Taiwan Governor-General Library Site

The Taiwan Governor-General Library (臺灣總督府圖書館, Taiwan Sōtokufu Toshokan) was the largest and only official public library in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period (1895–1945). Its establishment marked a significant milestone in Taiwan's modern cultural infrastructure.

The library's origins trace back to the Taiwan Bunko (臺灣文庫), a reading facility that ceased operations in August 1906. The books were entrusted to the Taiwan branch of the Oriental Association (東洋協會), which in 1912 petitioned the Governor-General's Office to establish a proper library. On April 13, 1914, the "Taiwan Governor-General Library Ordinance" (臺灣總督府圖書館官制) was promulgated, and Kumamoto Shigekichi was appointed as the first director on August 6, 1914 (some lists give 1915). The library formally opened to the public on August 9, 1915.

The library occupied a Western-style building on Bo'ai Road (博愛路) in Taipei's Shoin-chō district, originally designed by architect Kondō Jūrō (近藤十郎) as the Taiwan Governor-General's Lottery Bureau (彩票局). The same building had previously housed the museum attached to the Civil Administration Department's Industrial Bureau. At its opening, the library held over 20,000 volumes. By 1943, the collection had grown to approximately 196,000 volumes — 183,344 in Chinese and Japanese, and 12,604 in Western languages.

The library's collections were of particular strategic importance for Japan's imperial ambitions in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Taiwan's geographic position as a gateway to the tropics made the library a crucial repository for research materials supporting the "southward advance" policy (南進政策, Nanshin-ron). Its holdings on the geography, ethnography, natural resources, and colonial administration of Southeast Asia and the South Pacific were among the most comprehensive in the Japanese Empire.

During the closing stages of World War II, Allied bombing raids devastated Taipei. The library building was destroyed in the 1945 air raids. However, the foresight and dedication of the library's fifth and final director, Yamanaka Shō (山中樵), saved the irreplaceable collections. Before the building's destruction, Yamanaka organized the evacuation of more than 190,000 volumes — while some 70,000 children's books, banned titles and lower-value volumes were lost with the building — to four dispersal sites: Dasikijiao in Xindian (新店大崎腳), Dalongdong Baoan Temple (大龍峒保安宮), Longshan Elementary School (龍山國民學校), and the Jian family residence in Nanshijiao, Zhonghe (中和庄南勢角簡大厝).

After Japan's surrender, Yamanaka personally transferred the preserved collections to the Taiwan Provincial Administrative Executive Office Library (臺灣省行政長官公署圖書館), which evolved through several name changes into today's National Taiwan Library (國立臺灣圖書館), now located in Zhonghe District, New Taipei City. The 210,000 documents from the Japanese era remain a core part of the National Taiwan Library's holdings, providing invaluable primary sources for researchers studying Taiwan's colonial history, Japanese imperial policy, and the wartime period. The original library site on Bo'ai Road lies at the north side of the Ministry of National Defense Bo'ai Building (國防部博愛大樓).