Inauguration of the Imperial Rescript (Mandate) of Education
In 1890, the Imperial Rescript of Education (教育勅語) was mandated in Japan.
Imperialized education took a start in schools all over Taiwan. Here is a part of the Imperial Rescript of Education cited as follows:
Our subjects ever united in loyalty and filial piety have from generation to generation illustrated the beauty thereof. This is the glory of the fundamental character of Our Empire.
Whether at highlands or on the plain, students were taught „loyalty to the Emperor and obedience to their parents.‟ Since it was regarded as dominant codes of behavior, students of elementary schools up were required to recite the Imperial Rescript of Education. It is fantastic to learn that many senior indigenous people, let alone aging Takasago Giyutai, are still able to recite it any time and anywhere today.
Due to the severe shortage of classrooms and teachers, villagers were compelled into labor service to build very simple thatched classrooms temporarily to meet the urgent use; the police officers at every police station in every village took the role of teaching. Even their wives also practically participated in the teaching job.
A retired educational inspector, Akiyoshi Suzuki, said about the “Essence
Bando Kyoiku 番童教育
On the beginning stage, those schools were called bando kyoikusho (番童教育 所) putting emphasis on the Japanese language training and acquiring Japanese ways of life such as encouragement on using chopsticks and bowls to eat meals, regular haircuts and baths, proper dressing—some girls were given Japanese kimono in person—hygiene and sanitation other than shushin (修身) Moral and Manners Education which inevitably covered such domains as honesty, filial piety, friendliness, interdependence, loyalty, and eventually patriotism.
(Watanabe 1981)
Ultimately they were trying to infuse the thought of nihon seishin (日本精 神) into every child. For instance, Alianus has always been in the habit of saying, “My teacher always stressed the never-tell-a-lie lesson to me.” Also,
“Whatever we do is for the sake of the country.” One can imagine how influential the effect of primary education has been to a child like Alianus to keep practicing lifelong.
Primary Education
The primary schooling was basically given a period of four years which was compulsory to all school age children, putting emphasis on the language acquisition and moral education. If the children could afford to continue further, they were recommended to the regular school in bigger town or city where they were enrolled in the fifth and sixth years to complete elementary school education. In general, there wee two tracks of elementary school: 1) Sho gakko 小学校 , and 2) Kou gakko 公学校. On the one hand, Sho gakko was
designed only for Japanese children. It was so well staffed and equipped that the content of teaching was exactly the same as that enjoyed by the children in Japan. On the other hand, in the other type of school, Ko gakko was for both Han and indigenous children where majority of the staff were Taiwanese teachers, except the principal and the dean, and a few Japanese teachers. The content of their texts was pretty much easier and for more daily use in comparison than that of Sho gakko, accentuating local circumstances for the Taiwanese children to acclimate.
Like Alianus, the main informant in this thesis, finishing the fourth year at Shoma Ko gakko, he transferred to Harapawan Ko gakko for the fifth and sixth years and then went on the next stage, seinen dan.
In 1941, all primary schools, kougakko and shougakkao, were unified to be called kokumin Gakko 国 民 学 校 . It was to superficially eliminate discrimination under the name of Kominka only to keep the original two parallel tracks. (Watanabe 1981)
Kotoka 高等科
The Japanese had a strict language policy to teach every Taiwanese, both children and adults. It took decades to implement. Some elite Taiwanese including Han and indigenous youths were inducted for extra two years of more intensive advanced schooling after six years of regular elementary school.
It was called kotoka (高等科) which was special and unique to Taiwan and it can be found nowhere else. Those kotoka graduates were qualified to be substitute teachers to make up for the teacher shortage, especially in rural areas.
when I was six. Nearly every evening he took me on his bicycle to nearby villages like Shouma and Pangwong where he taught Japanese to indigenous adults at yagaku night school. I still remember our bicycle had a small light powered by the bicycle‟s generator to illuminate our way back home in the darkness after the night school.
Zettzai Fukuju 絶対服従 and Kinro Hoshi 勤労奉仕
Under the Japanese colonization, three main ethnical hierarchies emerged in Taiwan‟s society. In the order of privilege, they were: 1) Japanese, 2) Han Chinese, and 3) Indigenous people. There was a strict separation between the ruling and the ruled. The Japanese police had power and authority. Kinro hoshi,
“Labor service”--without pay always—was forced to every family to construct the public infrastructure. Under such a system, “Absolute Obedience” was strictly carried out. In other words, Japanese Police expected the indigenous people, then Han and Japanese as well of free service. (Shung Ye Taiwan Indigenous People Research 1998)
As mentioned above, the Japanese tried to infuse nihon seishin or Japanese spirit into Taiwanese children. They were substantially taught: “We are citizens of the Emperor. Everybody must be loyal and patriotic to the mother country.” The National Mobilization (April 1,1938) and Kominka Undo (皇民化運動 1936--1940) were launched with the implementation of the Imperial Rescript of Education. Kominka Undo was assimilation projects of
“becoming citizens of the emperor.” Every pupil was urged to memorize the Imperial Rescript of Education by heart.
Seinendan 青年団
After Kotoka young men and women were encouraged to be members of men and women seinendan, receiving military training. Alianus was born in 1921.
Like those peers born in 1920s, Alianus was receiving seinendan military training in Taitung, Hualien and Pingtung, and they were just the fittest persons for becoming soldiers at the outbreak of the Pacific War; the chance of serving for the country had come. No wonder multitudes of young seinendan volunteered for this sacred service for the “motherland.”
Seinendan‟s motto was: Responsibility. Honor. Country. Emperor. It was there that they received a kind of education enhancing the thought of patriotism.
At the end of seinendan‟s three-month training, everybody was “encouraged”
to join the volunteer corps. By this time it was right time for them to dedicate themselves to their mother country because they were taught that they were citizens of the Emperor of Japan, and that Japan was their mother country.
Seeing that many aspects of their life had been greatly improved, they began to think that those benefits would not have been possible but for Japanese benevolence.