Concept Plan for an Integrated Search System of Ryukyu Kingdom Historical Information

Until its annexation by Japan in 1879, Okinawa was a nation called the Ryukyu Kingdom. During the Kingdom period, many documents were stored at the royal court in the Shuri Castle. When the Japanese government annexed the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1879, many of these documents were confiscated. The confiscated documents were kept in the archives of the former Home Ministry (currently the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) in Tokyo. However, a significant portion of these documents was lost during the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923.

The outbreak of World War II and the intense ground battles that unfolded in April 1945, when the U.S. military landed on Okinawa Island, resulted in devastating damage to the ancient capitals of Shuri and Naha City. Many historical heritage sites and documents, including Shuri Castle, were lost during this period. Currently, the collections of the Ryukyu Kingdom, which are housed at the Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum, the Naha City Museum of History, the Urasoe Art Museum, the Okinawa Prefectural Archives, the Okinawa Prefectural Library, and the University of the Ryukyus Library, are all collections gathered after the war, consisting of cultural treasures that escaped the ravages of war within Okinawa Prefecture or those that were left behind in overseas or Japan after the war. Some of these repositories have implemented to a portion of their collections.

In addition to the institutions listed above, the collections of the Ryukyu Kingdom are also held by the Tokyo National Museum, the Kyushu National Museum, the Hosei University Institute for Okinawan Studies, the Kagoshima University Library, the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo, the Tokugawa Art Museum, and overseas by the National Taiwan University Library, the University of Hawaii Library, and the National Institute of Korean History in South Korea, and others, some of which are also available in digital form. Currently, Fujian Normal University is also planning to release a bibliographic database and digital historical records to research the history of China-Ryukyu relations. 

The University of the Ryukyus Library is collaborating with the University of Hawaii Library to make Kingdom-related materials from the Sakamaki-Hawley Collection available on the servers of both the University of the Ryukyus and the University of Hawaii Library. However, other than that, each institution is sending digital information from its own server. No integrated search system has been established at this time. The "Integrated Search System of Ryukyu Kingdom Historical Information" will be a portal website that allows users to access the servers of each organization to obtain information. In the conceptual plan, the portal site is planned to be set up at the Meio University Library. Meio University is in the process of publishing a 35-volume "Ryukyu Literature Compendium," which includes full-text "literature," "history," and "ethnography and geography" texts focusing on the Kingdom period, with commentaries and annotations. The full-text digital texts will be available to the public via the portal website. Furthermore, a "Database of Ryukyu Kingdom Research Bibliography" regarding articles and books in the humanities and social sciences related to the Ryukyu Kingdom, and a "Dictionary of Ryukyuan Ancient Documents Terms," currently being compiled by the author, are being considered for inclusion in the portal website in the future. Meio University is also contemplating the establishment of an expert committee to pursue the registration of the historical heritage of the Ryukyu Kingdom (literary materials, paintings, maps, and inscriptions) with the UNESCO "Memory of the World." If the application is approved, all captions in both Japanese and English prepared at the time of application will be made publicly available at the portal website. In addition, the portal website will provide access to digital images that will be made public in cooperation with the institutions that house the collections and will also distribute information on the digital texts that have already been created.

The purpose of constructing an "Integrated Search System of Ryukyu Kingdom Historical Information" is to consolidate dispersed historical information on the Ryukyu Kingdom, to enable access from a portal website to the servers of each organization, and to disseminate historical information related to the "Complete Texts of Ryukyu Literature Compendium (35 Volumes)," "Database of Ryukyu Kingdom Research Bibliography," "Dictionary of Ryukyuan Ancient Documents Terms," and "Database of Memory of the World - Ryukyu Kingdom Historical Heritage."

The goal is to transmit historical information related to UNESCO's Memory of the World from the portal website. Once realized, this system will enable users to comprehensively access and understand the historical information of the Ryukyu Kingdom in a centralized manner, facilitating integrated searches and access to digital resources. The following is the Concept Plan for an Integrated Search System of Ryukyu Kingdom Historical Information.

Keywords: Ryukyu Kingdom Historical Information, Ryukyu Kingdom Research Bibliography, Ryukyuan Ancient Documents Terms, Ryukyu Kingdom Historical Heritage, Ryukyu Literature Compendium

Tides are Changing: Global Trends in Marine Conservation & Challenges in Taiwan

"Planet Ocean: Tides are Changing" is the theme for UN World Ocean Day 2023, symbolizing the dynamic nature of our oceans and highlighting the urgent need for transformative action to address the multitude of challenges they currently face.

Overfishing, climate change, ocean acidification, and pollution are causing significant changes in our oceans, impacting marine ecosystems, biodiversity, and overall ocean health. Recognizing and understanding these trends is crucial for effective ocean conservation, which requires innovative technologies, scientific research, and sustainable practices to tackle emerging challenges and trends. Promoting renewable energy sources like offshore wind farms (OWF), advanced monitoring systems, and nature-based solutions, including the enlargement and enforcement of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), are essential. Recent milestones include the World Trade Organization's landmark agreement in June 2022, after 21 years of negotiations, to curb fisheries subsidies, is a positive development. The endorsement of the 30x30 targets in the Global Biodiversity Framework in Dec. 2022, adoption of the BBNJ (Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction) or High Sea Treaty in June 2023, and an agreement to develop a binding agreement on plastic pollution by 2024. These movements highlight the current emphasis on marine conservation.

In Taiwan, marine conservation has gained significant attention in recent years. Establishing the Ocean Affairs Council and Ocean Conservation Administration in 2018 and National Academy of Marine Research in 2019 demonstrates the country's commitment. The Marine Pollution Prevention and Control Law and the Marine Industry Development Regulations were passed in June 2023, with the Marine Conservation Law nearing completion. Despite progress, declining fishery resources off Taiwan's coast pose challenges. Overfishing, illegal fishing, negative subsidies and enlarge all-no-take zone and enforcement need to be actively addressed to ensure effective marine conservation.

Keywords: Ocean Conservation, Global Trends, Marine Conservation in Taiwan

From YOLOv4 to YOLOv7

YOLOv4 and YOLOv7 are leading object detection systems developed in Taiwan. Since April 2020, Taiwan has maintained the world’s number one position in the field of real-time object detection. In this talk, I will give a detailed story about how YOLOv4 and YOLOv7 were developed in the past four years. Three phases of the development history will be covered. From 2018/4 to 2018/10, a layer-level design called Partial Residual Network was developed. This model is speedy, but the detection accuracy could not do as good as YOLOv3 and M2Det. Later during 2019/1 to 2019/10, we started to consider a stage-level design called Partial Residual Network (CSPN). This time the design is quite successful and later this training strategy became the backbone training strategy of YOLOv4. From 2021/3 to 2022/7, my team put our emphasis on a network-level design, and we call it YOLOv7.

Keywords: Real-time Object Detection, Edge Computing, You Only Look Once (YOLO)