"Tales of Two Fijis: early 1960s Japanese travel writing by Kanetaka Kaoru and Kita Morio"

Nishino, Ryota (2014) "Tales of Two Fijis: early 1960s Japanese travel writing by Kanetaka Kaoru and Kita Morio". The Journal of Pacific History, 49 (4). pp. 440-456. ISSN 0022-3344

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Abstract

This paper analyses impressions of Fiji in 1961, recorded by two well-known Japanese travel writers: travel journalist Kanetaka Kaoru and writer Kita Morio. Their comments on ethnic Fijians' attitudes to work and on encounters with a variety of Indigenous Fijians, including ratu (hereditary chiefs), made the observed people ‘others' informing the travellers' views on post-war colonial Fiji in an era when little was known about Fiji in Japan. Differing views on colonialism underpinned the two authors' views. At the time, Kita and Kanetaka revised but replicated the assumptions of pre-war Japanese writing about Nanyō (the South Seas) and of Western travelogues on the Pacific Islands. While Kita passed blunt and prejudiced judgements, he demonstrated an awareness of colonialism's adverse effects and of concerns also felt by the colonial administration about the place of Indigenous Fijians in the modern world. Kanetaka, seemingly without awareness of her latent prejudice, praised Fiji as a near-perfect colony that benefitted from colonialism.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D204 Modern History D History General and Old World > DS Asia D History General and Old World > DU Oceania (South Seas) H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform P Language and Literature > PI Oriental languages and literatures
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts, Law and Education (FALE) > School of Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Ryota Nishino
Date Deposited:	18 Nov 2014 00:45
Last Modified:	08 Sep 2016 02:58
URI:	https://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/7759

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