Reading the Bodies and Voices of Naichi Women in Japanese-Ruled Taiwan

In the July 1934 issue of Taiwan fujinkai (Taiwan women’s world), a journal meant for women living in colonial Taiwan, the Japanese editor, Kakinuma Fumiaki (or Bunmei),1 published a story by an obscure Japanese woman writer. The story is “Sora wa kurenai” (The crimson sky), written by Ono Shizuko (dates unknown). It is about the trials and tribulations of three women who lead distinctly different lives—as a housewife, a moga (modern girl), and a political journalist—in the modern space of Tokyo. This essay examines the significance of this story about women in the naichi (Japan’s metropole), and of the decision to publish it in a colonial magazine meant mainly for Japanese women and elite Taiwanese women living in the gaichi (outer land or periphery). Specifically, I consider the complex gender and racial dynamic of this story written by and about Japanese women but published in a journal read by a colonial audience. I argue that discontinuity is a recurring theme both in the story’s meaning and in the circumstances under which it was published. This discontinuity reveals various layers of anxiety on the part both of the author of the story, who most likely wrote it for a Japanese audience, and of the editor of Taiwan fujinkai, who circulated it among a wider audience of Japanese and Taiwanese. The primary questions I address are (1) What was the author trying to articulate in her story about the role of women in 1930s Japan? and (2) What are the implications of publishing this story in