Since the 1990s, research on the history of colonial medicine in Taiwan has boomed. This research interest after the long period of neglect that followed World War Il is in large part due to the political changes and growing freedom on the island. Numerous case studies depicted the Taiwan experience of "colonial modernity," showing how the Taiwanese public health improved under Japanese rule between 1895 and 1945. This has been seen as part of the Japanese colonization effort to modernize the medical system in Taiwan and can be linked to the "scientific colonialism" referred to in Japanese government propaganda about its colonial policy.
