Category: Hakka Ethnography

One of the policies of assimilation was the promotion of enslavement education. Japanese education became compulsory for all Taiwanese (Chinese) children! The Japanese Colonial Authorities set up ‘Public Schools’ and ‘National (Japanese) Language Training Centres” to teach Japanese language and culture. This included Japanese martial arts such as the brutal ‘Swordsmanship of Bushido’ (and later such as ‘Karate-Do’, ‘Judo’) – designed to instil the Japanese National Fighting Spirit. In the school, the Japanese colonial teachers publicly shouted: ‘It is absolutely forbidden to use Chinese language or practice Chinese martial arts and those who are dissatisfied will be deported to ’Zhina’ [支那] (Japan’s disparaging name for China).’ Banning Chinese language and martial culture and popularizing Japanese is the most venomous move in Japan’s aggressive assimilation policy!

On the other hand, enslavement education prevented Taiwanese (Chinese) people from receiving higher education. Chinese students were excluded from college and university – except in special circumstances. Under this kind of enslavement education, Taiwan basically cannot find a secondary education institution suitable for Taiwanese people. This kind of discrimination was unbearable even for Japanese domestic educators that had to enforce it, and they even wrote articles criticizing it. Under pressure, the first civilian governor, Kenjiro Tian, decided that Taiwanese children with good Japanese could enter a good middle school and study in the same school with Japanese students. The Japanese Colonial Authorities preached that there was no racial difference in Taiwan’s education. In fact, this did not fundamentally change the discrimination against Taiwanese people in colonial education. Taiwanese higher education is basically enjoyed by the Japanese, and except for the Medical College and the Tainan Higher Commercial School, all other higher education institutions hold examinations in Japan. In the era of Japanese occupation, Japanese students accounted for more than 80% of Imperial University (later Taiwan University) attendees, whilst Chinese students accounted for less than 20%. The teaching content is mainly based on the dissemination of colonialist culture, whilst the history, ideology and culture of China were all excluded, so as to remove the influence of Chinese national culture at its root.