Page 210 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2015 Vol. 41

Mikun MA, Gang LI & Jianhua WU / A review on the studies of Japan’s plundering of books and literatures from China 209

archives (M. X. Ma & Lu, 2010). Compared with the two latter periods, the Japanese still knew
that they should control their activities with more discretion when seeking books and antiques
of China. The emphasis of our research lies in the discussion on the aggressive nature of those
activities. Authors often prefer to use expressions like “lost”, “disperse” and “buy low” instead of
“rob” and “plunder” in spite of the obvious evidence of Japanese depredations.
Research on northeast China exemplifies the nature of territorial research. The important
research objective is the study of the South Manchurian Railway Company’s libraries. Leng
Xiujin, a librarian at Dalian Library, is a productive author in this field. Founded in 1906, the
South Manchurian Railway Company (SRM) was an integral part of the Japanese colonial
administration. It set up a reference room in 1907, which later developed into the Dalian Library
of South Manchurian Railway Company. SRM created a total of 31 libraries and branch libraries
which became the foundation for a well-functioning system for book acquisition. Under the control
of Japanese government, the SRM libraries reached an agreement with each other on collecting
Chinese book resources in 1935. Then Japan elaborately divided northeast China into five regions,
and each library was responsible for searching for books on specific topics in certain region.
For example, Anshan Library was expected to search for books on engineering and technology,
Liaoyang Library was responsible for seeking books on history and military affairs, and Tieling
Library looked for books on local history and celebrity biographies (Leng, 2011). Japan also
grabbed confidential military maps in order to acquire military intelligence, such as A map of
harbors in Mukden showing the distribution of forts for defense (Q. Li & W. R. Liu, 2010). These
libraries have existed for more than 40 years. According to investigation statistics, Japan took at
least 700 000 rare books from northeast China during that time (Han, 2012). Taiwan became a
colony of Japan even earlier than northeast China. Japan sought and gathered enormous books and
documents from Taiwan and South Pacific Area through organizations like Taiwan Library and
Information Repository of South China (P. Y. Li, 2000). They attached priority to the collection and
transcription of local chronicles of Taiwan, Fujian, and Zhejiang, which could be used to extract
military intelligence and help them make effective policies for domination (Zhang, 2006). Z. P.
Wang (1995) pointed out that the method used by Japan-controlled libraries to enrich their book
collections was by forcibly taking Chinese books as their own possessions, which was at the cost
of Chinese library business.
Early writing on this subject focused on the whole country’s book losses, while the description
of each region was only one small part of it. As the research developed, more and more articles
focused on individual cities or regions. Nanjing suffered serious book losses and book damage
during the war, for which it has always attracted the most attention of researchers. As a successful
case study, it has stimulated researchers to devote themselves to the study on other areas of China
where book plundering happened (see Table 3).