empire with visions and ambitions of their own.

Barak Kushner

Imperial Gateway recenters Japan's empire around Taiwan, highlighting the role of geography in historical analysis. Shirane underscores the strategic importance of Taiwan to Japan's southern imperial expansion and the use of Taiwan as a laboratory to train future generations of imperially minded policies. His work signifies Japan's indecisiveness concerning whether to advance north or south in its competitive bid to push the boundaries of its empire. Shirane challenges the notion that Taiwan was a simple outlier on the imperial periphery and his research commands us to consider Taiwan's position as a regional hub which deeply affected international relations and the postwar as well.

Louise Young

This fresh look at Japan's empire centers the story on Taiwan as a springboard for further expansion into South China and Southeast Asia. Told with admirable clarity and breadth of vision, Imperial Gateway illuminates imperial Japan's southern strategy and its haunting legacies.