「東亞」不僅是個地理空間,更是從歷史、文化角度被賦予的概念。這個概念最初的賦予者正是日本。現在提到「東亞」,除了現代文學跨界的面貌之外,多存留著以「歐洲」為對立面,並且聯想到戰爭期的日本,整體朝向負面的、侵略的,與帝國主義意識型態連結的樣貌。因為「東亞」問題是第二次世界大戰之時,以日本為亞洲霸權中心的侵略問題。本文在前行研究的基礎下,將戰爭期(1937年)討論「大東亞共榮圈」理論的時間往前推演,試著理解在「大東亞共榮圈」提出以前,是否有類似的觀念出現?這個觀念的意涵是什麼?本文從《台灣日日新報》的社論看日本「東亞論」的提出和實踐,試圖從《台灣日日新報》所報導者,觀察這個觀念在台灣的推展歷程,並以台灣文人謝雪漁改寫自日本戰爭史的兩篇小說,理解謝雪漁如何在小說中詮釋此觀念,並以此概念形構出一個人人歡喜理想家國。而這個理想家國的形象,正是日本對支那、朝鮮等亞洲國家形構的一個消除國界,建構理想家國的東亞論,進而再從中探討謝雪漁可以迅速認同日本政權的原因。
”East Asia” is not only a geographical space, but also a concept developed from historical and cultural perspectives. This concept was developed by Japan. In addition to the characteristic of modern interdisciplinary literature, the current studies concerning East Asia usually are the opposition of the Europe, and are associated with the negative, aggressive, and imperialistic ideology of Japan during wartime because East Asia-related issue is the invasion of Japan as the center of Asian hegemony during the World War II. Based on previous studies, this paper attempts to investigate the history before the rise of ”Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” during wartime (in 1937), in order to understand whether similar concepts were proposed before it was developed and the meaning of this concept. This paper investigates the proposition and practice of the East Asia theory from the perspective of editorial of Taiwan New Newspaper in order to observe the course of development and promotion of this concept in Taiwan. Moreover, this paper also investigates how the Taiwanese literati, Shueh-Yu Hsieh, interpreted this concept in his two novels rewritten based on Japanese war history and created the image of an ideal country that everyone loves. The image of this ideal country is exactly the idea of the East Asia theory where Japan suggested that the national boundaries between Asian countries, such as China and Korea, should be eliminated to construct an ideal country. This paper further probes into the reason that Hsieh could rapidly identify himself with Japanese political power.