Just as I Please

Abstract

Due to reasons such as the COVID-19 pandemic, I haven’t been able to visit Taiwan for nearly four years. Last week, albeit for a short duration, I finally visited Taipei for the first time in four years and reconnected with old friends after a long absence. I also met Mr. Lu Fangxiong, the second son of Lu Heruo, who was a representative Japanese writer in pre-war Taiwan. Mr. Fangxiong provided me with a wealth of valuable materials for the writing and publication of my book. Because Lu Heruo passed away as a result of the White Terror, his bereaved family went through great hardships in the post-war period. Naturally, the family was extremely cautious regarding the publication of the diaries that Lu Heruo left behind. It was Mr. Fangxiong who took the initial step toward their publication by providing copies to several researchers. Subsequently, Mr. Fangxiong has continued to contribute to the advancement of Lu Heruo studies by publishing memoirs on various occasions and by appearing in documentary programs to share his insights. He has been making efforts to reconstruct the post-war journey of the Lu family and of Mr. Fangxiong himself, which must have been a challenging undertaking. One of important facets of Lu Heruo’s work was the depiction of the family histories of the Taiwanese people, and similarly, Mr. Fangxiong is also portraying his own family’s history in a unique manner. In fact, the title of this humble piece, ‘Just as I Please’, is borrowed from an essay title contributed by Lu Heruo in the inaugural issue of the journal “Taiwan Literature” in May 1941. I hope that this journal will leave a mark on the history of Japanese literary research, akin to the impact of what is regarded as “the iconic monument in Taiwanese literature, the journal ‘Taiwan Literature’”.