You probably know that Taiwan was occupied by the Dutch during the seventeenth century, but you may not know that the rich gold mines on the east cost of the island were widely known among foreigners at the time.

The Spanish, the Dutch and the Japanese all explored Taiwan, the Dutch being the most active. Although they finally turned back because of difficult terrain, they left a rich record of the topography of the east coast and the aborigines who lived there.

You probably know that Han Chinese began to settle on Taiwan during the early seventeenth century, but you may not know that the Japanese, the Dutch and the Chinese engaged in trade at the time.

And did you know that the coastal waters of Taiwan were so abundant with fish that mainland fishermen were willing to risk their lives in defiance of a ban on their fishing there imposed during the Chia-ching era of the Ming dynasty? Fishing in Taiwan waters was the chief means of support for the coastal population of Fukien province at the time.

By far the greatest part of these sketches of Taiwan life from the sixteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century was filled in by Professor Nakamura Takashi of Tenri University, who is one of Japan's leading scholars on the history of Taiwan, especially the period of the Dutch occupation. Thanks to his research, "the main framework of the early history of Taiwan has been put in place. Without it, we might be completely in the dark about what it was like on Taiwan during the Dutch occupation," says Wu Mi-ch'a, an associate professor in the history department at National Taiwan University, himself an expert in the History of Taiwan.

Among Japanese experts on Taiwan, Professor Nakamura can be said to have the deepest affinity with the island. He was born and raised in Taiwan and received his entire grade school education there. His father was an agricultural official during the Japanese occupation, so he visited places all over the island.

Nakamura Takashi was born in 1910 near Kenting at the southern tip of Taiwan. His family later moved to Hsinchu in the northwest, and he went to high school in Taipei. In 1932 he entered Tohoku Imperial University (the forerunner of National Taiwan University), where he studied the history of the South Seas (the island region between Asia and Australia) and became interested in the history of Taiwan.

His research has been concentrated mainly on the operations of the Dutch in Taiwan, with papers on such topics as Taiwan agriculture during the Dutch occupation, the Dutch gold-mining industry on Taiwan, the civilizing of the aborigines by the Dutch, deerskin production on Taiwan during the seventeenth century and trade with Japan, and the Taiwan fishing industry and taxation during the Dutch occupation. These may seem like discrete and disparate topics, but each paper presents an in-depth description of the activities and interactions of the Dutch, the Han Chinese, the aborigines and the Japanese on Taiwan during its early history and even the island's position in world affairs.

During the past decade his research has shifted to Japan's policy of mollification, or control through conciliation, in its colonies in East Asia and Southeast Asia during the period between the wars, a move that has startled many old friends familiar with his original field of expertise.

"In terms of the historical materials used, they're almost completely different fields: one is the seventeenth century, and the other is the twentieth," says Wu Mi-ch'a, marveling at the vitality of this 80-year-old professor.

Dr. Wu believes that Professor Nakamura's success in this endeavor lies in the methods and experience he has accumulated over the years, so that even when engaged in another area of research, the breadth and depth of the materials he makes use of are amazing.

Although his field receives little attention in academic circles in Japan, Professor Nakamura's position as a scholar is universally acclaimed and he is the only expert on Taiwan history mentioned in several books on sinology in Japan. Besides teaching at Tenri University, he is currently a visiting professor at the Research Institute for Humanistic Studies at Kyoto University, a stronghold of Japanese sinology.

The highlights of an interview he gave us follow.

Q: Japan has a long tradition of sinology, but the history of Taiwan has received little attention there. Why is that?

A: There are two reasons. One is that Taiwan history is confined largely to the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties, which most Japanese scholars are not very interested in.

The other reason preventing many Japanese scholars from pursuing the study of Taiwan history is a feeling they can never surpass the work done by the great scholar Inou Yoshinori, who practically founded the field during his tenure at Tohoku Imperial University with his in-depth studies of the customs and habits of the island's early population.

Actually, I think that Taiwan history is a field just waiting to be explored, because many records from the Ming and Ch'ing are now available that can afford us new perspectives, and if we work hard there's a good possibility we can surpass those who have gone before us.

Q: What points in common do you have with scholars in Taiwan and the Netherlands in the same field, and what are some of the differences?

A: Frankly speaking, Japanese research on the history of the South Seas region during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is slanted toward the operations of the Dutch East India Company because of its significance for the later rise of capitalism. My research also sets out by examining the company's operations on Taiwan, and our research methods are not very different.

Actually, there aren't many people studying this era of history. I'm the only one who has really stuck at it in Japan. As for Taiwan, Wu Mi-ch'a of National Taiwan University once talked about this question with Lin Wen, a scholar of the modern history of Taiwan. Wu said that the studies of the Dutch occupation that will be done on Taiwan over the next twenty years probably won't exceed the level of studies done during the Japanese occupation. That statement sounds terrible.

People in Indonesia and Thailand have recently begun studying their histories too, and papers and studies have been coming out on the Dutch colonies, but no one on Taiwan at present is really involved in it except for Mr. Ts'ao Yung-ho (a scholar at National Taiwan University). If no one studies this area any more, a whole era of history might be lost to us, which would be awful!

Q: Isn't your research different from that of Dutch scholars?

A: The methods are the same. There were two fine researchers in Holland who recently passed away. We originally planned to publish the Daily Registers of Taiwan in four large volumes (see the November 1989 issue), but we've only come out with the first volume so far, and now that we're putting together the second volume we've found there's no one to help us. Leonard Blusse, the Dutch expert on Taiwan history, is very busy, Mr. Ts'ao has no time for this area of research because his wife is ill, and while I'm still healthy I'm old, and I don't know how much longer I'll live or how much I can do.

Q: We'll probably have to rely on ourselves on Taiwan for this period of history, but we also need senior scholars like yourself to point the way. What plans do you and your colleagues in this field have for cultivating students?

A: Mr. Ts'ao has a lectureship at the university and teaches Dutch on his own. I've never taught language, but I have a lectureship on the history of the South Seas at the Southeast Asia Research Center at Kyoto University. It's pretty broad in scope, though--not just Taiwan but other areas too, mainly the Dutch East India Company, and while I'm more interested in Taiwan myself, that's not necessarily what the students are interested in. So in studying this period of history you'll still probably have to rely on yourselves. What's more, it's not necessarily appropriate for us Japanese to research Taiwan history.

We have three difficulties studying the Dutch period of Taiwan history. One is the language problem. Dutch is a peculiar language that not everyone can master. Second, most of the materials are in the Netherlands, so it takes a lot of time and effort to study them. And third, their thesis is very important to Japanese students in finding employment later on, and papers in this field are not very well received.

In fact, come to mention it, I've got to bear quite a large share of responsibility here myself. I remember my old teacher Iwao Seiihi once said, "Don't let the line of research be cut off." I should try to cultivate more students to carry out his wishes.

Q: The scope of your research has changed direction over the past ten years. Could you tell us why?

A: The Japanese Ministry of Culture put up a lot of money and invited scholars from all over the country to take part in a large-scale research program about "intercultural friction." I was responsible for the part about the Japanese occupation of China, studying the historical, political and cultural aspects of Japanese rule, how your people felt about it and so forth.

My change in direction was a little opportunistic actually. If I had applied just to study Taiwan, the ministry might not have given me the money, but if I took part in the plan, there wouldn't be any problem with expenses. There are a lot of people taking part, and ten volumes of reports have appeared already.

Taking part in this plan has made me think once again about the problem of so few people studying the Dutch period of Taiwan history. There are complete materials here in Japan on the Japanese occupation, and a lot of research has appeared in recent years on the early modern and modern periods of Chinese and Japanese history. Scholars from Taiwan who wanted to study these areas used to have a problem with the language sometimes, but there are more people who know Japanese now and are carrying on in these fields, which puts me rather at ease. So I think we should get back quickly to the Dutch era, and I hope other people think the same way. The conditions for studying the Dutch period are better now, too. It used to be that only National Taiwan University had materials on the Dutch era, but now they're available at the National Central Library in Taipei as well. They're very easy to use, and people should treasure that kind of research environment.

Q: A number of Japanese scholars studying the history of Taiwan during the Japanese occupation view the era from a colonialist perspective and tend to overlook the rights of Chinese people in places, don't you think?

A: I was born and raised in Taiwan and have many Taiwanese friends, and when they talk about the Japanese occupation we all feel that the experience was truly unfortunate. I'm not particularly happy about having been born a Japanese at the time.

I don't think I have a colonialist attitude at all. Even my father, who worked at agricultural improvement in Kenting, did it with the intention of helping Taiwan to build itself up and develop. Back when the government was going all-out in its campaign to imperialize the populace, my research was considered unorthodox and my feelings even carried a few overtones of resistance. Only I was a colonizer too, of course, and I don't know how the people of Taiwan felt about me at the time.

Q: Now that the study of Taiwan's history is starting to become more popular on Taiwan, could you provide us with some suggestions as a senior scholar in the field?

A: It makes me very happy that people on Taiwan have begun to study their own history. I only hope that they won't study it from a political slant. I hope they expand their vision and study it from a purely historical perspective, from a perspective of world history.

[Picture Caption]

This is a pioneer scholar of Taiwan history during the Dutch occupation: Nakamura Takashi.

The 80-year-old professor, normally quite reserved, smiles for the camera in front of the library at Tenri University.

The apparent lack of successors to carry on work in his field is one of his deep concerns.

Professor Nakamura's conclusion after poring over old Dutch documents for more than half a century is--old Dutch is not all that difficult. Don't be afraid to pursue this field ot study.

Professor Nakamura carefully examines a map of Taiwan made during the Ch'ing dynasty and kept in the Tenri University library, which is well-known for its sinological holdings.

Ts'ao Yung-ho (second from right) and some friends saw Professor Nakamura (second from left) off at the airport after he stopped in Taiwan on his return to Japan from studying in the Netherlands. It was his first visit to Taiwan since the Retrocession. (photo courtesy of Professor Nakamura)

During his college days, Nakamura Takashi traveled all over the island with his classmates from Tohoku Imperial University to do field work. (photo courtesy of Professor Nakamura)

Nakamura's good friends Ts'ao Yung-ho (left) of National Taiwan University and Leonard Blusse of Leiden University. Blusse made a "guest star" appearance at one of Ts'ao's classes.

The 80-year-old professor, normally quite reserved, smiles for the camera in front of the library at Tenri University.

The apparent lack of successors to carry on work in his field is one of his deep concerns.

Professor Nakamura's conclusion after poring over old Dutch documents for more than half a century is--old Dutch is not all that difficult. Don't be afraid to pursue this field ot study.

Professor Nakamura carefully examines a map of Taiwan made during the Ch'ing dynasty and kept in the Tenri University library, which is well-known for its sinological holdings.

Ts'ao Yung-ho （second from right） and some friends saw Professor Nakamura （second from left） off at the airport after he stopped in Taiwan on his return to Japan from studying in the Netherlands. It was his first visit to Taiwan since the Retrocession. （photo courtesy of Professor Nakamura）

During his college days, Nakamura Takashi traveled all over the island with his classmates from Tohoku Imperial University to do field work. （photo courtesy of Professor Nakamura）

Nakamura's good friends Ts'ao Yung-ho （left） of National Taiwan University and Leonard Blusse of Leiden University. Blusse made a "guest star" appearance at one of Ts'ao's classes.