The Institute of Taiwan History at Academia Sinica (hereafter “the ITH”) has been collecting treasured Taiwan-related records in order to support academic research since its preparatory office was established in 1993. These records include categories such as (1) family and folk papers, (2) personal papers and collections, (3) institutional archives, and (4) rare books and documents. The ITH has been keeping up with trends of the latest information technologies and applying them to its ongoing digitization efforts and archival systems of value-added content. This project deals with a series of newspaper collections from 1923 to 1944, including “Taiwan Minpo,” “Taiwan Shinminpo,” and “Kounan News,” and is centered on the last two from 1938 to 1944. Although this newspaper series collected at the ITH misses some issues, it is relatively complete, with some exclusive contents. This newspaper series, originally founded by Taiwanese people during the Japanese occupation, held different views from the official standpoint. It was a medium that spoke for the people of Taiwan.

Through this series, we can fully understand Taiwanese people’s perspectives and opinions regarding politics and culture at that time. According to previous studies, none of these newspaper series have been cited in the research on Taiwan in the latter part of World War II. Due to the importance of these newspaper series, this project will use three years (2021-2023) to establish the digital archives, archival description, and value-added digital content of newspapers. After the completion of this project, this newspapers series will be widely used, and provide historical materials that are different from the views of the “Taiwan Daily News.” It will help the general public understand the history of Taiwan during the Second World War, support academic research, and promote knowledge of Taiwan history.