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Chen, Formosan Political Movements Under Japanese Rule
1 2018-04-23T13:40:24-04:00 CHASS Web Resources 398fc684681798c72f46b5d25a298734565e6eb8 2 1 Chen, Formosan Political Movements Under Japanese Rule plain 2018-04-23T13:40:24-04:00 CHASS Web Resources 398fc684681798c72f46b5d25a298734565e6eb8-- For the discussion of the Dôkakai and Itagaki Taisuke's visit, see pp. 479-80.
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The Taiwanese Anticolonial Movement in Tokyo
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The Taiwanese efforts to repeal Law 63.
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1920-1934
Kate McDonald
Cai Peihuo; League for the Establishent of a Taiwan Parliament; Taiwan Youth Association; Tokyo Higher Normal School
Following the criminalization of the Assimilation Society in 1915, the new target of Taiwanese political activism was Law 63. Law 63 legally defined Taiwan as colonial space. The law granted the Governor General of Taiwan the power to issue ordinances that had the force of law. It granted the Government General the power, in other words, to circumvent representative government. In the inner territory, such power was reserved for the emperor. But in the colonies, Law 63 and Law 30, its Korean equivalent, empowered the Governments General to rule by decree.
In 1920, Cai, who had moved to Tokyo in 1915 to enroll in Tokyo Higher Normal School, joined with other members of the New People’s Society (Shinminkai) and the newly formed Taiwan Youth Association (Taiwan seinenkai) to lobby the Diet for the law’s permanent repeal. Contrary to their demands, however, in 1921 the Diet made the law permanent (now as Law 3).
With this avenue for political reform closed, Cai and the Taiwan Youth Association turned toward achieving even bigger changes in the distribution of political power in the Japanese Empire. In 1923, Cai, who had returned to Taiwan in 1922, joined other Taiwanese activists to petition the Taihoku Police for permission to establish a new organization, the League for the Establishment of a Taiwan Parliament (Taiwan gikai). The colonial police denied the petition. Cai then traveled to Tokyo, where he applied to the Tokyo Police for permission to establish the organization in Tokyo. The Tokyo Police granted his request, and the League for the Establishment of a Taiwan Parliament was born.
The League submitted petitions to the Diet for the establishment of a Taiwan parliament every year between 1921 and 1934 (the first petitions were filed by members of the New People’s Society, but without the organization’s name). Usually signed by one thousand to two thousand individuals, the petitions represented the voice of the socioeconomic middle ground of Taiwanese society, with over sixty percent of the signatories having completed elementary or elementary-equivalent education but no higher school or college. The Diet denied each petition (Chen 1972, 483-88).
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The Anti-Colonial Movement in Taiwan
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This page describes the spatiality of the early assimilation movement in Taiwan
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1915
Cai's manifesto appeared at a moment of crisis for the Taiwanese anti-colonial movement. Begun in 1914 by liberal elites seeking the full assimilation of Taiwan into Japan, by 1928 the movement had split into a radical, Marxist wing and an increasingly ostracized moderate wing, of which Cai was one of the most prominent representatives. One way to interpret the significance of Nihon honkokumin ni atau is to see it as an attempt to garner support for the liberal wing of the movement in the face of an increasingly powerful challenge from Marxist and other left-wing activists.
The liberal wing of the Taiwanese anti-colonial movement, which Cai represented, went through three distinct phases, moving from demands for assimilation into the metropole in 1914 to demands for self rule in the 1920s. The failure of the movement to achieve its goals led to its marginalization in the 1930s and the rise to prominence of Marxist activists.
Cai first became involved in the movement as a member of the Assimilation Society (Dôkakai). The Society sought to promote "harmonious relations between Japanese and Formosans based on the concept of racial equality" (Chen 1972, 479, quoting Article 3 of the association's charter in Nihon tôjika no minzoku undô II, 17-18). What this actually meant in practice was ambiguous. On the one hand, Taiwan was to be considered fully a part of Japan and Taiwanese people equal to Japanese people. On the other, Taiwan was also to be treated as a unique place, a special kind of bridge or pathway between Japan and China.
It's possible to see the contours of this ambiguity in the speeches that Itagaki Taisuke (板垣退助), a liberal member of the Japanese parliament, gave as part of the first meeting of the Society. In 1914, Lin Hsien-t'ang (林獻堂), the Society's founder, invited Itagaki, to travel to Taiwan and serve as the society's first president. While in Taiwan, Itagaki gave three speeches, each of which advocated for the "assimilation" (dôka) of Taiwan into the metropole.
On the one hand, Itagaki described assimilation as a process of expanding the cultural and political boundaries of Japan to fully incorporate Taiwan. Itagaki argued for the complete absorption of Taiwan into the political, economic, and cultural space of Japan through "equal economic opportunity, legalization of mixed marriage, propagation of Japanese language, more emigration from Japan, and the publication of a newspaper by the Assimilation Society to promote friendship between the two peoples" (Chen 1972, 480, citing Itagaki Taisuke zenshû, pp. 395-412).
At the same time, Itagaki's vision of assimilation imagined a boundary between Japan and Taiwan, and Taiwan and China, that Taiwanese Chinese elites would be expected to transit as part of their special duties as Japanese subjects. As he talked about absorbing Taiwan into Japan, Itagaki portrayed Taiwan as a "path" between Japan and China. Taiwan would unite the two countries as a bulwark against Western imperialism in Asia.The purpose of our Assimilation Society is, in addition to achieving the goal of assimilation, is to open a pathway (michi) for friendly relations with China. The enactment of this organization's goals should not be the cause of any trouble for you Taiwanese islanders [Taiwanese Chinese] (Itagaki 1969, 400).
Unfortunately for Cai, the Assimilation Society did not last long. The ethnic Han Chinese population of Taiwan supported Itagaki's message, particularly the more elite families. In the association's first month, 3,198 members signed up. Only 44 were Japanese. Yet the idea of assimilation unsettled the colonial government. The Government General of Taiwan watchfully tolerated Itagaki while he toured Taiwan. One month after his departure, however, the government's tone abruptly changed. The island's newspaper harshly criticized Japanese members of the association, the police revoked the association's permit to meet, and the association was effectively outlawed (Chen 1972, 480). Cai was fired from his job as a teacher at Tainan Number 2 Common School for participating in the society.