Abstract
Abstract The Ladies’ Charity Society of Formosa (臺灣婦人慈善會, LCSF), the Japanese Women’s Patriotic Association (愛國婦人會, JWPA) and the Ladies’ Volunteer Nursing Association (篤志看護婦人會, LVNA) were the most important women’s societies during Japanese colonial period in Taiwan history. The JWPA sought to improve military care. The LVNA was the Taiwan branch of the Japanese Red Cross Society (日本赤十字社) at that time, which carried out medical and surgery training for nurses. Compared with the latter two organizations, the LCSF awaits exploration through careful analysis of historical resources. My main questions are: what kind of roles did this society play in Japanese colonial era in Taiwan? And what is the difference among these three women’s organizations? The LCSF was founded by the profit from hosting a successful charity concert. In 1904, Goto Shinpei (後藤新平, 1857-1929), the Director of the Civil Administration Bureau of Taiwan (臺灣民政長官), attempted to set up a truly Taiwan-based women charity society. After Goto’s tenure, the Governor General of Taiwan (臺灣總督) paid little attention to this society, which led it to become less active and finally confined in the locality of Taipei city area. From 1904-1945, the LCSF dedicated itself to varied kind of charity, including education, public medical care, and housing immigrant workers. Additionally, it provided money to other charity organizations, in order to foster them to run steady. The ultimate aim was the charity organizations are more stable and the social welfare would be more perfect. In this thesis, firstly, I argued the establishment of the LCSF through investigating its publications, and discussed the relationships between Goto and the LCSF. Secondly, I analyzed the differences between the LCSF and the JWPA. Moreover, the interpersonal networks of male members would be explored as well. Finally, the contributions of all kinds of social welfare works in that period would be described.