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The main goal that the Japanese were concerned with was to use cultural/ educational policies to linguistically, culturally and morally Japanize the local population by means of school education.
Two of the main instruments of Japanese colonial policy in Taiwan were education and assimilation of the island’s native (Chinese speaking) Taiwanese population. Assimilating the native population was one of their most important goals and how they achieved this goal was through education. The Japanese ruled Taiwan for a period of 50 years from 1985 to 1945. During this period Taiwan’s rulers changed and modified their views of assimilation and accordingly changed their educational policies as well. From the very beginning of Japanese rule on the island the government had intended to use education of the islander’s as a major tool in its assimilation policy. The policy was consistent in nature but not a static one.
2.3 Gradualism
The first period of Japanese colonialism is often referred to as the Gradualism Policy 1898-1918.
From 1895 until the arrival of Gentarō there were three successive Governor-Generals before him.
It is hard not to believe that with so many Governor-Generals that implementing any kind of consistent polices on the island were difficult. (Fewings: 2004: 12)
The Japanese colonial government established a Taiwanese language course at the Kokugo Gakkō or National Language School. Both Taiwanese and Japanese languages were studied at the school.
In 1901, Gōto Shimpei established the official Rinji Taiwan Kyukanshu Chōsaki or, or the Provincial Taiwan Old Customs Investigation. The association’s main goad and purpose was to study existing Taiwanese customs and practices. Such areas as private Taiwanese law and practices, Qing administration, aboriginal affairs, the economics of the island as well as land management
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were all studied in the association. Between the years 1903 to 1914 the Japanese published a total of eleven reports all together. Gōto Shimpei’s policy of gradualism dominated Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan all the way up to his departure from the island in 1905. After Shimpei’s departure Inazo (1862-1933), Minoru 1959), Rokusburō (1867-1923) and, and finally Ryūtaro (1881-1944) all had a hand in shaping colonial policy in Taiwan.
2.3.1 The Naitai Yūgō Naichi Enchō Policy 1919-1936
From 1898 onwards, a Japanese- Taiwanese segregated education system was established by the Governor-General. Kōgakkō or common schools were established for local Taiwanese students, while Shōgkkō or elementary schools were established for Japanese students. (Fewings: 2004: 19).
By 1907, the first high schools exclusively for use by Japanese students were established. By 1915, there were no high schools for Taiwanese students. Local Taiwanese parents had few options open to them; one of them was open to rich parents though. They could afford to send their children to Japan for further educational opportunities. The colonial government feared that these children would return with so-called “corrupted minds” and realize just how inequitably they were being treated by the colonial educational system. There were some positive outcomes by this realization, by 1915 the Taichū Chugakkō was established in Taiwan with private funding and became the first public high school on the island.
Japanese assimilation policies were introduced in both Taiwan and Korea and were based upon the Japanese’s belief that these three peoples were dōbun dōshu, or shared a common script, were of the same race and all shared a common cultural (Chinese) heritage. (Fewings: 2004:21) The Japanese assimilation policies goals and intentions were to create harmony between the colonizer
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and the colonized but the intention of enhancing the status of the latter. This self-justified policy where Japan would have the role of parent and believing in their cultural and ethnic superiority would lead her inferior siblings to betterment. This ideology would go a long way in explaining later Japanese aggression and expansionist policies in Asia and would help set up Taiwan as a base for further expansion into the South East Asian region.
2.3.2 The Kōminka Movement 1937-1945
With the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 Taiwan experienced a further intensification of Japanese assimilation polices from the years 1937 to 1945. Taiwan’s strategic importance soon became apparent to the Japanese and as the war lingered on Taiwan was to become a base for further expansion into the South East Asian region. (Fewings: 2004:24) When the Kōminka Movement was established on the island the Taiwanese were to be transformed into loyal subjects of the emperor and be mobilized for war at any moment. The first Taiwan Kyōiku Rei (Taiwan Education Ordinance) was issued in 1919 and its main goal and purpose was in cultivating imperial subjects and was to become the ultimate principal for public education in Taiwan. When the Kōminka Movement was introduced all Classical Chinese teaching came to a stop and was eventually disallowed all together in all common schools and in newspaper columns as well. All Taiwanese style of dress and clothing were banned as was indigenous opera. The goal of this movement was in effect to erase all traces of Taiwanese ethic consciousness and to disconnect them from their traditional way of life. The most striking feature of this movement was religious reform that was carried out throughout the island. Jimyō or religious reforms aims were to build a Shinto shrine in every village in the country, Chinese deities were destroyed, and temples were converted into language education centers. This policy of religious reforms was eventually
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abandoned by the eighteen Governor-General of the island, Kiyoshi (1883-1970).
Kaisiemi Undō or name changing policy was aimed at wiping away all sense of Taiwanese consciousness as well; the Taiwanese were encouraged to take on Japanese family names instead of Chinese ones. The Japanese language was held as the essence of being Japanese and to think and act like the Japanese it was believed that the local population should think and speak like the Japanese. And to that end in 1895 the Japanese colonial government placed great value on the education of the Taiwanese in Japanese. From 1898 and onwards with the establishment of common schools or Kōgakkō for the education of Taiwanese students and until 1922 when the Japanese/Taiwanese segregated system of education was abandoned Japanese language instruction made up to 50 percent of the curriculum for Taiwanese students.
Taiwan became the first place where Japanese language instruction was first promoted overseas through government efforts. Japanese language instruction was to play an important role in Japanese education as outlined in Kokka Kōiku or the national educational policy introduced by Izawa Shuiji (1851-1917). (Fewings: 2004:29)
Taiwan was Japan’s new colony and great emphasis and value was placed on cultivating loyal citizens of the empire and this was to be accomplished through Japanese language instruction and education. Japanese language education was to become a focal point for colonial education in Taiwan and over time came to dominate Japanese socio-cultural policies that the colonial government introduced on the island.
In 1905, the Japanese colonial government conducted its first census and found that 76 percent of
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the population was made up of Hoklo speaking peoples who had originally migrated from the Quan and Fukien provinces in China as early as the seventeenth century. These peoples traditionally resided in the agricultural areas of the island, while the Hakka speaking population who had migrated to the island later came to settle in the hills of north-western, central and south-western regions of Taiwan. For the arrival of these new comers the Austronesian speaking peoples lived on the island for millennium. The Japanese had conducted an anthropological study on these peoples and had placed them into nine different groups. Besides the indigenous peoples and the Hakka, Taiwanese or Southern Min was the dominant language on the island at the time. Japanese speakers were in fact the minority, they comprised of 2.1 percent of the population.
Izawa Shūji was the Japanese government’s appointed educator responsible for education in Taiwan during the early colonial period. Shūji educated in the United States became a strong supporter and advocate of Kokka Kyōiku or national education which had emphasized the cultivation of loyal imperial subjects through the use of Japanese language education. The concept of national education had its roots in Meiji Japan and was used in nation building in Japan. When Izawa came to Taiwan he brought with him his new ideals for educational reform based upon the model that he introduced in Japan after his arrival back from America. (Fewings: 2004:29)