植民地台湾におけるラジオの役割 : 国語教育との関係から

This paper aims to emphasize how broadcasting functioned in colonial Taiwan, with a focus on the relationship between radio programs and Japanese language education. Broadcast radio, developed as a media device in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, attracted the attention of the Empire of Japan, which aimed for “Leaving Asia and Joining Europe” as part of its march towards modernity. The first successful radio transmission in Japan was made on March 22, 1925, and subsequently, this device started to play a critical role in this empire of militarism. As one of the colonies of Japan, Taiwan was included in the coverage areas of Japanʼs broadcast network. Two important events, the funeral of Emperor Taishō and the inauguration of Emperor Shōwa, indicate that the synchronization of radio broadcasting from Mainland Japan facilitated the development of radio broadcasting in Taiwan. As distinct as its start and development, radio broadcasting in Taiwan had a unique feature in the content of its radio programs, particularly the ones related to Japanese language learning. Unlike newspapers and magazines, broadcast radio is sound communicated by radio waves, so it offers considerable advantages for language education. Therefore, when the government strongly promoted Japanese language education in the 1930s, broadcasting should have been a useful tool in teaching the Japanese language to the Taiwanese people. However, peculiarly, the Japanese language education programs broadcast in Taiwan presented Taiwanese people singing and acting in Japanese to highlight their acquisition of the language, and targeted a Japanese audience, thus serving as propaganda for the empireʼs achievements in Taiwan