Julean H. Arnold, Education in Formosa (1908)

Arnold, Julean H. Education in Formosa. Bulletin, No. 5. Whole Number 388, United States Bureau of Education, Department of the Interior, 1908.

Came across this document while spelunking through the web for sources about Candidius, the seventeenth-century Dutch missionary to Formosa. (I did find some good sources on him, by the way.) Anyway, this relatively short bulletin (about 70 pp.) was written by Arnold, the American consul at Tamsui (淡水) at the time,* and was of interest to the US government, according to the letter of transmittal, because 

educational campaign of the Japanese Government in Formosa, which he describes with careful attention to essential details, offers a significant parallel to the educational campaign which our Government is conducting, at no great distance  from Formosa and under somewhat similar conditions, in the Philippine Islands.

The text is a bit hard to read--it's not a great copy, but a transcription of the preface might give some idea of the tone of the document:

With Japan and America entering the ranks of the colonizing powers, the question of colonial education becomes particularly important, especially so in view of the fact that education in both Japan and America occupies a commanding position. It is rather significant that the two great Pacific powers should have become colonizing nations within three years of each other.

It is the purpose of this monograph to set forth the results of Japan's efforts to establish an educational system in Formosa, her first colonial possession. In order that we may fully understand the nature of the problem with which she has to contend, I have attempted to describe somewhat fully the work of her predecessors in the island, the Dutch and the Chinese. Thus the monograph has naturally resolved itself into a history of education in Formosa. While I have touched upon the subject of education in both China and Japan, I have made no effort to describe conditions as they obtain in those countries. For such a description, the reader is referred to Mr. Robert E. Lewis's admirable book, The Educational Conquest of the Far East.

For much of my material I have to acknowledge my indebtedness to the Rev. William Campbell's work, entitled "Formosa Under the Dutch," and to the official publications of the Formosan government. I am especially indebted to Mr. Mochiji, director of education in Formosa, and to Mr. Ogawa, his very able assistant, for their extreme kindness in affording me every possible opportunity to study conditions at first hand.

JULEAN H. ARNOLD.

AMERICAN CONSULATE.

Tamsui (Daitotei), Formosa

I'd also note that this book is cited in E. Patricia Tsurumi's Japanese Colonial Education in Taiwan, 1895–1945.

*The author also produced a booklet entitled The Peoples Of Formosa, which was published in1909 by the Smithsonian. A footnote on the first page of the booklet describes it as part of a report originally sent by Arnold to teh State Department, translating a report to the Japanese government by "Mr. Oshima, Superintendent of Police of the Japanese Government of Formosa ... on the management of savage affairs during the fiscal year 1907." Arnold's papers are available at the Hoover Institution Archives.