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Part of
Towards an Atlas of the History of Interpreting: Voices from around the world
Edited by Lucía Ruiz Rosendo and Jesús Baigorri-Jalón
[Benjamins Translation Library 159] 2023
► pp. 171–192

Chapter 7
The colonized in conflict

Taiwanese military interpreters and the postwar British war crime trials

 | National Chengchi University, Taiwan
As Japanese military expanded into Southeast Asia and its need for interpreters increased dramatically after 1941, the Taiwanese – who were subjected to Japan’s colonial rule (1895–1945) and proficient in both the languages of the Japanese colonizer and of overseas Chinese and Malay population under Japanese occupation – undertook a conspicuous role as military interpreters. By delineating the career trajectories of eighteen Taiwanese interpreters who were put on trial as war criminals by the British in postwar Malaya and Singapore, this chapter argues that working as interpreters put the colonized Taiwanese into direct conflict with the colonized Chinese and Malay. This work condition made the Taiwanese bear a disproportionally high responsibility in postwar war crime trials, and best illustrated the dimension of “colonized in conflict” of WWII.
Keywords: Taiwan, the Second World War, colonialism, British Malaya, Chinese overseas
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Six Taiwanese full-time interpreters recruited in Taiwan for military campaigns
  • Four Taiwanese locally hired ad hoc interpreters
  • Two Taiwanese full-time interpreters hired overseas
  • Six Taiwanese full-time interpreters from group recruitment in Taiwan
  • Age and education
  • Timing
  • Spatial distribution
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 22 February 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.159.07lan
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Documents at the National Archives, Kew, United Kingdom
Trial records of the cases against Taiwanese interpreters
Chan Eng Thiam: WO 235/891 Defendants Sumida, H. et. AL
Cheah Kam Sang: WO 235/1059 Defendants Tsuchida, K. et. al
Ee Fook Seong: WO 235/1026 Defendant Ee, Fook Seong
Fujiyama Teruyoshi: WO 235/934 Defendants Itomitsu, M. et. al
Hirota Shigenobu: WO 235/973 Defendant Hirota Shigenobu
Hirota Tadao: WO 235/939 Defendant Hirota Tadao
Katsurayama Shigeru: WO 235/1017 Defendant Katsurayama Shigeru
Khor Kee Siam, Kwek Tiong Hin, Yeow Chew Bok: WO 235/931 Defendants, Higashigawa Y. et. al
Matsuoka Masanori: WO 235/1003 Defendant Matsuoka Masanori
Nakamura Yoichi: WO 235/956 Defendant Nakamura Yoichi
Tagawa Hideo: WO 235/1010 Defendant Tagawa Hideo
Takamine Kiyoyoshi: WO 235/904 Defendant Takamine Kiyoyoshi; WO 235/938 Defendant Takamine Kiyoyoshi;
Tan Ten Chuan: WO 235/949 Defendants Takaura, T. et. al
Tan Teong Koo: WO 235/1094 Defendants Tsuru, Y. et. al
Toyoshima Nagasuke: WO 235/991 Defendants Ogasawara, M. et. al
Yasuda Muneharu: WO 235/834 Defendants Itsuki, T. et. al