Japan's First War Reporter: Kishida Ginkō and the Taiwan Expedition

Abstract

The 1874 Taiwan Expedition was a watershed event for early Meiji journalism, for it was during this conflict that Kishida Ginkō (1833–1905) became Japan's first war reporter. At a time when newspapers had only started to become a feature of daily life in Japan, Ginkō's pioneering coverage of the Taiwan campaign was an important demonstration of the newspaper's potential to the Meiji authorities, and his coverage likewise gave many readers their first concrete understandings of the reporter at work. This paper examines Ginkō's extensive writings on Taiwan with the goal of illuminating how the campaign, its setting, and the Taiwanese aborigines were understood by and represented to the Meiji reading public. It shows that more than simply conveying information about the Expedition to the reading public, Ginkō's reportage strove to situate the project as part of a broader colonial agenda that would impart ‘civilization’ to the indigenous population. In columns that stressed Japan's long-term strategic interests in the area, Ginkō called upon his readers to imagine themselves as part of the enterprise.