When he arrived in Taiwan, Katakura spoke no Chinese at all, but still needed to start making money by writing for Japanese publications. Since he had a special interest in history, and because many well-known older people who had lived through the period of Japanese rule can speak Japanese, he decided to put his efforts into writing about the history of that period, even though he himself had no wartime experience.
剛來台時，片倉完全不會講中文，但又想趕快替日本刊物寫專欄賺錢，由於他對歷史特別感興趣，加上許多經歷過殖民統治的台灣耆老都會說日文，沒有戰爭經驗的他於是決定將心力投注在日治時代的台灣史上。