Education in Meiji-Era Japan

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who are acclaimed bearers of a superior culture” (Lamley 1971, 496).The shared traits of the Japanese and their Asian neighbors were stressed loudly and often by the Japanese government. But rather than serving as a practical guide to policy, slogans such as dōbun dōshu and isshi dōjin were more of an attempt to counter Western colonial expansion by presenting Japanese rule as benevolent in the face of Western greed and aggression. In practice, segregation and discrimination were commonplace and the Taiwanese lacked any sort of representation or in say in government. Meanwhile, Japanese feelings of superiority and their monopoly on positions of power and privilege stifled any chance of true assimilation.

Regardless of the reality though, assimilation was without a doubt central to the conduct of colonial affairs, perhaps most so in Taiwan. At its core, assimilationist thought in general reflected “… humanitarian sentiments mixed with feelings of superiority, and a strong belief in progress reflecting the spirit of the Meiji period” (Lamley 1971, 498-500). The concept appealed to a wide array of Japanese elites mostly because it was so vague and easily adaptable. What constituted the ideal goals and methods of assimilation could vary considerably, depending on one’s perspective. In Taiwan, the vehicle for progress in the broadest sense, material improvement as well as cultural development, would be education. This belief in the transformative power of education and the widespread implementation of a modern education system were some of the hallmarks of the Meiji period in Japan. To more fully understand the system and curriculum that would be put in place in Taiwan, it is very helpful to first have a clearer picture of what was going on in Meiji-era Japan with regard to education.

3.3 Education in Meiji-Era Japan

The first modern school system in Japan was established during the beginning of the Meiji period. The rapid expansion in the number of schools and the steady increase in school attendance rates underscore the great importance Meiji policymakers placed on education. In 1872, the year after the Ministry of Education was established, the Education System Ordinance (gakusei 学制) was put into effect. In that same year, only

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28% of eligible students (40% of boys and 15% of girls) were enrolled, and almost 80%

of the population was illiterate. However, by 1910 over 98% of children were attending elementary school and illiteracy rapidly disappeared (Stevenson 1991, 110).

The education system during this period has been described by many scholars as a two-track system. More specifically, the system has been characterized as having a dumbbell configuration. That is, “…a small corps of highly, even liberally, educated scholars, technicians, and bureaucrats on one end; on the other, an entire population trained to basic literacy and economic usefulness and political obedience, up through the primary level; and very little in between.” While the central government in Tokyo channeled most of its funding towards the cultivation of the highly-educated elite corps, elementary public education was by no means neglected. The central government did, however, move to shift the costs of this education to the provinces. By the end of the 19^th century general cost-cutting on their part had resulted in around 70% of elementary public school funding being financed by local governments (Tsurumi 1984, 276-277). Developments in education during this period, particularly with regard to public elementary schooling, would heavily influence the development of the school system and curriculum in Taiwan.

From the outset of the Meiji period, educators and policymakers had already recognized that education was vital to the process of nation building. Additionally, as mentioned above, another important function of elementary education for the population at large was to remind them of their place in society. While they often disagreed, nationalists and proponents of Confucianism found common ground in ethics education. By the close of the 19^th century much more emphasis was being placed on traditional Confucian values such as loyalty and respect for authority (especially the emperor and the imperial family).

Aside from serving the interests of state-builders and Confucian educators, there are a few different reasons as to why traditional ethics began to take on a more important role in education.

In Japanese history, perhaps even in world history, the Meiji period stands out as a period of rapid change. Particularly remarkable is the rapid influx of Western ideas and

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technology, as well as the rapid rate at which they were absorbed by the Japanese.

However, that is not to say that there was no friction whatsoever. Regarding the ideological trends in education during the Meiji period, Tsurumi notes: “A picture of late nineteenth-century Japanese education which portrays a wave of heavy Westernization during the 1870s, followed by a strong traditionalist reaction against this in the 1880s which led, in turn, to an amalgam of traditional and National Statist values in the last decade of the century is by no means a completely distorted portrait, but it is a greatly oversimplified version of what actually happened” (Tsurumi 1974, 259). The massive influx of Western ideas and philosophies during the early years of the Meiji period did indeed prompt a conservative backlash among bureaucrats and education officials. The Meiji emperor, in part influenced by scholars of the Chinese classics who were close to him, also advocated for Confucian ethics in education (Oshiba 1961, 230). This heralded a shift towards ‘moral education’ and increased emphasis on traditional values, such as frugality, honesty, patience, obedience, etc. Not surprisingly, chief among these values were loyalty and filial piety. However, it is important to keep in mind that the ideas circulating among education officials and policymakers differed somewhat from what was actually being taught in classrooms.

So which values were being taught in the classrooms of Meiji-era Japan then? Keeping in mind that the Meiji period was a time of rapid change and foreign influences, it is not surprising that this would be reflected in the elementary school curriculum. Direct translations of Western textbooks, as well as texts heavily modeled after European and American versions, were not uncommon during the first few decades of the Meiji period.

The influence of Western law was also apparent, with some textbooks emphasizing the importance of the constitution, paying taxes, and other national duties. At the same time though, ethics and language texts with nationalist and Confucian content were also being used. Tsurumi’s analysis of language and ethics texts (the subjects which took up most class time and also contained significant moral content) provides a clearer picture. While there was an overall trend towards traditional Confucian and national-statist ethics in the later years of the Meiji period, Tsurumi concludes that: “…at no time during the Meiji period did one of the three main groups of values, which may be called Western,

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Confucian-traditionalist and National-Statist, completely drive out any of the other two groups. Throughout the Meiji period all three groups remained, in varying degrees, in the primary school textbooks; indeed, they stayed in these texts until the end of the Second World War” (Tsurumi 1974, 260). In summary, Meiji children were presented with diverse (if sometimes contradictory) values.