¹ See, for instance, the translation of Kim Sa-ryang's 1939 Hikari no naka ni 光の中に (Into the Light) in Melissa L. Wender's collection of translated writings Into the Light: An Anthology of Literature by Koreans in Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2011): 15-38.

² Faye Kleeman observes, “With the nationalist discourse of ‘resistance’ dominating the post-colonial interpretation of colonial texts, the typical reception of this body of literature [by imperial-subject writers] has been unsympathetic and disapproving.” Faye Yuan Kleeman, Under an Imperial Sun (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2003): 198. I suggest a similar trend exists for translations.

³ Wu Zhuoliu, Ajia no koji アジアの孤児, (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008): v.

⁴ Cf. Wender, 2-5.

⁵ Taiwan Bungaku 臺灣文學 3.3 (Fall 1943): 104-129.

⁶ Faye Kleeman notes that Ō “is sometimes considered an imperial subject-writer,” before pointing out that The Torrent can be assessed more positively than other similar writings in that it at the very least “proposes a dual identity” for Taiwanese subjects. Faye Kleeman, 215-216. See also Leo Ching's summary of Lin Jui-ming's similarly sympathetic evaluation of “The Torrent.” Leo Ching, Becoming Japanese: Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001): 120-121. Yu-lin Lee's more recent study of the psychological toll the imperial project takes on the characters in the story appears to be based on Wang's 1991 Chinese-language version. See Yu-lin Lee, “The Dislocation of Empire: An Identity Paradigm of Colonial Displacement in Wang Chang-hsiung's A Raging Torrent,” Taiwan Literature Studies 1.1 (2007): 7-31.

⁷ Okubo Akio 大久保明男, “Ō Chōyū ‘Honryū‘ no kaiteiban ni tsuite—Nihongo-ban to no hikaku kara” 王昶雄「奔流」の改訂版について−日本語版との比較から, Komazawa daigaku gaikokugobu ronshū 52 (August 2000): 177.

⁸ Leo Ching, 121. See also Okubo, who also calls attention to Lü Xingchang's speculation that this may have been Wang's attempt to “prove he was not writing as an ‘imperial subject,‘” before himself pointing out that documented examples of censorship on “The Torrent” are very few. Okubo Akio, 177-178.

⁹ On the narrator and Itoh, see Okubo Akio, 181-186. For identity (and Lin Bonian), see ibid., 187-189. Both points are summarized on the same page, 189. * This translation is based on the reprint of the 1943 original found in Kurokawa Sō, ed., “Gaichi” no Nihongo bungaku-sen (1): Nanpō, Nan'yō/Taiwan (Tokyo: Shinjuku Shobo, 1996): 220-250. All annotations, unless marked otherwise, are likwise from this edition. Notes merely offering lexical glosses for obsolete Japanese terms have been omitted.

¹⁰ Japan proper [as opposed to its colonies].

¹¹ Translator's note: “middle school” would be a more literal, albeit misleading, translation of chūgakkō 中学校, since under the educational system of the time, the chūgakkō was comprised of five years of high-school education.

¹² Hontōjin 本島人 (islander) refers to Han-Chinese Taiwanese (Fujianese or Hakka). [Translator's note: hereafter, I will use “Taiwan” or “Taiwanese” for hontō and hontōjin; given the importance of geography in the rest of the paragraph, however, I opted for a more literal rendering here.]

¹³ I.e., ethnic Japanese.

¹⁴ I.e., Koreans.

¹⁵ Translator's note: I have chosen to transliterate the names of the openly Taiwanese characters based on Mandarin pronunciation in pinyin. Thus, Rin Hakunen 林柏年 becomes “Lin Bonian.” The narrator's surname,洪, I render as “Kō” rather than “Hong,” because the one instance in which he is referred to by name is clearly in Japanese. This was done in order to help the reader keep clear who is Taiwanese and who is (passing as) Japanese. I have done the same with place names, with the exception of using the conventional English spelling of Taipei, rather than Taibei.

¹⁶ Translator's note: the original term here, hontōgo 本島語 literally means “the language of this island.” While it refers to a language of the Han Chinese in Taiwan, it is unclear whether the characters in the story are speaking Mandarin, Southern Min, or Hakka. Given the political implications of going with any one of these choices, I have opted for “Chinese” in the sense of a blanket term encompassing all three of the aforementioned related languages/dialects.

¹⁷ Satō (1772-1859) was a late-Edo Confucianist. From 1841 onwards, he lived out his days as an official Confucian academic of the shogunate. Although on the surface a follower of Zhu Xi, he was strongly influenced by Wang Yangming and was referred to with “Zhu and Wang/Yin and Yang” [literally Yin-Zhu, Yang-Wang].

¹⁸ In a kendo team competition, the athlete who competes in the middle, between the “spearhead” [the first competitor] and the Captain.

¹⁹ During the Ming and Qing dynasties, individuals who attended an imperial college after being recommended on the basis of outstanding study and conduct at a provincial academy.

²⁰ The four fundamental texts of Confucianism (The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, Analects, and Mencius) and the Five Classics (The Book of Changes, The Classic of Documents, The Odes, The Spring and Autumn Annals, and [The Book of Rites]).

²¹ The primary school attended by most Taiwanese children.

²² A line from the “First Poetic Exposition on Red Cliff” by the Northern Song poet Su Shi 蘇軾 (1036-1101), one of the Eight Masters of the Tang and Song. The original reads, “We were swept along in a powerful surge, as if riding the winds through empty air. And not knowing where we would come to rest […].” [Translator's note: the translation of Su Shi is taken from Stephen Owen, An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911 (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., 1996), 292.]