1937年以後，日本因應戰局所展開的政治、軍事與文化等政策，使得文學表現的語言與內容幅度受到很大限制，台灣文壇的主導權也因此移轉至在台日人作家手中，其中以西川滿為首的《文藝臺灣》文學社團所產生的影響最明顯。該雜誌創刊號提出以「建設南方文化」為編輯方向，從帝國日本的南方文化政策，到《文藝臺灣》的「南方文化」，透過對三十八期雜誌編輯理念的觀察與作品分析，發現所謂的「南方」仍侷限在「台灣」，「台灣」被視為日本「南方文化」的一部分，「台灣の文化」不是台灣的本土文化，是為帝國版圖中南方區域的文藝而存在。以殖民地台灣的特殊地理條件，並不是不可能由此孕育出日本帝國的南方文化，但在國家機器的干預與統制日趨嚴重的情形下，該文學集團最終與日本中央文壇同步，投入順應時局與配合戰爭宣傳的編輯與寫作，在聖戰協力與大東亞共榮的想像中，自許為日本唯一南方特色的《文藝臺灣》，其南方文化的理念實踐也成了為「日本帝國」的概念効勞的空洞姿勢。

The political, military and cultural policies adopted by the Japanese government after 1937 imposed great restrictions on the language and contents of literary works. The control over the literary circle in Taiwan also shifted to the hands of Japanese writers in Taiwan. “Literature in Taiwan”, a literary group led by Nishikawa Mitsuru, had the most profound impacts. The magazine advocated the “development of southern culture”, by extending the southern cultural policy of Imperial Japan to the southern culture in Taiwan Literature. This paper analyzes the works published in the 38 issues of the magazine, and finds that the term “south” was limited to Taiwan, and Taiwan was considered part of the southern culture under Japan. “The Taiwanese Culture” did not mean the local culture of Taiwan. Rather, its existence served the purpose of supporting the literature of the southern part of the imperial kingdom. Given the unique geographic characteristics of Taiwan as a colony, it was not impossible to create the southern culture as part of Imperial Japan. However, the growing intervention and control of the state machine, the literary group finally had to synchronize with the literature at the core of Japan by responding to the wartime and writing/editing propaganda. In the imaginary world depicted by the holy war and the Great East Asia Coprosperity Sphere, the realization of the southern culture by Taiwan Literature, which was proud to be the only southern feature in Japan, was no more than empty posturing bowing to serve Imperial Japan.